Sunday, February 13, 2011

Poetry Fluency Lesson

Recently I listened to a Podcast by Timothy Rasinski, from the International Reading Association, while at the gym. Actually, I liked the idea so much I listened to it three times and then adapted the lesson to fit my schedule. He calls his model MAP-Modeling fluent reading, Assisted Reading, Practice or repeated reading.

The point of the lesson is to develop fluency by first listening to a passage being read fluently 3 times. Then reading the passage together 3 times, reading it to a partner 3 times and listening to a partner read it 3 times. Once the children are reading it fluently they are then given the opportunity to read it to a class, principal, or be recorded etc.

I have decided to do this idea with a piece of poetry each week. On the first day I'm reading the poem from a book and with the first two readings I have the children work on visualizing and finally on the third reading I share the illustrators pictures. We also talk about what they noticed about my voice as I read. On the second day we read it together. On the third we're reading it together and doing some word work. On the fourth day they read it with a partner. By Friday they're reading the piece fluently and are ready to take it home to share with their family. I had each student read the poem to me and I selected one child to record the poem this first time. I'll be posting those recordings on my website by the end of the week. The author also suggested having Lucky Listeners sign the back of the poem. I sent the first poems home on Friday. I'm looking forward to the response tomorrow and to hear how many lucky listener signatures they gathered. I was the first to sign it and I know at least one classroom teacher had the students read the poem to the class and signed as well. I hope it helps!

How do you increase fluency with your young readers? Please share your ideas!

P.S. Here is a link to our poems. Feel free to listen and enjoy.