Swinging into Fluency
Rationale: Being a fluent reader helps you better comprehend texts. When you are a fluent reader, you are able to recognize almost all words by sight, leading to the ability to read quicker and with expression. Fluent readers are able to correctly decode, crosscheck, and reread the text. Repeated readings and extra word help are great for students to develop better reading fluency. This lesson is focused to help students develop stronger fluency with denser texts by moving most words into their sight vocabulary, and students will be able to read independently.
Materials:
Procedures:
Say: “Today we are going to talk about fluent reading! Can someone tell me what a fluent reader is? When someone is a fluent reader, they are able to read quickly, smoothly, and can understand everything they are reading. Fluent readers can also read with expression, meaning the reader can change their voice to match a certain text. Today, we are going to practice being fluent readers!”
Say: “First, we are going to look at this sentence on the board. I am going to show you how we crosscheck when we come across a word we don’t know or may have forgotten. [Model] and say: For example, say I read this sentence (show sentence on the board, ‘I ride my bike to school’) “I /r/i/d/ my bike…” hmm that sounds a little funny. Let me try reading the rest of the sentence… “to school”. Oh, now I understand! ‘I ride my bike to school.’ The word was an i_e word, so that means the letter I says /I/ not /i/. Now I’m going to reread the sentence so that I can know what it says and remember the words for later. “I ride my bike to school.”
Say and model: “Now I am going to show you how a fluent reader may read, and how a non-fluent reader may read. Let’s look at this sentence. (Show sentence on the board, “The dog barks at the cat.”) A non-reader may read like this: ‘The ddogg bbbbaaaarrkks at the ccaatt.’ See how I read really slow and stretched out the words? Reading that way can make it harder to understand what I am reading about. Now let’s try again and see how a fluent reader may read. ‘The dog barks at the cat.’ [Read smoothly, with expression]. See how my words flowed better and we could better understand what the sentence was about? That is how a fluent reader would read! Now let’s read it all together: ‘The dog barks at the cat.’ Great job!”
Say and model: “Now let’s look at how we would read a more difficult word. (Write flake on the board). This word can be harder to read because some of the letters are silent. If I look at this word, I might say /f/l/a/k/, but that isn’t a real word. We need to remember the rule a_e says /A/ not /a/. We can help remember this by using body-coda blending, where we start with the /A/ sound, then add our other letters. So, in this case, we would start with the a_e, then add the /f/ and the /l/ to the beginning and a /k/ at the end. There we go! Flake!” (Everyone says flake together).
Say: “Now everyone, find a partner so we can practice being fluent readers! [Pass out book, Be Nice to Spiders, to the pairs]. This book is about a spider named Helen and her new life at the Zoo! When she first arrives, she is accidentally set loose and runs freely throughout her new home! What do you think Helen’s going to do? Is it going to be good? Is it going to be bad? What will other animals think? Will they like her? Hate her? I guess we’re going to have to read to find out!” Students will read the whole book silently to themselves and then fill out the reading comprehension worksheet. Then they will read the book aloud to their partner. They must not help their partner, only record their progress.
Reading Comprehension Worksheet:
Name: ________
Date: _________
[Pass out the recording sheets and stopwatches to each group]. Say: “Now we are going to play a fluency game! Each of you will take turns to see how fast you can read the first two pages. Reader 1 will start off reading and Reader 2 will control the stopwatch and record how fast it takes Reader 1 to read. Reader 2 will record Reader 1’s time on the timesheet I just handed you. After recording your partner’s time, you will switch, and Reader 2 will read. Reader 1 will record. You will do this three times each. As you listen to your partner, I want you to listen to them carefully to see how their reading changes each time. Do they read smoother? Do they read quicker? Do they remember more of the words or read with expression? Mark the changes you see on your paper.”
Partner Reading Recording Sheet:
Title of the Book: ___________
Student’s Name: ____________
Partner’s Name: ____________
Make a checkmark if the following things improve after 2nd and 3rd tries:
Reading Tracker:
0 - - - -10 - - - - 20 - - - - 30 - - - 40 - - - - 50 - - - - 60 - - - - 70 - - - - 80 - - - - 90 - - - - 100
After all, students have read through the text three times each, have each student come up one at a time and read the first two pages to you. Ask them to bring their record sheet and determine each student’s words per minute (WPM) using the formula, (words x 60) / seconds, and record their responses.
