Oh Look, You're Fluent!

Growing Independency and Fluency
Trinity L. Dyess

Rationale: 

For a student to become a reader who reads automatically and effortlessly, the student must become a fluent reader.  Reading fluency is the ability of the student to read or recognize words automatically, rapidly, and accurately.  Fluent readers read smoothly, with expression, and quickly.  In this lesson, I will help my students to become more fluent by using repeated readings to help them improve their speed which in turn will help them with their fluency. (They will be reading and rereading decodable words to help them accomplish fluency so that they will enjoy reading!)    

Materials:

Cover-up sticks (one per student)   {Ex. Popsicle stick!  Mine is decorated with eyes and painted a different color!}
The Barn Party by Geri Murray (one copy per student)
Stop Watches (one per two students)
Repeated Reading Checklist (one per student)
Teacher Chart

Procedures: 

• I will start the lesson by telling the students, ‰¥þToday we are going to start our lesson by becoming even better readers than we are now!‰¥ÿ  I will explain how when we become better readers we read more quickly, have more fun, and get more from it.  ‰¥þTo become better readers we are going to become more fluent.  ‰¥þTo do this, we will be reading the same story several times.  As you read it, each time I would like you to try and read it more quickly, more smoothly, and with more expression.‰¥ÿ  By having the students read the story several times, they are increasing not only their fluency, but also their comprehension. 
• To help the students become fluent readers, I will introduce a new way of tackling a troublesome word.  ‰¥þToday we will be using cover-up sticks.  Each of you should have one of your very own.  Great!  We will be using these cover up sticks on the words that are giving us the most trouble.‰¥ÿ  After introducing the cover-up sticks, I will model how to use the cover-up stick on the board.  ‰¥þIf I were reading a sentence and became stuck on the word stuck.  I would first cover-up everything except for the vowel u. When I think of the /u/ sound, I think of lifting something heavy, uh!  After uncovering the u sound, I would then start at the beginning and uncover the /s/ sound, /s/ sounds a lot like the /s/ in snake.  I would then uncover the t, the t makes the sound like you hear in take.  So right now we have /s/ /t/= /st/.  Now, I would uncover my next letter, r, this letter makes the sound that you hear in right!  Now we can uncover the vowel again.  We have /st/ /r/ /u/ = /s/t/r/u/.  We can now uncover the last part, ck, and the ck is like the sound we hear in back, so we have /k/.  Now we blend them altogether and get struck!  Very Good!‰¥ÿ    
• ‰¥þI would like us all to read the sentence that I am putting on the board.‰¥ÿ I will then write, School is great fun, on the board read it aloud to the class slowly and with hesitations.  "S...ch..ooo..ll..i.s. g...r...ea...t... f..un.!  ‰¥þDid anybody notice anything about the first time that I read it?  It was slow and do you think I really understand what I read the first time?  No.  Now let me try again.  "School.. is great ..fun.  It got a little bit better!‰¥ÿ  I will read the sentence again. ‰¥þThis time it was a lot easier to read, and I finally have a good understanding right? What do you think would happen if you read it again?  That‰¥ús right, we will have read it smoother, and understood it even better.  This is what we will be practicing when we read our stories today!‰¥ÿ 
• Now, I will give each student their own individual copy of the book The Barn Party by Geri Murray.  Before we begin the story I will give the students a book talk.  ‰¥þThere is a big storm coming and the children must get the animals ready and safe so that they are not harmed.  It‰¥ús not easy work, the animals do not all want to go with them.  Let‰¥ús see what happens when we read the book! I would like everyone to read it the first time by yourselves.‰¥ÿ 
• I will start off by saying, ‰¥þThank you for all reading your very best that time!  I would like everyone to pair up with their partner now.  Each of you will take turns reading to one another.  One of you will listen and the other will read during each turn.  The person listening during each reading will be timing the reader with the stopwatch.  Once you have taken down your partner‰¥ús time, please write it down.‰¥ÿ At this point I will have also handed out the repeated reading checklist to each student and will ask the students to fill it out.  ‰¥þNow that you have taken down one another‰¥ús times, I would like you to partner read again.  Once you finish fill out the checklist I have given you, you will also need to time this reading.‰¥ÿ  (The checklist includes if the person read smoothly, remembered more words, and if he or she read faster during that reading.) We will do one more reapeated reading to complete the reading checklist!
  

Assessment:

While the groups start to finish up, I will have individual assessments going on.  Each student will come and do a one minute read with me.  This will be monitored by keeping track of any miscues and the time spent.  I will keep a chart of their progress on all of their one minute reads.  This will allow both myself and them to see their progress towards reading fluently. 

References:

Geri Murray, the Barn Party http://www.auburn.edu/~murrag1/bookindex.html

Ivy Hopkins, Spooky Fluency http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/persp/hopkinsgf.html

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