Up, Up and Away With Fluency
Kathryne Clark
Growing Independence and Fluency
Rationale:
In order for children to become expert
readers
and to actually enjoy reading, they first have to develop fluency in
their
reading. Being fluent in reading involves reading faster,
smoother, and
with more expression. One of the first steps in developing fluency
is
learning to recognize words effortlessly and automatically. This
lesson
will help students develop reading fluency through repeated readings
and
one-minute reads.
Materials:
- Class
copy and
teacher copy of decodable book: Pat’s
Jam by: Shelia Cushman
- Stopwatch: one for each partner
group
- Class bulleting boards with decorative clouds on it to place each
students
poster on it to display achievement
- Individual posters
for class with clouds and numbers graphed on it for each child to place
hot air balloons on for tracking fluency progress
- 3 small hot air balloons for each student (different designed paper)
with
each students name on them
Procedure:
1.“To start off our activity today, we are going to review a strategy
we can use
when we don’t recognize a word. If we come to the letters s a c k but cannot
read the word, first we look at the vowel sound. In this word, a says /a/. Next I go to the beginning
sound. s says /sssss/ . If we add the vowel sound
we have
"sssssaaaaa" “Finally, we look
at the last sound. It is ck=/k/.
Now
put all three sounds together to read "ssssaaaack.
Sack! Great job! When
we come to words we don't know when we are reading, one way to figure
out the
word is by using this vowel-first method to figure it out."
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 for you with out
reading
smoothly, or what we call fluently: I-l-o-v-e-m-y-d-o-g-n-a-m-e-d-S-a-m.
Do you
want me to read a whole book to you like that?
That would be boring and the book would not make sense. If I read the sentence with fluency, ‘I love
my dog named Sam,’ the sentence sounds a lot better because I read it fluently. 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 we all need to read with expression and fluency we all have to
keep
practicing! So now everyone will receive
a copy of Pat’s Jam.” (Pass out books
for each reading group, reading groups previously assigned.)
3. “Each person in
your group is
going to practice reading 3 times. Our goal is to read 60 words in one
minute.
We are going to use our hot air balloons to show how we get better
every time
we read. Ask your partner to time you for 1 minute while you are
reading with
the stopwatches. Write down the number of words you read after a
minute. Repeat
this three times, and after each timed reading, place your hot air
balloon next
to the number of words you read. If you need help raise your hand and I
will
come around to help you record your results.”
4. “Everybody did
such a great
job with this activity, but to make those hot air balloons go Up, Up
and Away,
you have to practice. I want for 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 that I passed
out
today home and practice your reading with your parents or guardians or
do it
during DEAR time with a
friend. I want for everyone to remember when you are
reading what we talked about today, what to do when you get stuck on a
word and
how to read fluently.”
Assessment:
Students can be assessed for fluency by one
minute reads. The students will use fluency charts to keep up
with their
progress by moving their hot air balloon on the bulletin board for the
highest
WPM after 3 one minute reads. After a book is read 3 or 4 times,
a new
book will be introduced and one minute reads should be repeated 3 or 4
more
times.
References:
Cushman, Shelia. Pat’s Jam. Educational Insights: Carson, CA, 1990.
Williams,
Abby. “Let’s Read for Speed!”. http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/constr/williamsagf.html
Graves,
Lindsay. “Fly Away into Reading” http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/constr/gravesgf.html
Ebaugh,
Jayme. “Flying into Fluency” http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/constr/ebaughgf.html
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