Part A- Description of Need or Opportunity

There is a great need for students to become fluent readers.  This means they are able to read their books at a good, smooth pace.  It also requires them to know the words without thinking about them and to read with good expression.  For many students, this is a really big challenge.  Just remembering what the words say is hard enough for some students, but then putting that together with all the other aspects of fluent reading!?!  That is just too much to think about.  This is where my idea comes in to play. 

            In my classroom, we do weekly fluency checks.  Students sit with their table group and every child gets the chance to be the reader.  When it is their turn to read, they sit in the chair with the other students on the floor in front of them.  They read a book to their tablemates just as a teacher would read to the class.  During this time, I have the opportunity to observe my students and give them a fluency grade.  This tells me who has been practicing their books from their book bag and who needs to work on this.  If a student knows the words, but doesn’t read them fluently, that is where my challenge comes in.  
             How do I get these children to really read with expression and enthusiasm?  Well, in our school we have limited funds.  However, we have these great Flip cameras that can record students.  My idea was to record students and upload them to a place where they can see themselves.  When I spoke with my class about this, I had a lot of enthusiasm in response to seeing themselves on a website as a podcast.  They really liked the idea.  My hope is that it will motivate them to work harder on their reading fluency and that they will watch themselves and pick up ways that they can improve their reading.  It is also a way to share with families what we are doing in class and for students and families to see how far they have come.

            Logistics: Students will be videoed anywhere from once a week to twice a month.  We will continue this process for the next three months (until the end of the school year).  If I see that it has helped, it will be implemented into my plans for the next school year as well.  My plan is for the students to learn how to video each other so that I can observe more than one student at a time.  I would like to see one Flip camera per table group.  That way everyone gets videoed.

            Some of my ideas have been tried in other forms (using an ipod to keep recordings).  This link from teachertube.com shows how students record themselves for timed reading fluency: http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=210987&title=Oral_Reading_Fluency

The Oregon Department of Education has similar ideas and has planned out a lesson that is similar to what I plan to do.  It can be found at:

http://teach.oetc.org/lessonplans/reading-fluency-and-expression

There is a lot of research about fluent reading, but here is one article that relates to my idea specifically:

http://educationresearchreport.blogspot.com/2010/11/webcam-research-helps-kids-improve.html

            My plan is to begin this in my classroom now.  I will choose some of the students with lower fluency rates and start with them.  They will be recorded weekly and will be asked to observe themselves.  I want to know what they think of their reading.  I will not compare them to anyone else, but will simply ask them how they could improve.  They will be recorded again each week (maybe more than once at the beginning) so that they can see the improvements.  This will be implemented into my basic reading plans (if all goes well) beginning in the fall. 

            This project will be considered a “success” if students make improvements in their reading fluency.  I believe this will be an “easy-to-assess” assessment and will keep students motivated to want to be fluent readers.