Flying for Fluency
A Growing Fluency Design
By Lauren Dallas
Rationale:
This lesson is created for children to better understand what they are reading and hopefully enjoy it. It is critical they learn to read fluently. Fluent reading is being able to automatically recognize sight words and to read quickly with understanding and expression. The goal of this lesson is to teach students how to become fluent readers by teaching strategies such as decoding, crosschecking, rereading, and fast reading for understanding. They will do this by reading and rereading a decodable text, which is proven necessary for fluency development.
Materials Needed:
Pencils, stopwatch for each pair of students, fluency chart for recording WPM, fluency checklist, reading tracker, reading comprehension questions, sample sentences, class set of the book Kite Day at Pine Lake
Procedures:
-
Say: “Today, we are going to become fluent readers! Does anyone know what it means to be a fluent reader? (Call on student to answer). A fluent reader is able to read very quickly and smoothly because they can recognize the words. If we can recognize the word, then we can better understand what we are reading because we instantly know each word’s meaning. It makes reading so much more fun!”
-
Say: “Now let’s look at a sentence on the board: Jeff’s kite is fun to fly. Everyone listen and tell me if I sound like a fluent reader when I read this sentence. Jj-ee-ffff-sss (Jeff’s) kkk-ii-tt (kite) ii-ssss ff-uuu-nnn-ee (fun) t-o fff-lll-yyy. Jeef’s kit is fune to fly? No, it must be Jeff’s kite is fun to fly! Yes, that makes sense. Did you notice I got stuck on a word when I read the sentence? To figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried what I thought the word said. That did not make sense, did it? To fix myself, I went back and reread the sentence to figure out which word made the most sense. This strategy of rereading is called crosschecking, and it is super important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers! Since I figure out these hard words while reading, it helped me become fluent. Here’s how a fluent reader would have read the sentence “Jeff’s kite is fun to fly!”. Now, you practice fluent reading with your partner. Read the sentence on the board. [The sentence on the board says: Brad got a frog in the net.] Read this to each other until you can read it fluently!”
-
Say: “Now we are going to read the book Kite Day at Pine Lake. First, I want you to read the book silently to yourselves. In this book, Jeff, Fay, and Jan each have kites that they love to fly! But Bob does not have a kite. Bod is sad when he sees his friends flying their kites because he cannot do the same. Do you think his friends will help cheer him up? Let’s read quietly in our heads now.”
-
After the students read to themselves, I will partner them up to read together. Say: “You and your partner will now get a stopwatch, a copy of Kite Day at Pine Lake, a reading rate chart, and a fluency checklist. You and your partner are going to read (3 times each), to build on fluency. You will take turns being the reader and one will be the timer. The timer will time your partner reading the book, and then record their time on the reading rate chart. When you are the one timing your partner, be sure that you hit start as soon as they start reading and hit stop right when they are done. Record all three times on your chart. After your partner has read the book once, make sure you fill out the fluency checklist along with the reading rate chart. This will help your partner and see if you are improving.” Before the students start reading, I will model how to fill in the chart and use the stopwatch. I will then observe the students reading the book. I will walk around the room and answer any questions the students may have and make sure they are filling in the correct time.
-
After students are done reading, I will collect some data to analyze and assess which students succeeded and which students need extra help. I will also use the fluency checklists from the students to assess these things. I will have each student come and read the book to me one by one, making miscue notes as they read. I will ask comprehension questions:
-
Who are the main characters?
-
Why was Bod sad?
-
How did Bob’s friends cheer him up?
-
How did the story end?
-
Fluency Checklist:
Title of Book: ______________
Name: _______________
Partner’s Name: _______________
Time after first reading: ___________
Time after second reading: __________
Time after third reading: ________
(words x 60)/seconds = WPM
0 - - - - 10 - - - - 20 - - - - 30 - - - -40 - - - - 50 - - - - 60 - - - -70 - - - -80 - - - -90 - - - -100
Words per minute
Put a check mark if true:
After second reading…
The reader remembered more words. ___
The reader read faster. ___
The reader read smoother. ___
The reader read with facial and voice expression. ___
After third reading…
The reader remembered more words. ___
The reader read faster. ___
The reader read smoother. ___
The reader read with facial and voice expression. ___
References:
Emily Little
https://ebl0015.wixsite.com/my-site-2/growing-independence-and-fluency
Kite Day at Pine Lake
file:///Users/laurendallas/Downloads/Kite%20Day%20at%20Pine%20Lake%20(2).pdf
Reading Genie, Bruce Murray