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Falling for Fluency!

A Growing Independence and Fluency Design

By Allissa Stanley

 

Rationale: This lesson is designed to improve students’ reading fluency in more advanced texts. Students begin reading slowly, and their speed up as they gain more sight words. Fluency is being able to read with automatic word recognition. Having better fluency makes reading more enjoyable because it makes it easier to comprehend the story and readers do not have to put in as much effort to do so. In this lesson, students will learn about the strategies and skills required to be a fluent reader through rereading the story Frog and Toad All Year: The Surprise. They will work on silent and partner reading to practice. They will read along with the teacher to go over unfamiliar words between readings and gain fluency. The overall goal of this lesson is to improve fluency and independence in the students by timed and repeated readings.

 

Materials:

  • Class set of Frog and Toad All Year by Arnold Lobel

  • One stopwatch per group

  • Cover-up critters for each student

  • Copy of the checklist/reading tracker for each student

  • Copy of the checklist/reading tracker for teacher

  • Copy of comprehension questions for each student

  • White board with markers

 

Procedures:

  1. Say: “We are going work on improving our fluency as readers today. Does anyone know what fluency means? (wait for students to answer and respond accordingly). A fluent reader can read smoothly and effortlessly while also understanding what they are reading. The more fluent we are, the easier reading becomes!”

  2. Say: “I have a word written on the board, let’s look at it and see what it says. Using my coverup critter to help me, I am going to try to figure this word out. Watch me to see how I read this unfamiliar word. (Use the coverup critter to slowly uncover letters as you slowly sound them out) rrrr-aaaaaaa-kkkkk-eeee-ddddd. /r/ /a/ /k/ /e/ /d/. Hm that doesn’t make sense. Let’s blend it together and see if it makes sense. Rraaakkkeeddd (/r/ /A/ /k/ /d/). Oh raked! In this word the silent e is making the a say its name like /A/! our coverup critters and decoding skills are really helpful when identifying hard words that we have never seen before.”

  3. Say: “Crosschecking is another skill that helps us figure out unfamiliar words. To crosscheck we need to read the rest of the sentence and see what makes sense in the sentence. Let’s look at the sentence I have written out on the board. “He raked the leaves into a pile.” I am going to pretend that I am reading this sentence in a book. Tell me I sound like a fluent reader. He raked the (pause for a few seconds) llll-eeee-aaaa-vvvv-eeee-sss huh? Let’s finish the sentence: into a pile. Oh leaves because you rake leaves into a pile! By finishing the rest of the sentence, I used the context to understand the hard word. Did I sound fluent when I read that sentence (let the students answer)? I did not sound fluent because I read the sentence slower and how to sound out a word. Let’s read it faster and see if we sound more fluent. He raked the leaves into a pile. Did I sound more fluent that time? Could you notice a difference? (let the students answer) Yes I read the sentence more fluently.

  4. Say: “Now we are going to read the book Frog and Toad All Year: The Surprise. This is a story about two friends who do something nice for each other but don’t want the other one to find out. What do you think they do? (let students suggest things) We’ll have to read and find out. I want you to read silently to yourself and find out what Frog and Toad do. Please use coverup critters if you come across a tough word.” (pass out class set along with coverup critter and allow students time to read).

  5. When everyone is finished say: “Now we are going to pair up and read the book a few more times with a partner. The first time you do it, do not help your partner if they cannot figure out a word. I want you to just listen to them read.” Stop when each of you have read it once to your partner.

  6. Once they have all read to their partner, pass out recording sheets and stopwatches to each group and say: “Now we are going to be playing a game. One person will be reader 1 and one person will be reader 2. Reader 1 is going to read the book while reader 2 times them on the stopwatch and write down that time on the sheet I just gave you. Once you have done that I want you to switch and reader 2 read the story and reader 1 time them and write down their time. I want you to keep doing this until the sheet is full. While you are timing your partners I want you to think about if they are reading smoother, faster, and using more expression each time they read and write your answers on the sheet. Everyone should read 2 times to their partner. (give students enough time to read two times each)

  7. After students are done, call each student up individually to your desk. When they come, have them bring their fluency checklist and their book to you. Have them read the book to you and time and record how many words per minute they read.

  8. After all students have read the book to you, have them quietly and independently answer the three comprehension questions to assess.

 

Reading Comprehension Questions:

  1. Whose leaves did Toad rake?

  2. Whose leaves did Frog rake?

  3. How did they know no one was home when they raked their leaves?

Fluency Checklist:

Title of book:

Student’s name:

Partner’s name:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References:

 

Emily Forest, “The Bad Seed’s Transformation to Fluency”

https://emiley991.wixsite.com/my-site/growing-independence-fluency

 

Summer Rose, “Fishing for Fluency”

https://sdr0039.wixsite.com/my-site-1/growing-independence-and-fluency

Reading Genie Awakenings Index 

https://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/awakenings/

 

Book:

Lobel, Arnold. Frog and Toad All Year. Findaway World, LLC, 2019.

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