Fluent Readers Rock!
Growing Independence and Fluency Lesson
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Rationale: Reading fluency means having automatic word recognition. In order to be a successful reader one must be able read automatically in order to have better comprehension, expression and speed while reading. Students are able to reflect and understand what they are reading instead of having to decode every word. Through repeated reading activities students will increase their sight word vocabulary. We will use repeated reading with a partner, silent reading and individual oral reading. Improvements will be measured using the formula: words read x 60/seconds.
Materials:
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Copy of The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein for each student
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Stopwatches for every student and teacher
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Personalized graph to chart reading time for every student
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Cover up critter
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Board with “Once there was a tree....and she loved a little boy.
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Board with the sentence He would climb up her trunk and swing from her branches
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Fluency check sheet
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Clipboards for all students
Procedures:
1. Say: Who wants to be an amazing reader? Today we are going to become expert readers. In order to become expert readers, we need to be able to read fluently. Fluent is a fancy word for fast, and smooth. We want our reading to be faster and smoother when we read it. When we read fluently, we are able to read without hesitation, effortlessly, and we recognize words immediately. To recognize words automatically, we need to have developed a large sight vocabulary that includes almost all the words we might read in a book! In order to get such a big sight vocabulary, we have to first start out practicing with one single story. We are going to do repeated reading today so we can get really, really good at reading a story fluently. We will decode, crosscheck, mental mark, and re-read.
2. Say: Let’s review how to crosscheck when we come to a word we don’t know. Here is an example sentence up on the board. (reveal sentence on board: He would climb up her trunk and swing from her branches). I can start reading- He would climb up her TUNK? … hmm that doesn’t make sense, let me finish reading the sentence …. And swing from her branches. Oh that word must be trunk- because it’s talking about a tree. Then I would re-read the whole sentence to practice the word and get back into the story.
3. Say: Now let’s look at the difference between a fluent and a non-fluent reader. Let’s look at the board again (Once there was a tree....and she loved a little boy). A non-fluent expert reader would sound like this- Ooonnceee thhhhereee wasss aaaaa tree and sheeeee loveedd a little booooyyyyy. I read it slow and stretched out so it’s hard to put the whole sentence together when I read it so choppily. Let me try again (read in monotone voice): Once there was a tree and she loved a little boy. How did that one sound? Pretty good, but I think I can make it sound even better if I talk and read with emotion. Read one more time fluently and with expression. Now you try reading it with me: Once there was a tree and she loved a little boy. I’m getting better because I’m learning these tough words.
4. To practice our great fluent reading, we’re going to read the story “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein. This is a story about a boy and a tree- a very unusual friendship. The tree and the boy grow up playing together, but what happens when the boy gets to old for climbing up and down the trees branches? Will they stay friends? Let’s read to find out.
5. Children will each be given a copy of the story and a cover-up critter. Say: Now we are going to practice reading to ourselves. If you finish early, read the story again to practice even more. We will be taking turns coming up to the teacher’s desk to see how fast we are reading. Our goal is to get to 85 wpm. Let’s take 10 minutes right now to practice reading at our desk. Ask the person sitting next to you if you don’t know the word and then if they don’t know raise your hand and the teacher will come to help. Teacher will walk around assisting students.
6. After the 10 minutes, now let’s talk about the words in the story that we’re pretty hard. Generate a list of words from the class. Teacher will model and scaffold the words on the board. Example: WHISPERED. This word doesn’t make much sense. Let’s look at the I, in the middle of the word and cover up the rest. This makes the /i/ sound, uncover the W, and then the h we know it is /whi/, and then the letter s,p /whisp/, and then e, r, e,d. /Whisp/ /ered/ Oh the word is whispered. Let’s read the sentence that goes with this word. “Come boy, she whispered.”
6. Say: Now we are going to get into partners. The first partner will read the story while their partner times them with a stop watch. Then we will switch partners. After both of you have read let’s figure out what WPM speed we were reading at. Partner two needs to be sure to pay attention to the timer and record the time it took for their partner to read. Teacher will take this data and calculate the words per minute. (Will need to count all the words in the story)
7. Pass out fluency checklists to each partner. Explain to the class that this checklist is to be used to see if their partner is reading faster and with more expression. Also be sure to ask your partner if they understand the story. One partner will read while the other uses the checklist to help their partner out. Make sure both partners get a chance to read. Teacher collects the checklist. Between readings make sure the teacher is motivating and asking open-ended questions about the book.
8.Assesment: Teacher needs to collect the data from the first partner reading and be calculating the WPM scores for each student. Teacher will also collect the fluency checklists to assess how her students are doing. The final assessment will be calling up students one at a time to read “The Giving Tree” orally to the teacher. The teacher will use the data collected by the pairs earlier in the lesson to calculate their WPM and compare it with the second reading that they do orally to the teacher. Use the reading to chart to show the student where they were at when they read to their partner and where they are now. Tell all students that they want to be at 85 WPM. For students who do not reach this score, have them continue to practice until they are able to master it.
9. Teacher will end the lesson by asking a few comprehension questions: What happened as the boy got older in the story? What did the tree have to offer the boy in the end?
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References:
Book: Silverstein, Shel. The Giving Tree. New York: Harper & Row, 1964. Print.
Lesson Adaptation: Piper, Anna. (2015). Fun with fluency. http://annamariepiper.wixsite.com/readingdesigns
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Fluency Graph:
Partner WPM calculation
(To be turned in to the teacher)
Name:
Time it took to read:
Name:
Time it took to read:
Partner Fluency Checklists:
Is my partner reading faster? Yes or No
Is my partner reading with expression and emotion ? Yes or No
Is the reading smoother? Yes or No
Does my partner understand the story?
Yes or No
Teacher Fluency Checklist:
Student Name:
Words x 60/seconds:
Reading #1 Score
Reading #2 Score:
Was there improvement?
