Amber DeBlanc
Fluency Lesson Design
Up, Up, Up Goes the Sub!
Rationale: It is important that students must learn to become more fluent readers in order to increase their comprehension skills. Fluency refers to a student's ability to read words accurately and automatically. In this lesson, students will learn how to read quickly, smoothly, and expressively in order to gain fluency. To gain fluency students will take part in repeated readings, timed readings, and one-minute reads.
Materials:
Copy of Bud and the Sub for each student
Teacher copy of Bud and the Sub
Stop watches for each student
Pencil for each student
Dry erase board and marker
Up, Up, Up Goes the Sub progress chart for each student (this will be a long board with a detachable submarine that the students can move up as they progress with fluency).
Procedures:
Today we are going to talk about
reading more fluently.
Model
for the students how to read fluently.
Write on the dry erase board: “Bud
the sub swims to the tug.” Tell the
students: I am going to read this
sentence without fluency. Let me show
you how it sounds to read without fluency.
Bb-uuud the ssssu-b sw-swi-swims
to the ttt-uug. Now let me show you
how it sounds to read the sentence fluently.
Bud the sub swims to the tug.
Do you see how much better that sentence
sounds when we read it with fluency?
Listen to me read the sentence one more time.
Bud the
sub swims to the tug. This time I
will read it even faster because I have already read it twice.
Remember, when
we read a text more than once we can read it faster because we become
more
familiar with it.
We are going to use the book Bud
the Sub to practice
reading with fluency. Remind
students to cross-check or cover up if they do not automatically
recognize a
word during their reading. Don’t forget that cross-checking
is a way
that fluent readers use to make sense of the sentences that they read
and to
read more successfully. If you do not recognize a word you can
use your
cover-up critter to cover-up part of the word to make it easier to
sound
out. Once you can read the word don’t forget to go back and
reread the
sentence to see if the word makes sense in the sentence. If the
word does
not make sense in the sentence, you can change your guess to a word
that fits
the sentence. If you and your partner cannot figure out how to
pronounce
a word correctly, come ask me and I will help you figure it out."
Let
me show you how a fluent reader would read Bud
and the Sub. Model reading
Bud the Sub
aloud as a fluent reader for the students. Give booktalk: Bud is a sub. One
day Bud is swimming along and sees a tug
boat hit an ice berg. The tug begins to
sink. Can Bud save the tug?
We have to read to find out.
Now that
you know what it sounds like when a fluent reader reads Bud the Sub,
you can
practice reading the book with your book buddy.
Teacher will divide students into
partners. You each have a copy of Bud the Sub and a stopwatch. I
want you to take turns reading the
book. One buddy will read and one buddy
will time the other with a stop watch. I
want you to stop the timer when one minute is up and mark the word
where you
stopped with your pencils. Then I want
you to switch places with your partner so you both have a turn to read
and
time. Remember that you shouldn’t skip any
words. Try to cross checking or cover-up
to figure out a word you don’t know. I
want you each to read Bud the Sub three times.
After you read I want you to count the number of words you read
and move
Bud the Sub on your Up, up, up goes the sub progress chart. You can start reading now.
Teacher
will walk around the room to assist where needed.
Assessment:
To assess, I will ask each student to my desk
and bring
their Up, up, up goes the sub progress chart.
I will have the student do a one-minute reading of Bud and
the Sub and
monitor fluency by noting how they read: smoothly, quickly, stopped
rarely,
choppy, omits or inserts words, etc. I
will also note miscues. Then, at the end I will ask comprehension
questions from Bud the Sub (See Questions Below.)
1. What is Bud?
2. What is Tug?
3. What happened to Tug?
4. How did Bud help
Tug?
References:
Landon McKean,
Go,
Read. Go!, http://www.auburn.edu/%7Emurraba/constr/mckeangf.html
Katie Lincoln,
Buzz,
Buzz, Buzz!, http://www.auburn.edu/%7Emurraba/invent/lincolngf.html
Sheila
Cushman, 1990. Bud the Sub.