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Design for Learning

Instructor: Taylor Nix

Lesson Title: A Fluent Christmas
Curriculum Area: English Language Arts

Grade: 4th
Date: December 4, 2014
Estimated Time: 30 min

Standards Connection: ALEX English Language Arts 4th 21.) Read with sufficient accuracy
and fluency to support comprehension.
Read on-level prose and poetry with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on
successive readings

Learning Objective: When given a fluency rubric, students will dramatize their own Christmas
readers theater, reading with appropriate accuracy, rate, and expression.

Learning Objective stated in kid friendly language: Today, boys and girls, you will be
acting out your own Christmas play to demonstrate good fluency!

Evaluation of Learning Objective: Students will first review the rubric with me in order to
ensure a full understanding of what is expected of them during their performance. As they are
performing their readers theater, I will be using the rubric to assess them in the area of accuracy,
rate, and expression.

Engagement: I will gather students attention. 1, 2, 3! Eyes on me! (1, 2! Eyes on you!). After I
have the attention of the students, I will begin to introduce the lesson. Boys and girls, I know I
have told you a million times already, but Christmas is my very favorite time of year. I love
Christmas music, decorations, and lights. I love that I can drink as much hot chocolate as I want
because its cold outside. I love anticipating snowfall and then getting to play in it if it does
actually snow! I enjoy getting to spend time with my family and close friends. What are some
things that you like about Christmas? We are going to go around the room and share our favorite
parts. Ill start on the right side of the room. I will then begin with the first student and allow
every student time to respond with their favorite thing about Christmas. I love all of those things
too! I especially loved that a few of you said your favorite part of Christmas is the stories that
are told. There are so many fabulous stories told during Christmastime. One of my favorite
stories is The Polar Express. Books are a great way to practice fluency. Do yall remember that
word from a few days ago? What do we know about fluency? I will give students time to respond.
Youre right! Today, boys and girls, we will continue our discussion on fluency and you are going
to get a chance to perform you own Christmas story through a readers theater!

Learning Design:
I. Teaching: Okay, boys and girls! I need you to take out your readers theaters scripts that I
gave you yesterday. After you do that, I want to explain a little further what fluency is and
why we are going to use a readers theater to practice. I will give students time to take out

their readers theater scripts. Youll remember that fluency is the ability to read a text with the
appropriate rate, accuracy, and expression. Everyone say that with me. Students will say the
three components of fluency with me. Rate. Accuracy. Expression. Very good! I need for
someone to explain to me what rate is. What does rate have to do with being a good reader?
I will allow students time to tell me what rate is. I like the way you explained that! Rate is the
speed at which you are reading. I want everyone to look at the first line in your readers
theater. If I were to read that line like this I will read in a slow manner with many pauses.
Would I be a reader who is reading at a good rate? Students will respond with now. Youre
right. Who could give me an example of a good rate to read that would be? I will call on one
student to give an example, using the first sentence of the readers theater. Great example!
You read with great rate. Look at your fluency rubric. What number would I have gotten on
the rubric? Students will respond with a low number. Youre right. So, in order to get a
higher number on the rubric, I would need to read at a better rate, like student A. Now, the
next component of fluency is? Accuracy! Thats right. Who can tell me what accuracy is? I
will allow students time to tell me what accuracy is. Great! Accuracy is reading words
correctly. That means that you can recognize and read words correctly. Can anyone put that
into their own words? I will call on several students to put accuracy into their own words.
Very good! Who can give me an good example of someone who would read with good
accuracy? I will call on one volunteer to share their good example. Great! Now, who can tell
my why that would be a good, fluent rate to read at? I will call on several students to defend
the example. Youre right! Hmm, what is the last part of fluency that we need to talk about?
Oh yeah! Expression! Does anyone have any ideas of what expression might be? A few
students will answer. Yes! Expression is changing the tone of your voice as you read and
paying attention to what punctuation is in the middle and at the end of sentences. I want you
to tell me if this is using good expression as I read this sentence. I will write the first line of
the readers theater on the board. I will read in a monotone voice, paying no attention to
punctuation. Is that good expression? Am I moving my voice up and down and paying
attention to punctuation? Students will respond with no. Youre right. What might be a better
way to read that sentence? Can someone try it out? I will call on one student to read the
sentence properly. Great job! You had great expression! What score would you give me and
what score would you give student A? Turn to your neighbor and talk about that for a
second. I will allow students time to discuss and agree. What did you decide? I will wait for
responses. I agree! I read with no expression at all, while student A read the sentence with
great expression, paying attention to punctuation! So, lets remind ourselves. Fluency is
made up of three parts. Lets say them together. Rate. Accuracy. Expression! Great!
II. Opportunity for Practice: What I want for us to do now is to read through our readers
theater together so that we can practice before you perform. Everyone get their readers
theater to where they can see it and put your rubric aside. Right now, we are practicing. As I
assign characters to students, I need you to go through and highlight the name of who you
will be reading. I will assign characters to students. Okay, is everyone ready? Does anyone
have any questions as to what character they are? Remember that fluency is reading at an
appropriate rate and with appropriate accuracy and expression. Alright, lets begin. I will
read through the whole thing first, and then you will read your characters. We will then read

through the readers theater two times together in order to practice before the performance,
once with me reading it to model for them and once with them reading it for practice.
III. Assessment: After we have read over our scripts and gathered the necessary props, I will
gather their attention back to me. 1, 2, 3! Eyes on me! (1, 2! Eyes on you!). Alright
everybody! Is everyone ready to present their readers theaters? I cannot wait to watch them
all. I know yall are going to do great! Presenting The Runaway Snowman! The students will
make their way up to the front of the room to present their readers theater. Great job, boys
and girls! I could tell you really took your time preparing and paid attention to your fluency
when you were reading your scripts. Very good. Now, I need one person to return their props
to the prop box. I also need one person to bring their readers theater scripts back to me.
Students will then bring their scripts back to me and return their props to the prop box.
IV. Closure: I am still so impressed with everyones readers theaters. Yall did such a fantastic
job. Well have to do those more often! So, boys and girls, lets review. I need one volunteer
to remind me of what fluency is. Remember to include all three parts when you explain. I will
call on one student to explain what fluency is. Great! Fluency is reading a text with
appropriate rate, accuracy, and expression. Sooo, who can give me an example of the highest
score on the fluency rubric? What is the best example of fluency you can give? I will call on
two students to give an answer. Youre right! When we read, we want to try to sound like
student A and B. We want to read at the right speed, reading all our words correctly and with
expression. Now, for our last part of today, we are going to read my very favorite book that I
mentioned earlier: The Polar Express. Everyone put on their listening ears and make sure to
pay attention to my fluency! You might even get to grade me at the end! I will then read The
Polar Express to the students to model fluency.

Materials and Resources:

Readers Theater: http://www.thebestclass.org/The_Runaway_Snowman.pdf
Readers Theater Rubric: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/printouts/
readers-theater-rubric-30698.html
The Polar Express
Props needed for readers theater (optional)

Differentiation Strategies: I will have passed out the readers theaters scripts the night before in
order for students to be able to read over them multiple times before they come into class the
next day. I will give my gifted students two choices: write an alternate ending to their readers
theater or use three of their vocabulary words and incorporate them into the story. For my
struggling readers, I will have them partnered with students who are stronger readers so that the
strong readers can model and encourage the struggling students.

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Data Analysis:
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Reflection: