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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Fluency Fun Freebie!

I am helping a friend's daughter improve her reading this summer.
Yep.
I'm helping my friend's daughter and my friend is helping my soon-to-be-first-grader with his handwriting.

Here's a funny story: When I got my youngest son's grades, I went over them with him.
I have known all year that his handwriting is atrocious (figures...teacher's kid! Ha!), but I was still slightly shocked at his grade: a 64%!!!
I said, "Aiden! You have a 64% in Handwriting!"
His reply? "Well, mom, that's better than a zero!"
This is from the same kid who refused to learn how to write his name properly because everyone knows his name anyway....
"They all call me 'Aiden'!"
Little smartie:) or smart something...
...But back to today's post! #sorry4thebirdwalk

I guess you could call it tutoring, though my friend's daughter is actually a fine reader.
--- Let's just call her daughter, "G", like the little girl on Disney's "dog with a blog", who has an initial instead of a first name...sad---
"G" comprehends well, and can read pretty accurately on grade level...but she does need a little help with oral reading prosody (reading with expression/intonation), as well as increasing her wpm count.

To help "G" become a little more of a fluent reader this summer, she and I will be doing some partner reader's theater, playing some sight word games, and (everyone's favorite) doing lots of repeated/familiar re-reads! Yay, right?
Maybe to all but that last strategy:/
Repeated readings can become so tedious, for both reader and listener!

I googled "familiar reread activities", to see if I could find anything fresh to jazz up our sessions this summer, and was excited to find a site that suggested to have the reader change their voice each time they read a familiar passage.

So simple! Why didn't I think of that?

Quickly, I came up with some cute little cards that "G" and I can use over the summer...but I can also incorporate into my classroom this year.
"G" doesn't need the picture clues, but my sweet little emergent firsties will!
And I'm sure she'll enjoy the images, too:)


If this sounds like an activity you'd like to use, click HERE to download from Google Docs!
There are 4 pages of cards with different voice styles, and even some cards to "sing" the text to a familiar tune...we'll see how that works!
I could also see these as cards you could glue on popsicle sticks, and let the reader choose one out of a bucket or tub!
I'll let you know in a few weeks if the silly voices drive me crazy:)

Wish I could find something cute and fun to jazz up Handwriting...

...Suggestions??

6 comments:

  1. I downloaded it. Thank you! My first thought was to choose a different voice to read our morning poem and goodbye poem each day. Love it! Thanks!
    Debbie
    debjac9@aol.com

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    1. That would be fun to utilize in the classroom! Great idea!

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  2. I love these cards!! I need something like this for one of my fluency tubs. The kids will get a kick out of it. For handwriting, dry erase boards/pockets ALWAYS make it more fun for my kids and they will practice all day if I let them use dry erase. I even got them to write an entire story in cursive just because they could use the dry erase pockets.
    Gina
    Third Grade Tidbits

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    1. I will definitely bring in some dry erase boards for him next week. Thanks for the idea:)

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