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Sammy the Seal

To build fluent reading we have to read, reread decodable words in the context. We have to do all of these things to read smoothly. The first step is to read the material. To make sight words, readers must decode, crosscheck, and mentally mark the irregular elements in unknown words instead of guessing. Then you have to reread. It takes about four times to learn the sight word. It is important to reread with words that we are struggling with. The words have to be decodable. Decodable words can be worked with crosschecking and knowledge. With the decodable text, the readers learn a decoding strategy, which is essential for learning sight words. Lastly, you have to have a connected text. With the text readers will be able to understand the text better. In this lesson teachers will help their students read and reread the words in the decodable text Sammy the Seal until the students can glide smoothly across the words, reading them with automatic word recognition.

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Materials:

Sammy the Seal “An I Can Read Book” by Syd Hoff

Clipart- http://www.clipartlord.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/seal6.png

Copy of the pond graph

Chart of this text: “Then it was time for the seals to be fed. Mr. Johnson took them fish. Hooray for fish!” said the seals. They jumped in the water.

 

  1. Explain to the students why we do repeated readings. Students today we are going to read a book that has a lot of difficult words in them. We will read it over and over again until the words stick. When we read the words over we can learn them faster, it makes them easier to read, and we can read the words faster. We can understand the story better by understanding the decodable words.

  2. Let me show you with the book Sammy the Seal. (shows chart)

This is an example of how you can make mistakes and fix them.

Then it wus tim for the seeels (coverup) ssseals to be fad. Mr. Johnson toke them fish. “Hoorat for fish!” sade the seals. They jumbed in the wuter. Wow! Now that I read it I can read it faster.

Then it was time for the seals to be feed. Mr. Johnson toke them fish. “Hooray for fish!” said the seals. They jumped in the water.

Now I am going to read it one more time and add expression.

Then it was time for the seals to be fed. Mr. Johnson took them fish. H o o r a y for fish!” said the seals. They jumped in the water.

 

  1. Now I want yall to read the chart with me. I am going to read it slow but try to keep up. (class reads the chart)

  2. I had to crosscheck because I did not know some of the words. Crosschecking means that after you decode a words, you read on after you come to a word you don’t know so that the rest of the sentence can you recognize it. For example, I read, Then it was time for the seeels to be fed. As soon as I read fed I realized that it was seals. As soon as you get the word you should reread the sentence: then it was time for the seals to be fed.

  3. Now I want you to work with a neighbor. First one of you will read, and the other listen. Then you’ll switch off so the other person reads. If you have trouble with a word, I want you to decode it, but then finish the sentence to crosscheck.

  4. I want to show y’all the book Sammy the Seal and am going to show yall some pictures. There is a zoo and it is showing all the different animals and what they eat. The monkeys eat bananas and bears honey. The man fed the seals and there was one sad seal. He wondered what life was like outside of the zoo. Mr. Johnson says that he should go and lets Sammy out of the gate. Where do y’all think Sammy is going to go to? We are going to have to read the book to figure it out.

  5. Pass out copies of Sammy the Seal. I want you all to read this book silently to yourself. I am going to call you up one by one to come to my desk. If you finish early write in your journal about your favorite part or draw your favorite zoo animal.

  6. Each student comes up to teacher’s desk for a turn to read aloud. The teacher times the reading and gets miscue notes during the reading. After each reader finishes, the teacher graphs the reading time by moving the canoe across the pond to record words per minute, using the formula:

Words X 60

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  1. After reading and complimenting the reader the teacher should ask comprehension questions:

- what did the seals eat? (fish)

- where did Sammy the seal go first? (the city or New York City)

-Where did Sammy go to find water? (a lady’s bathtub, fountain, fish tank)

-What place did Sammy go to after getting kicked out of the lady’s house? (school)

- When did the teacher notice the seal in the classroom? (when the children were singing)

- where did Sammy go back to in the end of the story? (back to the zoo)

10. Before the student returns to his seat, have him reread any missed words, crosscheck to finish the sentence, provide the word as needed, and have the student reread that sentence. Make a note of the student’s words per minute.

11. Allow more time and ask comprehension questions until students reach 85 WPM

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References

 Sammy the Seal “An I Can Read Book” by Syd Hoff

http://kk31895.wixsite.com/kgilley0318/growing-independence-and-fluency-de

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