Fantastic
Fluency!
Growing Independence and Fluency
Rationale:
The utmost
important goal of reading is comprehension. If children are reading without
comprehending what they read, the purpose in reading is lost. In order to read
and comprehend effectively, students must learn to read fluently, meaning that
he or she must be able to read words and sentences smoothly, quickly, and with
expression. Students are able to progress toward being more fluent readers by
reading and rereading text. It is also important to time students as they read
familiar texts to measure their growth as fluent readers.
Materials:
Sentence strips
that say:
Today we are
going to the lake.
We like to swim
and play in the water.
A Day at the Lake by Matt Sims (one for each student)
Timer/stopwatch
(one for teacher,one for
each student)
Speed Reading Fluency
Checklists:
Procedure:
1. Teacher
says: "Today we are going to talk about why it is important to be a fluent
reader. A fluent reader is someone who can read smoothly without stopping
between words. If we are able to recognize words more quickly without stopping
to sound each one out, we can concentrate more on what the words are telling
us. The best way for us to become more fluent readers is to read books more
than once. After a little practice you are going to be timed reading the book.
This is to show me how much more fluent you are becoming as you keep
practicing! The more you read, the better you will get at reading!"
2. Teacher
says: "I am going to show you how a reader who is not fluent would read. (Draw
attention to sentence strip on the board). A student who is not a fluent reader
would probably read this sentence like this: '/T//OO/day—Today
we are go-ing—going—to the /l/ /a/ /k/, oh that says
lake. Today we are doing to the lake.' Even though I wasn't fluent at the
beginning, I became more fluent by the end because the second time I read the
sentence I was able to remember how to read the words that slowed me down the
first time. A fluent reader would read the same sentence like this 'today we
are going to the lake.' Could you tell the difference between the fluent reader
and the non-fluent reader? The fluent reader read much faster and smoother than
the non-fluent reader. Which time was it easier to understand what the sentence
was telling? Right! The second time it was easier because we didn't have to
stop and decode each word. We were able to concentrate on the message instead
of each word. Now listen as I read another sentence: 'We like to swim and play
in the water.' Did I sound like a fluent reader or a non-fluent reader? Right!
I was reading like a fluent reader because I read it quickly and smoothly! See
how easy it was to understand what the sentence was telling us?"
3. Teacher
says: "Now we are going to read a book called A Day at the Lake by Matt Sims. In this story, Ben, Pat, Jim, and
Jean are excited about spending a day at the lake. They get hungry swimming and
playing in the water, but when they stop playing to eat lunch, they can't find
their lunch sacks! They see a dog run by with their lunches! They realize that
the dog is lost! We will have to practice our fluency and read to see if the
dog ever makes it home and to see what special event happens at the end of the
story!
Remember
that when you are reading you may come across some words you don't know. If you
get to a word that confuses you, don't worry! Do your best to figure out what
the word is and then keep moving. Cross-check by
reading to the end of the sentence to see if your word makes sense or to see if
reading the rest of the sentence helps you figure out what the word should be. Then
you should re-read the sentence altogether to make sure you understand what the
sentence is telling us. Now I will pair each of you with a partner so you can
practice reading fluently with your friends!"
4. I will do
my best to pair students who are as closely-matched in their reading abilities
as possible so that students will feel comfortable reading in front of the
partners. Once the students are in pairs, I will pass out the Repeated Reading
Checklist. I will explain to the students how to use this checklist.
Teachers says: "I
told you that the best way to become a fluent reader is to re-read books
several times so that they become so familiar that we are able to recognize the
words easily. You are going to practice this by reading a couple of pages from A Day at the Lake to your partner. First
I want each of you to read the first chapter of the book once to your partner. Your
partner is going to time how long it takes you to read the chapter using a
stopwatch. I will teach you how to use the stopwatches before we begin. If
your partner is reading you should simply be timing your partner, following
along in your book, and paying attention to how your partner is reading.Then switch jobs. After both of you have
read, read the chapter again. If you are not reading this time, you should be
following along with your partner to see if he or she is reading smoothly, with
expression, and more quickly than the first time. If your partner did these
things, you should check them off on your checklist. Take turns reading the
chapter until both of you have read the chapter a total of 3 times.
Assessment:
In order to
measure each child's progress, I will have each child read the first chapter of
A Day at the Lake to me after the
have finished reading with their partner. I will take notes on how smoothly the
child read the words, and will note how many words he/she read correctly and
incorrectly. I will time how long it
takes them to read the chapter. I will also ask them questions at the end to
see how well they comprehended what they read. I will look at each child's
results along with the results from their peer reading fluency checklist to see
what students still need practice with.
References:
Adams, M.J.
(1990) Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About
Print. Center for the study off Reading and the Reading Research
and Education Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Developing
Reading Fluency: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/fluency.html
Fluency
Lesson Design: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/solutions.html
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/solutions/whitlockgf.htm