Rationale: Fluency in reading is the ability to recognize words quickly, accurately, and automatically. For children to really enjoy reading, and also, to better understand what they are reading, it is critical for them to learn how to read fluently. When children can read fluently, their effort transfers to comprehension rather than the mechanics of reading such as decoding and blending. Students will learn to read fluently through reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading. Students will improve their reading rate and grow into confident, more expressive, and fluent readers.
Materials:
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Stopwatches (one per pair of students)
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Big Friends by Linda Sarah and Benji Davies (one per pair of students)
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Sample sentence to model for students
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“We like to play outside after school”
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“We can be pirates, kings, or soldiers!”
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Peer evaluation worksheet (one per student)
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Cover-up critters for each student (popsicle stick with googly eyes)
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Printed passage of the book on one page (front and back)
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Fluency chart
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Comprehension worksheet for each student
Procedures:
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Say: “Today we are going to work on our fluency reading! This means you are going to be able to read words easily and correctly. When we are fluent readers, we can better understand the text we are reading, and we get the chance to read the story with expression to make it more exciting or interesting! We are going to practice this today by reading the same book more than once. Each time we read it, we will be more familiar with the words. This is called repeated reading. Once we have mastered this book, all of you will feel more confident to read this book to your classmates, family, and friends!”
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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: We like to play outside after school). “Let’s read it together. “Wwwweeeee liiiiiike to plaaaaay ooouuut….” “When I get stuck on a word, I finish reading the sentence….. after school.” “If I still cannot figure out the correct word, I can use my coverup critter. First, I uncover the first two letters in the word, this tells us to say /OW/” (I continue this with each letter in the word) /OW/ /t/ /s/ /I/ /d/. “I need to remember that i_e says /I/, so this word is pronounced as OW-t-s-I-d. “Oh, outside! I used crosschecking to reread the sentence to try and figure out the word. I am getting better because I keep rereading! Now that I know the correct word, I can mentally mark the spelling to help me remember it in the future.”
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Say: “Let’s see the difference between a fluent reader and a non-fluent reader. I am going to read this sentence on the board: “We can be pirates, kings, or soldiers!” This is how I may read the sentence the first time I see it: “We caaaaan be piiiiiiiraaaattes, kiiiiiiingggggs, or solllldierssss!” When I read it slow and stretch it out, it is hard to understand what I read. But if I read it again, I can try to read it faster and more smoothly: W-e c-a-n b-e p-i-r-a-t-e-s, k-i-n-g-s, or s-o-l-d-i-e-r-s!” See! That was a little more fluent, but I think I can read it even better! (I will read it smoothly with expression) We can be pirates, kings, or soldiers!! That time, the words flowed smoothly, it was easy to understand what I said, and you know how I felt. This is how a fluent reader should read the sentence. Now you try reading the sentence fluently. (Have students read sentence aloud and practice using expression).
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Say: “It takes 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. But, when I read it again, it was a little easier because I had already decoded it. I read it the third time more smoothly and with more expression! I became fluent by rereading the sentence until I understood what I was saying. That is how you can become fluent readers, too!”
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Say: To practice reading fluently, we are going to read the book “Big Friends”. This is a story about two friends who have big imaginations! Every day, they each take big cardboard boxes and use their imaginations to be whatever they want to be! A new friend comes to town and wants to join the two friends on their adventures, but the trio has a hard time getting along at first. Use your imagination and think of something you would be! What are some things that you thought of?”
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Children will be split into pairs and given a book (one book per pair of students), a stopwatch (one stopwatch per pair of students), their own cover-up critter, evaluation worksheet and comprehension worksheet. Say: “Now we are going to practice reading fluently by working with a partner. Each of you will take turns reading the story, before we end you will 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, we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings! After you finish reading and recording, discuss the book with your partner. You should go back to your seat and fill out your reading comprehension worksheet and turn it in to me.
Assessment
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Walk around the room to observe and monitor students’ reading and recording.
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Have students turn in their own comprehension worksheet when finished.
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Review to see if fluency improvements were made.
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Call each student to your desk individually to read the printed passage from the “Big Friends”; use fluency chart and calculate their words per minute score using formula.
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Before ending lesson, review answers to the reading comprehension questions to see how well the students understood the story.
Reading Comprehension Worksheet Questions
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What were the names of the three friends?
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Why did Birt stop going up Sudden Hill?
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What did the box that Etho and Shu made for Birt look like?
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What did the three friends call the box that was made for Birt?
Resources
References
Sarah, Linda, and Benji Davies. Big Friends. Henry Hold and Company, 2016.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25332081-big-friends
Cover-up Critters
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/materials.html
Attia, Andie. “Flying to Fluency”
https://aka0029.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/growing-independence-and-fluency
Advancements Page