“Flying to Fluency”
Growing
Independence & Fluency Lesson Plan
Rationale: In
order for children to be able to read an adequate amount of text in a
certain
amount of time they need to be able to read fluently and skillfully.
Materials:
Class copies and
Teacher copy of decodable book: Pat’s Jam
Individual
posters
for class with clouds and numbers graphed on it for each child to place
kites
on to for tracking fluency progress
3 small kites for each
student (different colors) with names
on them (for their poster)
Stopwatch for each
student
Class bulletin board
covered in clouds to place each child’s
poster onto for display of achievement
Procedure:
1. “First, we are going to review the strategies
we can use when we don’t recognize a word. If we come to the
letters f
r o g but cannot read the word, first we look at the vowel
sound. In
this word, o = /o/. Next, we go
to the beginning sound. f = /f/. The next sound is r-r-r like
a railroad. If
we add the vowel sound we have fff-rrr-ooo.
Finally, we look at the last sound. It is g = /g/. Now we can put all
four
sounds together to read stretching it out: fffrrroooggg.
Frog! Great job! Now, when we come to
words we don’t know when we are reading, this vowel-first method is a
great
strategy to use when you can’t figure out the word."
2. “When
we read, we need to make sure that we read smoothly just as if we are
talking
so that we can understand what we read. I am going to read a sentence
to the
class without reading smoothly, or what we call fluently: T-o-d-ay w-e
ar-e g-o-ing t-o
p-r-a-c-t-i-ce r-ea-d-ing s-m-oo-th-l-y. Is this easy to understand if I
were to read a whole book to you like that? If I read the
sentence
with fluency, ‘Today we are going to practice reading smoothly,’ it
sounds
better and makes more sense because the words are said all together and
read
clearly. The first time I read the sentence each word was broken up
into each
sound I heard in the word, but the second time I read the sentence it
improved
because I put all the sounds together to make words to read the
sentence all
together. Since this is how we all need to read, and want our goal to
be able
to read fluently, we have to keep practicing.” (Pass out books for each
reading
group.)
3. “Each
person in your group is going to practice reading through the text
three times.
Our goal is to read 60 words in one minute. As one of you is reading,
the other
needs to be timing him or her on the stopwatch and stopping the reader
at 60
seconds. After the 60 seconds is up, go
back and count how many words you read in the minute and then write it
down. Do this three times each, and when
you are down we are going to use our kites to show how we improved
every time
we read on a chart. When you are done, raise your hand and I will
help you
graph your results on your chart.”
4. “I
want everyone to practice as much as you can, because the more you
practice,
the faster you get, and the more you will be able to read and
understand.
You can take the books home and practice your reading with your parents
or
friends, or do it during DEAR (drop everything and read) time with a
friend. Remember what we practiced today
in class
when we got stuck on a word while reading, and how to read the
sentences
smoothly.”
Assessment: Students may be
assessed for fluency by one minute
reads. The students will also use a fluency chart to keep up with
their
progress by moving their kite on the poster for the highest WPM after
three one
minute reads. After a book is read three or four times, a new
book should
be introduced and one minute reads should be repeated three or four
more times.
References:
Bracken, Rebecca. Flying Away with Fluency
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/explor/brackengf.html
Cushman, Shelia. Pat’s
Jam. Educational Insights: