Growing Independence and Fluency
Giddy Up with Reading
Rationale: Fluency in reading is the ability to recognize words quickly, accurately, and automatically. Automatic word recognition allows children to read with expression and add emphasis; more importantly, it allows for reading comprehension. Students will learn to read fluently through reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading. Students will improve their reading rate and grow into confident, fluent readers. They will learn this from practicing and completing comprehension activities.
Materials:
· Stopwatches for each pair of students
· Class set of Matt Sims book Into the Wild
· Sample sentences for teacher to model (written on board)
· Peer evaluation worksheet for each student
· Cover-up critters for each student (popsicle stick with ‘googly eyes’)
· Comprehension worksheet for each student
Procedure:
1. Say: “Today we are going to become masters at fluent reading! Every reader must learn how to ready fluently. This means you are able to read words easily and correctly. Being a fluent reader allows you to understand the text and gives you the chance to read the story with expression to make it more exciting! We can practice this by reading the same book or part of a book more than once. Each time we read it, we will be more familiar with the words. This is called repeated reading.”
2. The teacher will then model crosschecking and decoding by reading a sample sentence from the board. Say: “I want everyone to look at this sentence” (sample: I want ice cream for lunch). Let’s read it together. “IIIIIII wwwaaannnntttt iiiiicccceee ….” When I get stuck on a word, I finish reading the sentence fffffoooooorrrr lllluuuuunnnnncccchhhh” If I still can’t figure out the correct word, I can use my cover-up critter. First, I uncover the letter c. This tells us to say /k/ [Continue uncovering each letter at a time]. /k/ /r/ /E/ /m/ could be pronounced crEAm.
“Hmmm…that doesn’t sound right. Oh! It must be cream. I want ice cream for lunch! I used crosschecking to reread the sentence to try to figure out the word. Now that I know the correct word, I can mental mark the spelling to help me remember it next time.
3. Say: “Now, let’s see the difference between a fluent and non-fluent reader” (sample: I like plain ice cream.) A non-fluent reader may read it like this: I llliiiikkke pplllaaaaaiinnn iiicccee cccrreeaamm. When I read it slow and stretched out, it is hard to understand what I read. But if I read it again, I can try to read it faster and smoother: I like pppllllaaaaiiiinnn iicccee ccrrreeeaammm. That was a little more fluent, but I think I can read it even better! [Read smoothly and with expression] I like plain ice cream. That time, the words flowed smoothly and it was easy to understand what I read. That is how a fluent reader would read the sentence. Now you try reading the sentence fluently. [Have students read sentence aloud and practice using expression].
4. Say: “Everyone must practice to become a great reader. When I first read the sentence, it was difficult because I had never read it before. I had to spend time decoding the words. When I read it again, it was a little easier because I had already decoded it. When I read it the third time, I was able to say it smoothly and add expression. I became fluent in reading by rereading. That is how you can become fluent readers too!”
5. Say: “To practice reading fluently, we are going to read the book Into the Wild by Matt Sims. This book is about two camp friends Misty and Blair. Blair gets to spend some time with Misty at their farm. One day they decided to go looking for a cave Misty knows of. They hop on some mares and off they go. What do you think is going to happen to them? Do you think they will find the cave? Let’s read it to find out.
6. Children will be given a copy of the book, a cover-up critter, evaluation worksheet, comprehension worksheet, and one stopwatch per pair of students. Say: “Now we are going to practice reading fluently by working with a partner. Each of you will take turns reading two chapters in the story. You will each read it three times. Remember to crosscheck and use your cover-up critter to help you figure out words if you get stuck. While you read, your partner will time you by using the stopwatch. Record the time on the worksheet. Your partner will be listening closely to see if you are reading smoothly and with expression. Remember to use kind words when discussing with your partner. After you finish reading and recording, discuss the book with your partner. Each person should then fill out their reading comprehension worksheets.
Assessment: Walk around the room to observe and monitor students’ reading and recording. Have the students turn in their worksheets when they are finished. Review them to see if fluency improvements were made. Calculating words per minute can be helpful [Words per minute formula: (Words read x 60) divided by total seconds it took to read the text]. Also, review the answers to the reading comprehension questions to see how well the students understood the story. The questions could be as follows: What happened to Misty and Blair? Did they find the cave? What else did they find on their adventure?
Peer Evaluation Worksheets:
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Fluency Graph
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References:
Chelsea Stone"Click Clacking through Fluency": http://cms0060.wixsite.com/missstonesdesigns/growing-independence-and-fluency-design
Matt Sims book Into the Wild
Index: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/Entries.html
