Growing Independence and Fluency

A Growing Independence and Fluency Lesson

Racing Through Reading Fluency

Rationale

In order to gain the ability to comprehend while reading, students must learn to read fluently. While decoding is an important component of the reading process, it often times poses difficulties to students. Reading can be sped up with fluency instruction can allow students to transfer new words sight words. Repeated readings can be used to help students move from slow decoding to automatic, effortless reading. This lesson teaches children how to use strategies that build sight words. Methods addressed in this lesson are crosschecking for meaning, repeated reading of the text, and charting progress during paired partner reading. These tools will enable students to progress toward fluency and comprehension while sustaining motivation to read and reread.

Materials

Stopwatches (enough for each pair of students)
Fluency Graphs for each child
Stickers
Class set of Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel
Partner Reading Progress checklists
Reader Response form
Grading rubrics
Sentence written on the board: “Frog ran up the path to Toad’s house and knocked on the door.” Then on a separate line, “Toad shouted, ‘Frog, wake up! It’s spring!”

Procedures

1. Explain the Activity Say: Boys and Girls, today we are going to talk about reading fluently. When we read fluently, we are able to understand what we are reading and what is happening in the story. The more fluently we can read, the more we will be able to understand or comprehend from what we are reading.

2. Model Fluent and Non-fluent Reading Say: I am going to read this sentence on the board two times. I want you to listen to how I read it and tell me which time sounds more fluent, or which one sounds better.

F-r-ooo-g, frog ran up the paaaa-th, path, to T-ow-d’s, Toad’s? h-ou-se and /k/nocked, knocked on the d-oo-rrr.

Frog ran up the path to Toad’s house and knocked on the door.

Which sounds better? [Let students answer] That’s right! The second option sounds so much better. Why does it sound better? [Allow students to contribute answers] Right, it sounds better because I read the words effortlessly and I also read with expression. I also understand what the sentence is saying when I read it the second time but by the time I finished reading the sentence the first time I was so focused on decoding the words that I didn’t pick up what the sentence is saying. This is why reading fluency is so important!

3. Review a Strategy Say: Did you notice that the first time I read the sentence I read Toad as Towd? But then I went back and realized that the correct word was Toad because Towd did not make sense and isn’t even a word. This is called crosschecking. You use crosschecking when you come to a word in the sentence you don’t know. To crosscheck remember that we look at the rest of the sentence, before and after the word, and try to use the information to determine what the word might be.

4. Practice Together Say: Let’s read this next line together, “Toad shouted ‘Frog, wake up! It’s spring!’” I heard some of you struggling with the word “shouted” here. If you were reading this by yourself and you didn’t know the word you could look at these beginning sounds, /sh/ /o/ and then look at the rest of the sentence to figure out that it says “shouted.” Good job!

5. Motivate to Read Say: Now before we get too far into the story let me give you a little background information. Frog took a loooooong winter nap and now it’s spring time! Frog is really excited that it is springtime. So, Frog goes over to his friend Toad’s house to tell him its springtime, but Toad won’t get out of bed! Do you think Frog is going to be able to wake Toad up? Let’s see what happens.

6. Partner Practice Say: Now we’re going to do some practice building our fluency with partners.

Pair up with your reading partner and come get a Partner Progress Checklist, Reader Response Form, a stopwatch, and 2 copies of Frog and Toad Are Friends. When you return to your reading spots, I will tell you the number of words in the book so you can write that at the top of the page.
You’re going to take 3 turns reading the book. While your partner is reading, you are going to use the stopwatch to time them.
While you are timing your partner, you also need to pay close attention to how many mistakes your partner makes, make a checkmark on your sheet of paper when you hear a mistake. Remember that it’s okay to make mistakes while we’re building fluency, you’re going to have mistakes the first couple times you read it and that’s how we get better.
Once your partner is done reading you’re going to subtract the number of words they missed from the total number of words, you’re also going to record the time it took for them to read it and record it on your sheet.
After you figure out these progress measures, answer the two questions on the progress checklist about which turn was the smoothest and had the least amount of errors.
After you and your partner have each read 3 times, I want you to discuss the answers to the questions on the Reader Response Form and write your answers down individually.
When you have finished the Reader Response Form, come see me. I will give you fluency graphs and show you how to put your sticker in the right spot on your graph so we can monitor your progress!

Assess student progress by evaluating answers on the Reading Response Form and determining each student’s WPM using the formula and mark their progress with a sticker on their fluency chart. Adapt each student’s fluency charts to set appropriate and attainable goals for each student.

Partner Reading Progress Checklist

Total # of words in chapter: ______

Reader: ___________________________

Checker: __________________________

1: ___ Words in ___ seconds

2: ___ Words in ___ seconds

3: ___ Words in ___ seconds

Which turn sounded the smoothest? _______

Which turn had the least number of errors? ______

Reader Response Form

Name ________________________________

Directions: On a separate sheet of paper, answer each question with at least one complete sentence.