Last, I clarified the difference between choral reading and independent reading by describ-ing the need to sound like a single reader, even though there would be multiple students reading the same words at the same time. Each morning, as students prepared for the perfor-mance, they were divided into two groups, a primary and secondary group. The primary group read the narration of the story while the secondary group read the dialogue. Each day, both groups practiced their portion of the book together. Killeen (2014) contends that “fluency will grow as children practice their parts with expression and enthusiasm” (p. 59). Modeling, practicing, and working together all helped as the students prepared for this fun, authentic performance to show off their fluent reading.
Sight Words
However, students also needed practice with the actual words included in the reading. According to Fields, Groth, and Spangler (2010), “Sight words—those instantly recognizable words that no longer require effort from a child—stand out as important for beginning reading. They provide children success in their reading efforts, and they provide a starting point for learning grapho-phonemic strategies” (para. 2). Since the students had already started learning sight words from Fry’s 100 Word List, the choral reading activity gave an authentic opportunity to practice known sight words in the Is your Mama a Llama? book.
The book was divided into six sections. Each week the poetry station contained a different section of the book written on sentence strips for practice. Students rearranged the poem in the correct order and looked for high frequency words using Fry’s 100 Word List. They also looked for rhyming words and words that started with the first letter of their names. Because the students did this station daily, they were able to get additional practice reading sight words, which led to the poem becoming more fluent.
Performance Reading
Knowing the performance was quickly approaching, students became more aware of what they read and how they read it. They wanted to make sure they performed well in front of their peers, especially since some were older students. Rasinski (2006) states,
"What would really inspire me to engage in repeated reading or rehearsal is performance. If I were to give an oral reading performance of
a passage, I would most certainly have an incentive to practice, rehearse, or engage in repeated readings" (p. 705).
Prior to performing in any classroom, we discussed as a group what performance reading was all about. We talked about how performers should speak in loud, clear voices at a normal speaking rate. We also discussed how everyone is important to the performance, so all readers need to be seen. Students then positioned themselves in a way that the audience could see them, hear them, and distinguish both groups. They practiced just like they would perform when the actual time came. Last, we discussed some of the chal-lenges the students encountered when
practicing. They reflected on how sometimes someone would lose their place and would begin again or would read the words incor-rectly. They decided together to follow along with a finger in the book to keep on track, and if someone did lose their place, they should be silent until they found the correct place.
On performance day, students lined up in front of the room just like they had practiced. After introductions of both the students and the book, I asked the audience about their
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"Knowing the performance was quickly approaching, students became more aware of what they read and how they read it."