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Falling Into Fluency

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  1. Rationale: Fluent reading is essential in comprehending texts. Fluency is where students recognize all words as sight vocabulary, and in result, students are able to read with speed and expression. This lesson is aimed to help students develop fluency in more developed texts. Fluent readers can read quickie, correctly use blending, and read effortlessly. We want readers to be motivated to read and reread decodable words in connected text. Throughout this lesson students will practice their strategies of crosschecking a decodable text to gain fluency and independence in reading. We will also gain a better idea of the students ability to read texts fluently and independently.

  2. Materials: White board and markers, Class set of Cats! Cats! Cats! by B. Wiseman, Reading comprehension worksheet (written below), Stopwatches, Partner reading recording sheet (written below), Paper and coloring utensils, Pencils, Calculator

  3. Procedures:

    1. Say: “Today we are going to talk about fluent reading! Can someone tell me what it means if you are a fluent reader? Right, fluent readers can read smoothly, quickly, and they understand what they are reading. They comprehend what happens in the story. They can also read with expression. That means they can change their voices to match a certain text. To become a fluent reader, we need to practice, so that’s what we’re going to do today.”

    2. Write the sentence “I like to play at the park”. Say: “Now let’s take a look at the sentence written on the board. I am going to show you how to crosscheck when we come across a word that we may have forgotten.”[Model] and say: “Now when I’m reading this sentence I might read ‘I /l/i/k/ to...’. Hmmmm that sounds kind of funny. Let me read the rest of the sentence. “...go to the park’. Oh! I like to go to the park. That was an i_e word so it must say /I/ not /i/. Now let me reread the sentence so that I can know what it says and can recognize the words in the future. ‘I like to go to the park’.”

    3. Write ‘The cat was fat’ on the board. Say and Model: “Now I am going to show you how a fluent and non-fluent reader might read. Let's look at our second sentence. A non-fluent reader might read like this: ‘thththththeeeee ccccaaattt wwwwaaaassss ffffaaaattt’. Notice how I read really slow and stretched out my words? That often makes it difficult to understand what I am reading. If I read it again, I may be able to read a little faster and smoother. Let’s try: ‘The cat was fat” (read smoothly and with expression). Notice how that time my words flowed together and it was easier to understand what I was reading! I also added more expression which made the text appear more interesting. That is how a fluent reader would read. Now let’s read it together. ‘The cat was fat’.”

    4. Write the word thrown on the board. Say and model: “Now Let's look at how we word read a tough word. Let’s look at this word. This one is a little tricky because you might mix up the vowel sound. If I were to look at the word, I might say /th/r/ow/n. However, we know that that isn’t a real word. We need to remember our rule /ow/ = /O/. If we remember that rule we could say this word using body-coda blending. Start with /O/, then add /th/, /r/, and then /n/, and now you have thrown. Now let’s say it together smoothly and fluently.” (everyone says thrown)

    5. Say: “We are going to practice being fluent readers by reading Cats! Cats! Cats!. In this book, Mrs. Kittikat has a lot of pet cats. She brings new cats home all the time, but one day she runs out of room for all of her cats! They have nowhere to sleep! Let’s read to find out what Mrs. Kittikat does to help her cats.” Read the book aloud to the students and get them engaged with the book using Talk Before You Turn.

    6. Students will read the whole book silently to themselves and fill out the reading comprehension worksheet. 

      1. Reading comprehension worksheet:

Name: _________

Date:_______

  1. What is the first thing Mr. Hardhammer built?

  2. Who were some other people who came to help?

  3. How did Mrs. Kittikat find room for all her cats?

  4. Does Mrs. Kittikat stop bringing home new cats?

  1. Now tell the class to get with a partner beside them and pass out decodable books to the pairs. Pass out recording sheets and stopwatches to each group. Say: “Now we are going to play the fluency game. Reader 1 is going to start off the game and Reader 2 will then record the time on the sheet that I have just handed out. After reading the information, switch roles, so Reader 2 will read and then Reader 1 will time and record. Do this three times each. As you listen to your partner read aloud the pages, I want you to be listening for how their reading changes each time. Do they read smoother? Do they remember more words? Do they read with more expression, meaning facial movement and changes in their voice? Please mark these changes you notice in your paper. Only give positive feedback about their reading.”

    1. Partner reading recording sheet

Name: _______

Date: _________

Title: ________

Reader: ________

Checker: _________

  1. First time reading: ____ minutes and _____ seconds

  2. Second time reading: ____ minutes and _____ seconds

  3. Third time reading: ____ minutes and _____ seconds

Notes (add any notes about expression or comprehension here):

  1. Say: “Now that we have finished the readings, I want to review these questions with you.” Respond to student answers: “What is the first thing Mr. Hardhammer built? Right, a bunk bed. Who were some other people that came to help? Correct, Mr. Bangnails, Mrs. Saw-wood, and Mr. Drillscrew. How does Mrs. Kittikat find room for all of the cats? Yes, she gave all the cats to happy homes. Did Mrs. Kittikat stop bringing home cats! Right, she still brought them home but she always gave the new cats to other homes. 

  2. Say: “Now I have a fun activity for you. I want you to pick your favorite part of the book and draw it out. For example, I liked when they tried to put all of the cats on the boat. So I would draw a boat with a bunch of cats. While you all do that individually, I will call you up one by one and we will calculate your fluency score together!” Calculate students WPM using the formula [(words x 60)/seconds] and their fastest time on the partner reading recording sheet (word count is 233). After each student has met with you, have them take an Accelerated Reader Test on the book. 

  1. References:

    1. Samantha O’Neill, Hi, Fly Reader! https://slo0013.wixsite.com/readingdesigns/growing-independence-and-fluency

    2. Mary Gayle Mitchel, Flying into Fluency https://marygayle99.wixsite.com/website/growing-independence-and-fluency

    3. Wiseman, B.; Cats! Cats! Cats!; Parents Magazine Press- New York, 1984

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