Mini Fluency Lesson

"The Watson's Go to Birmingham-1963"
Grade: 4th or 5th
Topic: Fluency- Prosody and Phonic Analysis

Introduction: Before beginning this specific lesson involving fluency, I would expect the class to have finished reading the entire novel. I would use the novel to connect lessons on social studies and the social issues involved in the novel to tie into language arts, and specifically fluency. I hope to use this lesson as an expansion upon such social studies lesson surrounding social issues of race, ethnicity, and culture by incorporating the phonics used throughout the novel.

For this fluency lesson, I will ask the students to take a deeper look at the dialogue found throughout the book. The students will be expected to perform a sort of choral reading as a group in front of the class. I will ask the students to choose a specific passage from anywhere in the novel that includes dialogue. The students, in small groups of two or three, will read the passage in front of the class evoke the emotions portrayed in that specific passage. The focus of their reading is to portray the emotions and meaning behind the short passage chosen. I will model a few passages to the students before having them begin their work with their groups. The passages I will model:
1. "Daniel Watson, what're we gonna do?" Momma went nuts. "You gotta get this boy to the hospital! My baby is gonna die!"
Dad tried to look serious real quick.
"Wilona, how far do you think I'd get driving down the street with this little clown attached to the mirror? What am I supposed to do, have him run beside the car all they down to the emergency room?" (p. 17)
2. I held my breath. If I found out we were on welfare I was going to really have to get ready to be teased.
"No. We're not on welfare."
"I can't believe it. You really gonna start serving welfare food in this house? You really gonna make me go embarrass myself by signing a welfare list for some groceries like a blanged peon?"

After reading the class the two examples, I will remind the student's that to properly capture the emotion and dialogue expressed in their chosen passages, they may need to reread or skim the text both before and after their selected passage.

Purpose: The purpose of this lesson is to encourage the student's fluency development and comfort levels by having the students interpret the passages as a group and read them accordingly in front of the class. They will need to skim the text to choose a passage and reread the text surrounding the text to put the passage and the dialogue into context.