Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Once, Twice, Three Times the Charm

Objective:  Students will be able to recognize ways to improve their reading aloud.

For this lesson I spent quite a bit of time going over students' DRP® (Degrees of Reading Power®) scores so that I could choose specific books to match each individual's reading level.  Most of the students are in 6th grade, with a few in 8th grade, but their reading levels are much lower.  When students came in I handed each of them a book and an iPad to use.  This is the first time they're not working with a partner so I had to borrow some iPads from administration so that I'd have enough for each student to have their own.  Once again we reviewed what their focusing on for improving reading fluency: expression, pacing, and phrasing.
The students quickly got to work, recording themselves reading their book.  They recorded for two minutes, then read the same passage again recording themselves again.  When they finished their 2nd recording they listened to both recordings and evaluated themselves on sheets I had given them.  They evaluated what they noticed after the 2nd reading: did they read faster? smoother? with expression? and did they remember more words?

I was very impressed by many of the students and their critique of their own reading.  Here are some of their written comments after their third recording:


"I noticed that I did the better job than the first time.  I have more expression.  Still struggle in some words."
"I have to get better on the vocabulary to not stop in reading."
"I read with expression.  I read smoother."
"I noticed that I didn't read smoothly."
"I read smoother and read with more expression after I remembered more words."
After the 2nd reading one student wrote:  "mumble on some words and was reading too slow, but after the 3rd reading she wrote, "I was reading great."

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