Fluency, at Last!
Rationale:
Fluent reading is vital for comprehension. Students must practice expression, pace, and comprehension, in order to read effortlessly and with automaticity. The effortless word recognition will allow students to reflect on what they are reading. Students will be able to be confident in reading and reading fluently with the help of reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading text. Students will be able to use the strategy of crosschecking after reading an instructional text and those repeated readings in order to gain fluency and independence in reading.
Materials:
Pencils
Timer/stopwatch for each pair of students
Class set of Junie B. Jones: First Grader (at last!)
Sample sentences on white board for teacher to model
Peer Fluency Sheet (one for each student)
Reading Rate forms for teacher
Teacher Fluency Check (one for each student) with attached comprehension questions
Procedures:
Introduction:
1. Say: Students, today we are going to work on taking our reading to the next level, becoming fluent readers! We know that our goal is to become fluent readers, but what does becoming a fluent reader mean? What do you think of when I say a fluent reader? (Wait for responses). Fluent readers are able to read text quickly, smoothly, and with expression because they are able to recognize words automatically without having to stop and think about it. Fluency is able to help us understand what we are reading because we don’t have to stop and analyze or decode each word, this helps with our comprehension. Can anyone tell me what comprehension means when reading? This not only makes us better readers, but also makes reading more enjoyable!
2. Say: Now let's look at a sentence written on the board: Ted saw a dog on the road. I want you to tell me if I sound like a fluent reader when I read this sentence aloud to you. T-t-t-t /o/-/o/-/o/ m-m-m, Tom, p-p-p-l-l-l- /a/-/a/-/a/-y-y-d-d-d, playd w-w-/i/-/i/-/i/-th, with a d-d-d-/o/-/o/-g-g-g at the p-p-/ar/-k-k. Tom plaid with a dog at the park. Hmmm that doesn’t make sense, Tom would not have “plaid” with a dog at the park. Tom played with a dog at the park? That makes more sense! Did you notice that when I read the sentence, I got stuck on the word in the middle? In order to figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried what I thought the word played said the nonsense work plaid. That did not make sense, did it? So, I went back to reread to figure out what the word should read that would make sense. This strategy I used is called crosschecking, and it is very important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers. This is an important step in fluent reading. Thumbs up if you think I read that like a fluent reader. (Wait for responses) Exactly, I was NOT reading like a fluent reader because I had to decode the words in the sentence in order to be able to read them. Here's how a fluent reader would read that sentence: Tom played with a dog at the park, (read the sentence effortlessly), and it was much easier to understand! Now turn to a partner and practice reading the second sentence on the board. Sandy relaxed in the sand at the beach! Read it aloud to one another until you read fluently.
3. Say: Now let’s think back to when I read the first sentence aloud to you and when I got stuck on the word plaid. To figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried what I thought the word said, played. That did not make sense, did it? So, I went back to the text to reread to figure out what the word should have said to make sense. This strategy is called crosschecking, and it is very important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers!
4. Assign partners for each student and pass out the books. Say: Now we are going to practice being fluent readers by reading the Junie B. Jones book, Junie B., First Grader (at last!). Something exciting is happening, its Junie B’s first day of class. Hurray, hurray! —a brand new school year for Junie B., not only is she nervous about starting first grade, but on her very first day of school, Lucille, Junie B.’s best friend from kindergarten, is distinctly aloof. Lucille coolly informs Junie B. that they have “already been best friends” and that now, in the name of fairness, “it’s time for Camille and Chenille to get a turn.” Then Grace, who sat next to Junie B. on the bus every day last year, throws her over for new friend Bobbi Jean Piper, which causes Junie B. to announce that her “bestest friends are dropping like flies.” Throw in “Blabber-lips May” the obnoxious tattletale in the next seat, and it looks to Junie B. like “first grade is a flop.” It seems like change is very scary to Junie B. and I am sure we can all relate. On top of all of this she cannot see the words on the board her teacher writes, or what her classmates are doing. What will she do? Will she make new friends? Let’s read more to find out!
5. Students should read the first three pages silently to themselves. Then they should take turns reading page by page for a whole chapter. One student reads one page and the partner reads the next. Explain to students that while they are reading not to stop and help each other out that we are working on crosschecking to become more fluent!
6. Pass out the recording sheets and stopwatches to each group of partners. Say: Now we are going to play a fluency game. Reader 1 is going to start the game off and Reader 2 will be in control of the timer. Reader 2 is going to time Reader 1 reading the first two pages of the book, and then they will record the time on the sheet I have given to you. After the first reader has gone switch and you will have the opposite roles. Do this procedure three times each. As you are listening to your partner reading the pages aloud, I want you to listen to how their reading changes each time. Does your partner remember more words, do they read with more expression? Mark the changes you notice on your paper or words that they seem to be stuck on. Let’s get started!
7. After the student pairs have each done the procedure three times, have the students to come one at a time, read a paragraph from the first two pages. Ask them to bring their record sheet so you can attach it to the back of my assessment sheet. You will time them on the paragraph read aloud, and then use the formula given to record how many words they are able read per minute.
-words x 60/ seconds read-
Use a list of comprehension questions to assess how their fluency is affecting their comprehension:
Why doesn’t Junie B. like first grade? She doesn’t know the kids in her class, and she has to write in her journal p.5
Why was Junie B. so excited Lucille was in her class? It made her feel comforted to know her best friend was in her class p.8
How does Lucille feel about being friends with Junie B. in first grade? She doesn’t want to; Lucille already had one whole year of being friends with Junie B., now she wants to have Camille and Chenille as friends p.12
References:
Abigail Rickerson, Something Smells Like Fluency
https://acr0040.wixsite.com/abbyrickerson/growing-independence-and-literacy
Emily Mitchel, A Growing Independence and Fluency Lesson
https://sites.google.com/site/thefluencyfox/
Park, Barbara. Junie B. Jones: First Grader (at last!) New York : Random House, [2001] ©2001