Kicking it with Fluency

Cassie Jones

Growing Independence and Fluency Design

 

Rationale: To become a successful reader, students must read fluently, accurately, with expression, and also consistently. Fluent reading is characterized by effortless word recognition. Rather than decoding word by word, students can then reflect on what they are reading. Students will be able to improve fluency and grow as approved readers through reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading. Students’ improvement in reading fluency during this lesson will be tracked through repeated readings and charting reading times with a formula (words read x 60/ seconds).

 

 

Materials:

1. Rose’s Birthday (link is attached)

2. Pencils and paper

3. Stopwatch

4. Cover-up critter

5. Sample sentences on white board for teacher to model

6. Peer fluency sheet (one for each student)

7. Reading rate forms for teacher

8. Teacher fluency check (one for each student)

9. Comprehension questions.

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Procedure:

Introduction

1. Begin the lesson by saying, “Today we are going to work on becoming fluent readers. Our main goal is to become fluent readers! What does it mean to be a fluent reader? What do you think of when I say fluent readers? Wait for student to respond. Fluent readers are able to read quickly, smoothly, and with expression because they recognize each word they see automatically. This also helps us understand what we are reading, and we won’t have to stop and analyze each individual word. This makes reading much for fun when we can read effortlessly!

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2. Say: “Now let’s look at a sentence written on the boards: Sally drove to the park with her dog Dale. Listen as I read aloud the sentence and tell me if I sound like a fluent reader. Sally drov, oh wait I see and e on the end, drove, to the peak I mean park with her dog Dal, oh wait silent e so Dale. Sally drove to the park with her dog Dal. Sally drov to the park with her dog Dale. Did you notice that when I read the sentence, I got stuck on the second word? To figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried what I thought the word drove said, drov. That did not make sense, did it? Then I went back to reread to figure out what the word should read that would make sense. This strategy is called crosschecking! Crosschecking is so important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers! I was able to figure out these hard words while reading and it helped me to become more fluent. Let’s try again, Sally drove to the park with her dog Dale. Clap three times if you think I read that like a fluent reader. Exactly, I was able to read like a fluent reader because I had to decode the words in the sentence. I read that sentence effortlessly, and it made it much easier to understand. My reading was more fluent because those words are becoming sight words! I don’t need to continue decoding them because I know them automatically. Now turn to a partner and practice reading the second sentence on the board.” The horse licked my face and then ran away in the field. “Read it aloud to one another until you read fluently.”

 

3. Say: “Now let’s think back to when I read the first sentence and I got stuck on the word drove. To figure out what the word was, I had to reread the sentence from the beginning to end and tried what I thought the word drove said, drov. That did not make sense, did it? So I went back to the text to reread to figure out what the word should say that would make sense. This strategy is called crosschecking, and it is very important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers!”

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4. Say: Today we are going to read Rose’s Birthday to practice our fluency. In the story, there is a mole named Rose. Rose is celebrating her birthday! Let’s read to find out how she celebrates her birthday!

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5. Write the directions on the white board for students to look at. As you are writing it down, explain what you will have the children do. Say:

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-  Now, I want you to sit side by side with your reading partner. Then you need to go to you designated spots out around the room. While one of you picks out a place to sit in the room, the other partner will come up here and get two, Partner Reading Progress checklist. Once one of you have claimed a spot to read, I want them to count all the total words in Rose’s Birthday, from pages three through twelve.

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-  Each partner is going to take turns reading parts of the book aloud to one another, three times each.  While one partner reads, the other will use a stopwatch to time them.

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-  Pay attention and make sure that each partner notes all of the mistakes your partner makes when they are reading aloud. Make sure to place a tally mark for each mistake. (show the tally method on the board)

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-  After you have finished your reading, you will continue by doing the math problem to solve for fluency. The subtraction problem is the total number of words minus the number of tallies for each reading. The total number of tally marks should be subtracted from the total number of words in the section you have read. Do this three different times.

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-The next step is to figure out the progress of each student. This should be done by answering the questions on the progress form. This should tell which reading was the fastest and which reading had the fewest number of errors.

-   After you finish each reading, you need to answer the three reader's response questions:

• What did Jake and Jane want her to bring to their house?

• What did Jake and Jane give Rose as a present?

• What did Jake, Jane, and Rose all do at the end of Rose’s birthday?

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 - After finishing, the students will return to their desk and write down his or her own individual answers on a sheet of paper. This paper should be turned in, when they have finished. After the papers and checklist are turn in, a fluency graph will be given out. The graph will have a soccer ball. I will put the soccer ball on the corresponding number of words they read per minute. The three rates will be figured out and you will record your scores in the time spaces, which will show the individual reading rates. I will encourage the students to keep practicing by moving their soccer ball down the field each time they increase their words per minute.

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References:

Rose’s Birthday:

https://www.readinga-z.com/book/decodable.php?id=43

 

Website:

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/

 

Hailey Jones’s Flying For Fluency

https://sites.google.com/site/haileyshelpfullessons/flying-for-fluency