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Sharing the Love of Fluency

Growing Independence and Fluency

Emmy Wilson

Rationale:

In order to increase reading fluency, a students’ focus should be on reading accurately and effortlessly. Reading fluency is being able to read using automatic word recognition rather than constant decoding. As reading fluency increases, so will reading comprehension. This lesson is designed to assist students in applying strategies such as crosschecking while reading an engaging, whole text. The best method to improve fluency is repeated reading. I will get there by having my students read and reread, making sure there are decodable words and making sure there are connected texts.

 

Materials:

  1. Pencils

  2. Stopwatch for every two students

  3. Copy of Pig the Pug by Aaron Blabey for every two students

  4. Peer fluency sheet for every student

  5. Whiteboard/whiteboard markers

    • “Tom rode his bike to the park.” and “Jane wants to go to the park with Tom, but her mom said no.”

 

Procedures:

Say: today we are going to become fluent readers! Does anyone know what it means to become a fluent reader? That’s right! A fluent reader is someone who can read quickly and effortlessly. They automatically recognize each word, which helps when understand what is going on in the story! This makes reading fun because we can quickly figure out what will happen next!

 

Say: now let’s read the sentence I have written on the board [Tom rode his bike to the park.] I’m going to read the sentence and I want you to tell me if I sound like a fluent reader. T-t-t-t-/o/-/o/-m, Tom, r-r-r-r-/o/-/o/-/o/-/o/-d-d-d his b-b-/i/-/i/-k-k-k, wait no, b-b-/I/-k-, bike, to the p-p-p-/a/-/a/-r-r-r-k, park! Tom rod his bike to the park. He rod his bike? That doesn’t make sense. Oh, rode! Tom rode his bike to the park! I got stuck on the word rode in this sentence. I forgot that o_e says /O/, but I used the context of the sentence to figure out the word I was not sure about. This method is called crosschecking and it is very important in becoming fluent readers! I read the entire sentence and realized that it did not make sense, so I looked the word that sounded familiar and realized this is was a long /O/ sound. Make sure you use crosschecking if a word sounds silly in a sentence!

 

Say: did I sound like a fluent reader when I read that sentence? [allow students to reason]. No, I didn’t! I had to sound out most of the words and it took me a long time. Here’s how a fluent reader would read that sentence: Tom rode his bike to the park. Quick, effortless, and easy to understand! Now it’s your turn! Read the second sentence on the board with your partner over and over until you can read it effortlessly [Jane wants to go to the park with Tom, but her mom said no.]

 

Say: Today we are going to read Pig the Pug to practice our fluency. Pig the Pug is very greedy! He refuses to share his toys, or be friends with any other dogs! That is not a nice thing to do. Will Pig get in trouble? Will Pig end up sharing his toys? What do you think will happen?! We have to read to find out! I want everyone to read the story once silently to yourself to see what happens to Pig the Pug!

 

[Give each student a Peer Fluency Sheet and give each pair of students a stopwatch] Say: Now we are going to get into pairs with our partners and show each other our great fluency skills! You will take turns reading. One person will read the story 3 times out loud while their partner times them. I want everyone to be a good partner and give your friend encouragement as they read to you! During the first reading, your partner only needs to use the stopwatch and listen, but during the second and third reading, I want the listener to use the stopwatch to time their partner and also listen for the following things: does the reader read faster than their last reading? Does the reader read smoother than their last reading? Does the reader read with expression? Does the reader remember more words than their last reading? Once you have read the story three times, switch jobs and let the person who was reading time and the person who was timing read their three times! [have one pair of students’ model for the class to make sure that everyone knows what they are doing and how to work the stopwatches] ill be walking around if you need any help!

 

[The teacher collects Peer Fluency Sheet after repeated readings are complete; assess each student’s fluency by using the following formula: words x 60 / seconds]

 

The teacher will have each student (working individually) write a 3 sentences about what they learned in the story. After using the formula to assess each students’ fluency, call each student up individually to read a few pages to the teacher while the class is working on their writing assignment. The teacher will take note of words per minute and how the students’ fluency has improved. They will also answer three comprehension questions:

 

  1. What happens to Pig for him to become friends with Trevor?

  2. What won’t Pig share?

  3. What is Pig’s mood in the beginning of the story?

 

After using the formula to assess each student’s fluency, call each student up individually to read a few pages to the teacher while the class is working on their writing assignment. The teacher will take notes of words per minute and how the students’ fluency has improved.

 

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