Fast, Fearless Fluency

 

Rationale: The goal of this lesson is to help children become fluent readers. Fluent reading is reading in which

words are recognized automatically. Growing in independence and becoming a fluent reader allows students to begin focusing on the meaning of a text rather than directing their attention towards decoding individual words. Fluency depends on sight vocabulary accumulation, and sight vocabulary increases significantly through repeated readings. With automatic word recognition, reading becomes faster, smoother, and more expressive, and students can begin to read silently, which is roughly twice as fast as oral reading. Sustained silent reading has been shown to lead to more positive attitudes toward reading and to gains in reading achievement when peer discussion groups discuss a particular book. Therefore, this lesson will work through the method of repeated reading and will direct students to read voluntarily.

 

Materials:  

• The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend

• Printout (one for each student) of The Hare and the Tortoise

• Basic stopwatch (one per group)

• Cover-up critters

• Printout (one for each student) of the peer checklist

• A binder (optional, but recommended)

  o It would be helpful to keep a printout of the fluency rubric and the fluency progress chart (both are required materials for this lesson) for each student in a binder. This is an organized, convenient way to keep up with all of your students’ progress.

 

Procedures:

1. Why: “In this lesson, we are going to work on becoming more fluent readers. When we read fluently, we’re able to read words faster, smoother, and with expression. We are going to practice today by reading the same book more than once because that will help us become more familiar with the words each time. This is called repeated reading. This method of repeated readings will help us become more confident readers, and when we gain more confidence in our ability to read fluently (both aloud and silently), we’ll have a more positive outlook on reading. You might even discover the pleasure of reading today!”

2. Review/Background Knowledge: “Sounding out and blending words can sometimes be a slow, frustrating process when we read. However, try not to get too discouraged because it’s normal to struggle when we’re learning how to read efficiently. So even though reading can be tough right now, it’s how you all are going to learn new words. Learning new words gradually makes reading easier and easier.”

3. How: “Sometimes, even when I read books, I come across words that I don’t know. Please raise your hand if that has ever happened to you while you were reading a book.” (After the students raise their hands, ask a few students, those who are openly willing, to share their experience with the class. Thank the students for sharing.) “See, this happens to all of us at some point. It’s OK though because we can use a strategy called crosschecking to help us when we come across a word that we don’t know or maybe doesn’t sound quite right or make sense in the sentence. Also, don’t forget about your cover-up critter. It can come in handy and makes decoding easier. As a reminder, when using our cover-up critters, we cover the word, and then slowly uncover the parts one at a time.”

4. Model: “I’m going to model how we crosscheck when there’s a tricky word in a sentence by using one of our favorite books to read as an example – Beekle! See, practicing reading strategies can be fun and exciting.” (Open to the picture of Beekle climbing a tree.) “He /c/, /l/, /i/, /m/...clim-bed...clim-/b/, /E/, /d/...hmm. This is a hard word, but I’m going to finish the sentence. To the top of a tree and looked out, wishing and hopping his friend would come.” Hmm. Something about that sentence didn’t make sense. Let me go back. He...well, I see in this picture that Beekle is climbing a big tree. Oh! Climbed! He climbed to the top of a tree and looked out, wishing and hopping his friend would come. Wait a minute. Something still isn’t quite right with the sentence I just read. Hopping his friend would come? That doesn’t make sense. Hmm...Oh! Hoping! Beekle is hoping his friend would come because he has waited a long time for a friend. I’m going to read the whole sentence again now that I know all the words. I want to make sure I understand the meaning of the sentence so that I don’t get confused when I turn the page to keep reading. He climbed to the top of a tree and looked out, wishing and hoping his friend would come.” (Turn four pages, and stop there.) “Now I’m going read another page the way a fluent reader would. Her face was /fr/, /I/, en, dly...friendly...Her face was friendly and family...Her face was friendly and familiar, and there was something about her that felt just right.” I successfully read this sentence because I crosschecked while I was reading. I made sure the words made sense, matched the letters on the page, and also accurately described the picture. Now you all are going to practice using this strategy.”

5. Practice: “To practice reading fluently, each of you are going to read a fable entitled The Hare and the Tortoise. Some of you may be familiar with this story, but you might not be familiar with the word fable. A fable is a short story, typically with animals as characters, that teaches a moral lesson. In this fable, a fast hare challenges a slow tortoise to a race. Hmm. Who do you think will win?” (Give the students a chance to respond.) “We’ll just have to read and see! I’m going to give each of you a printout of the story that you will read silently to yourself. When you get your sheet, please find a spot to sit somewhere in the room. Please spread out because we want to stay focused. When you are finished reading through the story, please look up. If you finish very quickly, read it again. Extra practice is always good! Do not rush through the reading; read all of the words. This will help you in the next step of this lesson.”

6. Whole Texts: (Praise the students for their good reading.) “I am now going to split you up into groups of two. Your partner will be your reading buddy for this activity. To practice repeated reading, you and your buddy are going to take turns reading aloud. One person in your group will read aloud while your buddy times you. You will both read the book three times (alternate each time). For the partner who is not reading at the time – make sure that you are not only timing your buddy, but also using the peer checklist. You will complete it as soon as your buddy finishes reading. You are checking if your buddy remembered more words, read faster, read smoother, and read with more expression from the last time he/she read the story. Remember, the peer checklist will only be used for the second and third reading. (If there seems to be some confusion and a need for a better understanding, model the activity for the class using a randomly selected student as your “buddy.”)

7. Assess Students Individually: (Walk around the room, observing the groups and making yourself available to any students who seem to be struggling understanding or executing the activity. When each group is finished, have the students turn in their completed checklist to you. Briefly look over them to see if fluency improvements were made. Call up one student at a time to your desk and have him/her individually read the story to you. Since the students will have just read the story three times, just have each student read it to you twice. Remember to use appropriate scaffolding when necessary. Record their progress from the first reading to the second, also noting any miscues. Calculate each student’s progress using the fluency formula (WPM=words x 60/seconds). Note each student’s results on the fluency rubric and the fluency progress chart. Once the story has been read twice through, ask the student a few comprehension questions. Make sure each student understands the moral of the story.)

   • Possible comprehension questions: 1) Name the two animals in the story. 2) Why did the hare make fun of the tortoise at the beginning of the story? 3) Where was the tortoise when the hare woke up? 4) Who won the race? 5) What do you think the moral of the story is?

 

Resources:  

Santat, Dan. The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend. Little, Brown and Company, 2014.

The Hare and the Tortoise

http://www.preservearticles.com/2011082511773/short-story-for-kids-the-hare-and-the-tortoise.html

Peer Checklist:

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/awakenings/repeatedreading.jpg

Wall, Emma. Flying Towards Reading Fluently.

https://ecwall2014.wixsite.com/lessondesign/growing-independence-and-fluency-de

Fluency Rubric:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/59/b8/ef/59b8ef808ec2ba8e3100d6d6960bec07.png

Fluency Progress Chart:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/cc/1b/e9/cc1be9d53782c8588295ebb9c45b3314--th-grade-reading-graduate- school.jpg