Growing Independence and Fluency 

Rationale: This lesson is designed to help students to become fluent readers. Fluent reading is essential in comprehending the readings. Students must practice, expression, pace, and, comprehension to acquire the skills needed to read automatically and effortlessly. Effortless word recognition allows the students to be able to reflect and remember what they are reading. Through the process of reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading, the students will become confident, and continue to improve their reading rate. This will eventually allow them to become fluent readers. Students will use the strategy of crosschecking after reading a decodable text and repeated readings to gain fluency and independence in reading.

 

Materials:

1. Timer/stopwatch for each pair

2. Sample sentences on white board for teacher to model

3. Peer fluency sheet (one for each student)

4. Reading rate forms for teacher

5. Teacher Fluency Checklist (one for each student) with attached comprehension questions

6. Pencil for each student

7. Class set of Begin to Dance by Jamey Ryndak

 

Procedures:

1. Say: “Today we are going to complete one of our goals on becoming fluent readers. What does being a fluent reader mean? A fluent reader is someone who is able to read quickly and smoothly because they are able to recognize the words in a sentence. Being able to recognize the words helps us to understand what we are reading because we automatically understand each word. This makes reading much more enjoyable.”

2. Say, “Fluency is being able to read smoothly and quickly words without having to sound them out. One way to become fluent readers is to practice reading several times. Dancers can do fast turns and they have to practice many times to spin fast, but correctly. Today we are going to think of ourselves as dancers but still developing fluency by rereading texts. Have you ever started reading a book, and all of a sudden you come to a word and get stuck? When this happens, you have to stop and sound the word out. If you still do not get the word correct, it is best that you go ahead and finish the sentence then go back and try to figure out that word. After you figure out the word you didn't recognize, reread the word several times, so that it gets easier to recognize while you keep reading. Today, we are going to be reading several times, so that you can recognize words and so that they become easier for us to recognize."

3. I will write an example sentence on the board. An example sentence could be “She wore her red tutu to dance.” Say, “What should you do if you do don’t know a word?” You should use your cover-up critter to help you decode. Let’s practice on the word red. Let’s all look at the word red on the board.” First, we begin by finding the vowel. The rest of the word is covered up. There is a short vowel in red, e. So, this letter must make the /e/ sound that we learned about. I can look at the beginning of the word now, and there I see the letter r, /r/. I add it to my /e/ sound to get /re/ then blend /re/ with the last sound /d/ and we get rrreeeddd,red. “Now let’s check and see that I blended correctly. Let’s reread the sentence on the board to make sure red makes sense. “She wore her red tutu to dance.”

4.  Say: “The first time you pick up a book you may not recognize some of the words. I am going to read the first sentence in the book A Crash in the Shed, “The sss-uuu-nnn i-sss hhh-ooooo-ttt?” said Jan. I noticed I had to stop a few times while reading this sentence. Let me try it again. “The ss-uuu-n is hh-ooo-tt?” said Jan. This time was much better. Let me try again. “The sun is hot?” said Jan. Much better! I remembered the words after decoding them a few times. Now, I am going to read it again, but this time I am going to try and read it with fluently. (reads the sentence fast and smoothly). Raise your hand if you could understand the story better when I read it smoothly. That's why it is important to read with fluency. I read the sentence over and over again which lead me to reading it faster, correctly, and with expression. Now I want you guys to try repeated readings to see if you can become a more fluent reader like I did.

5. Say: “Now let’s pair up with a partner. You will be reading Begin to Dance.”  (hands a book to every pair) The groups will need two reading record sheets, two partner checklists, and a stopwatch. Explain to the class that each time you read a passage you become familiar with it and become better at reading it. (Pass out one stopwatch to each pair and one check sheet per student)

6.  Say, "For this activity, each of you will have the job of being the reader and the listener. We will read Begin to Dance. Pam starts dance class but is afraid she will be left out. Will Pam have a good time dancing? The first partner will read while the other users the stopwatch to see how long it takes you to read the book. If you are the one using the stopwatch, press the button when your partner begins reading. As soon as they finish, press the button again to stop the counting and write down the number on the timer. That number tells us how long it took them to read the story. Now the second time they read it will be a little different. You will start and stop the timer just like you did the first time, you will also let them write down their time, but this time you will fill out your partner check sheet after they finish. If they remember more words you put a check; if they read faster, you put a check (demonstrate where to put a check). You will record on your partner’s check sheet after the second and third time reading. After the third read, you swap positions. If you were reading first, you are now in charge of the stopwatch, and if you used the stopwatch first, you are now reading. After you have both read the book, discuss what happened and what your favorite part was!”

 

Assessment:

After the students have completed their readings, I will collect the fluency charts. I will use the fluency formula: words x 60/seconds to assess their fluency. I will then have students come up one at a time and read the book out loud. I will use the charts and graphs for my assessment to see if their fluency has improved and, if not, see which students’ needs more help. While the student is up there with me I will ask them to answer 3-5 comprehension questions. (Other students will independently read a book of choice during this time.)

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Fluency Checklist:

Title of Book: __________________________________

Student’s Name: ____________   Date___________

Partner's Name: ______________________________

 

After 2nd Reading       After 3rd Reading

_________                    _________                   Remembered more words

_________                    _________                   Read faster

_________                    _________                   Read smoother

_________                    _________                   Read with expression

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Reading Tracker: 

0 - - - 10  - - -20 - - -30 - - -  40 - - - 50 - - - 60 - - - 70 - - - 80- - - 90 - - - 100

Correct Words Per Minute

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References: 

Book: Ryndak, J. Begin to Dance.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=dm9sLm9yZ3xmaXJzdC1ncmFkZXxneDoxMmI0OWU1Yzk5N2U3ZDVm

 

Benefield, K. Buzzing to Fluency. https://kvbenefield.wixsite.com/mysite/growing-in-independence-and-fluency

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