References:
Hartley, Taylor. Flying into Fluency. https://taylorhartley024.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/growing-independence-fluency
Graham, Margaret Bloy. Be Nice to Spiders. https://www.amazon.com/Nice-Spiders-Margaret-Bloy-Graham/dp/0060220732
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Materials:
- Whiteboards and markers
- Sample sentences on a whiteboard
- Class set of Be Nice to Spiders by Margaret Bloy Graham
- Reading comprehension worksheet
- Stopwatches for each set of pairs
- Partner reading recording sheet
- Laptop/pen and paper to record student’s WPM
Procedures:
Say: “Today we are going to talk about fluent reading! Can someone tell me what a fluent reader is? When someone is a fluent reader, they are able to read quickly, smoothly, and can understand everything they are reading. Fluent readers can also read with expression, meaning the reader can change their voice to match a certain text. Today, we are going to practice being fluent readers!”
Say: “First, we are going to look at this sentence on the board. I am going to show you how we crosscheck when we come across a word we don’t know or may have forgotten. [Model] and say: For example, say I read this sentence (show sentence on the board, ‘I ride my bike to school’) “I /r/i/d/ my bike…” hmm that sounds a little funny. Let me try reading the rest of the sentence… “to school”. Oh, now I understand! ‘I ride my bike to school.’ The word was an i_e word, so that means the letter I says /I/ not /i/. Now I’m going to reread the sentence so that I can know what it says and remember the words for later. “I ride my bike to school.”
Say and model: “Now I am going to show you how a fluent reader may read, and how a non-fluent reader may read. Let’s look at this sentence. (Show sentence on the board, “The dog barks at the cat.”) A non-reader may read like this: ‘The ddogg bbbbaaaarrkks at the ccaatt.’ See how I read really slow and stretched out the words? Reading that way can make it harder to understand what I am reading about. Now let’s try again and see how a fluent reader may read. ‘The dog barks at the cat.’ [Read smoothly, with expression]. See how my words flowed better and we could better understand what the sentence was about? That is how a fluent reader would read! Now let’s read it all together: ‘The dog barks at the cat.’ Great job!”
Say and model: “Now let’s look at how we would read a more difficult word. (Write flake on the board). This word can be harder to read because some of the letters are silent. If I look at this word, I might say /f/l/a/k/, but that isn’t a real word. We need to remember the rule a_e says /A/ not /a/. We can help remember this by using body-coda blending, where we start with the /A/ sound, then add our other letters. So, in this case, we would start with the a_e, then add the /f/ and the /l/ to the beginning and a /k/ at the end. There we go! Flake!” (Everyone says flake together).
Say: “Now everyone, find a partner so we can practice being fluent readers! [Pass out book, Be Nice to Spiders, to the pairs]. This book is about a spider named Helen and her new life at the Zoo! When she first arrives, she is accidentally set loose and runs freely throughout her new home! What do you think Helen’s going to do? Is it going to be good? Is it going to be bad? What will other animals think? Will they like her? Hate her? I guess we’re going to have to read to find out!” Students will read the whole book silently to themselves and then fill out the reading comprehension worksheet. Then they will read the book aloud to their partner. They must not help their partner, only record their progress.
Reading Comprehension Worksheet:
Name: ________
Date: _________
- Why was Helen dropped off at the Zoo?
- What does Helen like to eat?
- Why was destroying Helen’s webs not only bad for her, but bad for the other animals?
- At the very end, what happens to Helen?
[Pass out the recording sheets and stopwatches to each group]. Say: “Now we are going to play a fluency game! Each of you will take turns to see how fast you can read the first two pages. Reader 1 will start off reading and Reader 2 will control the stopwatch and record how fast it takes Reader 1 to read. Reader 2 will record Reader 1’s time on the timesheet I just handed you. After recording your partner’s time, you will switch, and Reader 2 will read. Reader 1 will record. You will do this three times each. As you listen to your partner, I want you to listen to them carefully to see how their reading changes each time. Do they read smoother? Do they read quicker? Do they remember more of the words or read with expression? Mark the changes you see on your paper.”
Partner Reading Recording Sheet:
Title of the Book: ___________
Student’s Name: ____________
Partner’s Name: ____________
Make a checkmark if the following things improve after 2nd and 3rd tries:
- Reads more words by sight: __ __
- Read faster: __ __
- Read smoother: __ __
- Read with expression: __ __
Reading Tracker:
0 - - - -10 - - - - 20 - - - - 30 - - - 40 - - - - 50 - - - - 60 - - - - 70 - - - - 80 - - - - 90 - - - - 100
After all, students have read through the text three times each, have each student come up one at a time and read the first two pages to you. Ask them to bring their record sheet and determine each student’s words per minute (WPM) using the formula, (words x 60) / seconds, and record their responses.
References:
Hartley, Taylor. Flying into Fluency. https://taylorhartley024.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/growing-independence-fluency
Graham, Margaret Bloy. Be Nice to Spiders. https://www.amazon.com/Nice-Spiders-Margaret-Bloy-Graham/dp/0060220732
Clich here to return to Awakening Index