Smooth Sailing Into Fluent Reading!
Growing Independence and Fluency
By: Jamie Storey
Rationale:
In order for children to become successful, independent readers,
they must develop fluency. Reading fluently allows for
automatic word recognition, in which reading becomes faster and
more connected and expressive. For fluency to be
developed, students must read and reread words in decodable
texts. It is through these repeated readings that students
gain confidence in their reading abilities, as well as develop
other components of reading, such as adding expression and
building comprehension/understanding of a text. In
this lesson, students will read, reread, and do partner readings
to improve fluency.
Materials:
Individual Copies of the book, Silly Dreamer;
Dry erase board and
dry erase markers (teacher use only), Timer for partner
reads and teacher;
Individual copies of the fluency checklist
Procedures:
1. I will begin this lesson by explaining to my students the
importance of becoming a fluent reader. Say: "Today, we are going to be
working on something that is a very important part of our
reading: fluency. When you read fluently, you don't have
to stop to sound out each word, because you can recognize them
without any trouble! To become fast, fluent readers, we have
to read and reread our books."
2. Write the following sentence on the board so that it is
visible to all students, "I want to go on a sailboat ride." I
will use this sentence to review decoding strategies with my
students.
Say:
"I am going to read this
sentence, but I may need your help." Begin to read sentence.
Say:
"I wwwwaa. . . Ok guys, I
need your help. What could I do to help me figure out
this word? (Allow students to respond.) That's right I could
use my cover up critter." Use cover up critter to
continue to read the rest of the sentence, modeling appropriate
decoding strategies on the words 'want,' 'sailboat and 'ride.'
3. Have the students read this sentence again.
Say:
"Since we have read this
sentence once, and now we can recognize all the words, let's
read it again, because every time we reread words, we become
more fluent readers. Let's try it together" (Read
sentence again with students modeling fluent reading.) "I
want to go on a sailboat ride."
4. Say:
"Now, I am going to read
another sentence to you, and I want you to tell me which time
I read the sentence fluently." Write the sentence "
Sammy and Sally love to sail in the ocean" on the board.
Say:
"Ok, are you ready to
listen? Great sss-a-a-mmm-y and
sss-a-a-a-ll-y love to sss-ai-l in the oooc-ea-n." That
was the first try. Now listen to this one "Sammy and Sally
love to sail in the ocean" (I will really add expression to
the second try.)
Say: "Which one of these do you
think I read with fluency? Right!
Say: "What are some things that
I did that made my reading sound fluent?" (Allow
students to respond with such answers as read with expression or
did not have to sound out words.)
5. Say:
"Because you have done
such a great job helping me read fluently, I think you are
ready to get some practice of your own." (Give each
student a copy of the book, Silly Dreamers and a copy of
the fluency checklist.)
Say:
"Today you are going to
be reading
Silly Dreamers. Jason and Leroy find a clue that
tells of an upcoming robbery. They contact the police and they
are on site when the TV news van arrives. You will just have
to read to find out the rest of the story!" Now, I want
you to read the story to yourselves and then look up at me when
you are finished.
6. (Pair students into groups). Say:
"I am going to pass out a
checklist to each of you and I want you to document how your
partner improves. Each group will have a timer. You will time
how long it takes your partner to read (speed), you will
listen for word memorization, how smooth they read and if they
read with expression. Each
of you will take turns being the reader and the
listener. The reader reads the book three
times. The listener gives a report after the second and
third readings. Make sure all your reports are kind!"
Assessment:
I will have them read Silly Dreamers to me during
reading centers. At this time, I will use the formula
"words x 60/seconds" to figure out their words per minute.
In addition, I will review the fluency check lists that the
students completed to get a better idea of their progress.
References:
Blasting Into Fluent Reading! By Leah Smith
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/encounters/smithgf.html
Go, Go Speed Reader by Jennifer Falls
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/odysseys/fallsgf.html
Murray, Dr. Bruce, Fluency Checklist. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/fluency.html
Murray, Dr. Bruce. How to develop reading fluency. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/fluency.html
Sims, Matt.High Noon Books. Sound at Chapter Books. Silly
Dreamers.c 2004.