Growing Independence and Fluency

Running Into Fluency

Growing Independence and Fluency Design

Rationale: Fluent readers like to read! They read quickly, automatically, and expressively. Fluency is something that ever readers needs. When a reader is fluent, they no longer have to decode each word when reading a new text. Because of this, fluency provides a better comprehension. This lesson is designed to help students become more fluent in reading through repeated reading of a text. By rereading a text over and over, it will build students fluency skills.

Materials:

A copy of
Sentence strips. (The boy’s favorite season is the summer. He likes how hot it is outside.)
Copy of assessment text,
Stop watches

Procedures:

I will tell the students what being a fluent reader means. Say: “It is important that we all become fluent readers. When we can read fluently, not only will our reading levels improve, but our love for reading will also grow! To become fluent readers, we must understand what it means. Reading fluently sounds nice and smooth. It is a lot easier to understand what you are reading when you are reading fluently. A story is read fluently when it is read at a good listening speed, there is accurate word recognition, and there is expression used by the reader. Knowing all this is going to help you become a fluent reader!”
Say: “Becoming a fluent reader is a process that takes while. When you are trying to read fluently, there will be times when you come across a word you do not know. When this happens, don’t get discouraged! Use the strategies that we have learned to help you decode that word. If you have tried to decode the word and still cannot figure it out, you should finish the sentence and see if you can figure out the unfamiliar word. When you do this, you are using a strategy that we call crosschecking. I am going to show you all how to crosscheck. (Show a sentence on the projector) ‘The dog r-o-ms around the yard. Oh! I know that word! It’s ’ After you have crosschecked and made a mental mark of the word in your head, you should go back and reread the sentence. When you are rereading the sentence, practice reading smoothly and fluently since you have now figured out the unfamiliar word. These are really good strategies that will help you learn more sight words!”
Say: “Now that we know what a fluent reader is and what to do when we come across a word that we don’t know, I am going to model for you how to practice reading fluently. I want you to listen and notice how much more fun it is to listen to someone read fluently.” (Put the sentence strips on the projector). First reading of the sentence: “The boy’s fav-fav-favorite se-seson is the summer. Oh! The boy’s favorite season is the summer! He likes how hot it is ot-sid. Oh! He likes how hot it is outside.” Say: “In this example I used crosschecking to figure out the words that I did not know. I noticed that the in favorite says /i/. I also noticed that the is season says /E/. Crosschecking really helped me to figure that out! After I have gotten all of the words by crosschecking, I will reread the sentences faster and more fluently. ‘The boy’s favorite season is the summer. He likes how hot it is outside.’ Wow! Wasn’t that a lot more enjoyable to listen to me read the sentences fluently?”
Say: “We know that to get to this fluent stage it takes a lot of work! We are going to start our practice today! As a class, we are all going to participate in a reading of a text together. We are going to use the book . This story starts by telling about frog and toad and how they became friends! It talks about all the fun adventures they go on as friends! We will have to read to find out what adventures they go on! Every classmate is going to have an assigned part to read and the most important part is that you try to read it as fluently as you can!” I will explain to the students that I first want them to read quietly to themselves. My hope is that this will give the students a chance to become comfortable with their assigned part before reading it aloud. Say: “Now that you have had a chance to read your assigned part to yourselves, I want you to read the text aloud to your partner. After one partner has read, the listener should help the reader by giving them any tips for how they could read more fluently next time. Then, after the second partner has read, the listener will give feedback.” This will allow the listener to listen for qualities of a fluent reader, which will make them more familiar and hopefully promote fluency among themselves. The partner will use their “partner critiquing sheet for fluency” to share with their partner what they can work on in order to become a fluent reader.
Say: “Okay, now that we have all had a chance to practice our assigned parts and receive advice on how to grow, we are going to begin the story! I will be the narrator and lead us.”
After the story has been read, I will facilitate a class discussion about their experience with fluency. We will discuss things that made a fluent reader stand out, what was helpful in increasing their fluency, and how fluent reading helped them enjoy and comprehend the content of the story more accurately.
For the assessment I will have the students work with a partner again. I will have a short story, A Job for Karla, for each child to read. I will have the students partner up with the same partner that they worked with earlier. First, the students will read A Job for Karla silently to themselves. This will be when students become familiar with any words that they do not recognize. Then, students will take turns reading the passage to each other out loud. Partners will use a stop watch to record the time it takes for each student to read the text. Students will be instructed to fill out the “fluency partner check list” as their partner reads and rereads aloud. After they have worked with their partner, the students will return to their desks and answer comprehension questions about the passage. In addition to the two questions already attached to the short story, I will also ask the students to answer: "Why did Karla feel awful on stage?" and "What job did Karla get to be a part of the play?"
Finally, I will have the students turn in their comprehension work and I will calculate their reading per minute (words x 60/seconds). This will give me an accurate measure of the student’s reading speed and comprehension. This will give me an idea of where each student stands with their fluency skills.

Resources:

Assessment passage and comprehension questions: http://treasures.macmillanmh.com/assets/extras/0001/3039/G2U3_A_Job_for_Karla_Student_Passage.pdf

Lobel, Arnold. Frog and Toad Are Friends. Harper & Row: 1970, pp. 64.

Coker, J. “Leaping into Fluency!” https://jarihopecoker.weebly.com/growing-independence--fluency.html

Partner Critiquing Sheet for Fluency:

Name of Recorder: _________________

Name of Reader: ___________________

Reading Rate ________

81+

76-80

71-75

66-70

61-65

56-60

50-55

WPM 1 2 3

Total words read:

1st time: ______ words in ________ seconds

2nd time: _______ words in ________ seconds

3rd time: ________ words in _______ seconds

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