Growing Independence and Fluency
Hop into Fluency
Gracie Mahoney
Rationale: Reading fluency is the ability to recognize words quickly, accurately, and automatically without the need to consciously decode every word. Fluent, automatic, consistent reading is necessary in order to become a successful reader. This independent reading will aid comprehension, expression, and speed of ones reading. In this lesson, students will learn to read fluently through the tools of reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking and rereading. Students will gain confidence in their reading ability and become more fluent, independent readers. At the end of the lesson, you will have a better idea of the student’s ability got fluently and independently read texts.
Materials:
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Stopwatches (one for each pair of students)
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Fluency graphs for each child
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Stickers
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class set of by Arnold Lobel
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Partner reading progress checklist
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Reader response form
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Grading rubrics
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Sentence on the whiteboard: “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!”
0—10—20—30—40—50—60—70—80—90—100 (correct words per minute)
Fluency checklist:
Title of book: __________________________
Date: ___________
Student’s name: ____________________
Partner’s Name: _______________________
After 2nd reading After 3rd reading
________ _________. Remembered more words
________. _________. read faster
________. _________. Read smoother
________. __________. read with more expression
Procedure:
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Explain the activity, Say: “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 what we are reading. Along with being able to understand what we are reading; fluent readers are able to read with expression. We can change our voices to match certain text, like getting louder if a character screams or using a quiet voice if another whispers. To become a fluent reader, we need to practice our skills so that’s what we will do today, practice.”
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model, say: “I am going to read this sentence on the whiteboard two times. I want you to 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. Toads? H-ou-se and /k/nocked, knocked on the d-oo-rrr” “Frog ran up the path to Toad’ house and knocked on the door.” “which sounds better?” (let students answer) that’s right, the second option sounds so much better! But why does it sound better? (allow students to answer) Correct, it sounds better because I read the words effortlessly because they were in my sight vocabulary and I also read with expression. I was also able to understand what the sentence was saying when I read it the second time. Unlike the first time I read the sentence I was so focused on decoding it, that I couldn't understand it! A huge part of fluent reading is having a large sight vocabulary because the larger the sight vocabulary the easier it is to see words and automatically know them and understand what they are saying. Fluent reading is important, because it’s how you know what’s going on in the story.
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Review Strategy, say: “There are some skills that we have already learned that will help us on our journey to become fluent readers. The first one is decoding. Remember we use this when we get stuck on a word that is a little tricky to read. And to help us decode we will use our cover up critter. We use the critter to break the word that we are having trouble with down into smaller pieces. Breaking it down makes it easier to recognize and read the word. Another strategy that we use when decoding doesn’t work is, crosschecking. 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. Then we must mentally mark the word to remember that Toad is not towd it is /T/ oa/ d. After we are done decoding and
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crosschecking we always reread the sentence in order to make sure we comprehend the text.
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Practice together: say, “Let’s read this next line together. “Toad shouted Frog, wake up! Its 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 use your cover up critter to look at the rest of the sentence and crosscheck to figure out it says “shouted.”
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Book talk: Say, “Frog just woke up for spring after his long winter nap! He is super excited for spring. He wants to share his excitement with his friend Toad. However, Toad is not excited for spring and doesn't want to wake up. Frog tries to wake Toad up but he refuses. Do you think Frog will be able to get Toad up? We will have to read to find out.”
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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 two copies of Frog and Toad are Friends. I will tell you the number of words in the book when you get back to your reading spots so you can write that at the top of the page. You’re each going to read the book out loud three times. For the one who isn't reading; 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 isn't a bad thing to make mistakes while you're building fluency, you're going to have mistakes the first couple of times you read it. The mistakes will only help you get better. Once your partner is done reading you're going to record the rime it took for them to read it and record it on your sheet. You're also going to record which time was the smoothest and which time had least number 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 all this come see me and I will give you fluency graphs and show you how to put your frog sticker in assess student progress by evaluating answers on the reading response form and determining each students WPM using the formula and mark their progress with a frog sticker on their fluency chart. Make sure to update 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? ________
References:
Pietrantoni, Wynne: https://wynnepietrantoni.wixsite.com/mysite/gf-design
Lobel, Arnold. (1970). Frog and Toad Are Friends. New York: Harper Collins.
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