Growing Independence & Fluency | langleylessondesigns

Dancing into Fluency

Madeline Langley

Rationale: Reading fluency is the ability to recognize words quickly, accurately and automatically without the need to consciously decode each word. To become a successful reader, students should be able to read fluently, automatically, and consistently. This independent reading activity will aid comprehension, expression, and speed of reading. In this lesson, students will learn to read fluently by reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental-marking, and re-reading. By becoming more fluent readers, students will gain confidence in their reading ability.

Materials: Stopwatches for each pair of students; a copy of Peeping Beauty by Mary Jane Auch for each student; a fluency chart for each student; a peer evaluation sheet for each student; cover-up critters for each student; pencils; paper; sentences written on whiteboard/SmartBoard: “Peeping Beauty wanted to be a star.” and “The hens were too smart for the fox.”; Assessment worksheet

Procedures:

Say: “Today, we are going to work on becoming fluent readers. Does anyone know what ‘fluent’ means?” Wait for responses. “Being fluent means reading effortlessly, recognizing words immediately, and reading without hesitation. Reading fluently makes reading fun!”
Say: “Before we begin, I am going to show you how to always crosscheck when we come across a word that we may have forgotten. [Model] and say: “For example, in this sentence [show sentence ‘Peeping Beauty wanted to be a star’] I might read ‘Peeping Beauty /w/a/n/t/e/d/’… hmm that sounds a little funny. Let me read the rest of the sentence… ‘to be a star.’ Oh! ‘Peeping Beauty wanted to be a star.’ That was a short a so it must say /a/. Now let me reread the sentence so that I can know what it says. ‘Peeping Beauty wanted to be a star.”
Model: “Now I am going to show you how a fluent and a non-fluent reader might read. Let’s look at our second sentence.” [Show sentence on the board ‘The hens were too smart for the fox.’] A non-fluent reader might read like this: The h-ens where, oops, w-e-re too sss-mm-aa-rrr-tt for the fox. Notice how I read really slow and stretched out my words? I even read a word wrong and had to correct myself. That makes it difficult to understand what I am reading. If I read it again, I might be able to read a little faster and smoother. Let’s try: The hens w-e-r-e too s-m-a-r-t for the fox. That was a little better, but not as smooth as a fluent reader. Let’s read it one more time [read smoothly and with expression]: The hens were too smart for the fox. That time my words flowed together and it was easier to understand what I was reading! That is how a fluent reader would read. Now let’s read it together: The hens were too smart for the fox.”
Say: “It takes a lot of practice to become a fluent reader. Notice how when I read the sentence ‘The hens were too smart for the fox,’ for the first time, it was very difficult because I had not read it before, and I had to spend time decoding words. When I read it the second time, it was a little smoother because I had decoded it already. As I read the sentence the third time, I added expression while I read. I became fluent by rereading, and that is how you can become fluent too!”
Say: “To practice reading fluently, we are going to read Peeping Beauty. This story is about a hen that had a dream of becoming a ballet star. Her friends, the other hens, laughed at her and said a chicken would never be famous. One day, a fox shows up and promises to make Peeping Beauty a star. Her friends warn her that the fox is only trying to make her into a meal. Do you think the fox will really help Peeping Beauty or do you think her friends are right and she is in danger? You will have to read to find out!
[Give children a copy of Peeping Beauty and a cover-up critter.] Say: “Now we are going to practice reading fluently by rereading and we are going to split into partners. I will read the first two pages to demonstrate what to do. [Explain to the class that each time you read a passage you become familiar with it. Assign students into partners. Number students 1 and 2 and hand out stopwatches.] “First, partner 1 will read aloud while partner 2 times them with the stopwatch. Then, you will switch roles. After you both read aloud, talk about what you just read. Then we are going to read aloud again, while our partner is looking at our checklist and seeing if we remembered more words, read faster, read smoother, and read with expression. We will then switch roles! We will do this three times. Remember to write down your partner’s time on the checklist too!
Assessment: Once the students have finished three rounds of repeated reading, have them turn it the checklists. The teacher should now call up students individually and perform repeated readings, graphing his or her progress on the fluency chart as he or she improves (hopefully). The teacher will configure reading fluency through the formula (words x 60/seconds). In between the rounds, give praise and encouragement to students and make suggestions when necessary. After three rounds, ask comprehension questions using the assessment worksheet: What did Peeping Beauty’s friends think about her dream to be a dancer? What did the fox promise Peeping Beauty he would do for her? Did the fox help Peeping Beauty become a star?

Peer Evaluation:

Assessment:

Reader Response

Directions: Write your answers in complete sentences to the questions below.

What did Peeping Beauty’s friends think about her dream to be a dancer?
What did the fox promise Peeping Beauty he would do for her?
Did the fox help Peeping Beauty become a star?

Resources:

Auch, Mary Jane. Peeping Beauty. Live Oak Media. (1993)

Grisham, Carly. “Swimming to Fluency”. http://carlymgrisham.wixsite.com/mscarlyreading/blank

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