Building Fluency while Building Snowmen
Fluency Lesson Design
Rationale:
Students
begin reading very slowly; however they become faster with decoding as
their word recognition speed increases. The focus of fluency with
children is for them to be able to focus on comprehending instead of
struggling to decode words. Children began to read faster, read with
more expression, and read more independently as they become fluent
readers. It helps children become better fluent readers when they read
and reread text that is decodable. Through repeated readings and one
minute reads, students will gain fluency from this lesson.
Materials:
Book:
Henry and Mudge and the Snowman Plan for
every student in class.
Dry
erase board
Dry
erase markers
Progress
chart for each student
Stopwatch
for each student in class
One
minute record chart for each student in class
Fluency
rubric charts for each student in class
Cover-up
critters if needed by students
One Minute Record Chart:
Name:
___________________________
Date: ________________
1st
minute: ________
2nd
minute: ________
3rd
minute: ________
Fluency Rubric Chart:
Procedures:
1.
To begin the lesson, I will ask the students what they think fluent
readers do. I will explain to the students that fluent readers read
fast and also read with expression. Then I will explain the difference
in beginner readers and fluent readers. I will write a sentence on the
dry erase program, I like to play in snow. Ask your students how a
beginner reader might read this sentence. "Very good boys and girls a
beginner might sound like this I llllliiiiiiikkkkkkeeeee like
tttttooooooo to ppppllllaaayyy play iiiinnnn in
sssssnnnnooooowwww snow." "Some beginner readers may stumble over
words that they do not recognize." Model for students how a reader
would read the sentence with out expression. 'Listen to the way I say
the sentence, I like to play in snow." 'Do you think that I showed
expression when reading the sentence that time?" "No, I did not use any
expression when I read the sentence, a lot of times readers will read a
sentence fast but they will not read with any expression." Model for
students how a fluent reader would read the sentence. "Listen to how a
fluent reader would read this sentence, I like to play in the snow."
"Today boys and girls we are going to practice on becoming fluent
readers." "If we read and reread book it will help us become more
fluent with our reading." "Let's begin practicing."
2.
I will begin by reviewing with the class how they can use cover-ups to
help them decode words. Write the word, plan, on the dry erase board.
"Will someone show me how we use our cover-up critters to help us
decode words that we may not know?" "Look at the word I wrote on the
board and show me how we can use the cover-up critter." "Good job we
start with our short vowel /a/, we then cover up the letter a and the letters that follow it so we would cover
the letters a and n." 'Now we are going to look at the
letters p and l, when we blend those letters we get the pl
sound." "Now we are going to add our short vowel /a/ with the p
and l." "What sound do we get when we blend those three letters
together?" "Good job we get the pla sound." "Now cover up the
letters
p,l,and a let's focus on the letter n which
is the last letter in the word." "What sound does the letter n make?"
"Very good it makes the /n/ sound, let's try to blend all of the sounds
together now to read this word." /p/ /l/ /a/ /n/. "Good job every one
you did a good job decoding and blending."
3.
Write the sentence, he makes a big mess, on the dry erase board. "When
becoming fluent readers we do not just need to keep our focus on
reading fast." 'If I read this sentence He makes a big mass, I can use
my crosschecking skills to determine if the sentence makes sense or
not." "After reading my sentence I know that it does not make sense
because you can not make a big mass, so I will reread my sentence again
but correctly this time: He makes a big mess.
4.
"Now I am going to pass out to each of you a copy of the book Henry
and Mudge and the Snowman Plan. I will
also pass out a one record chart and a fluency rubric chart to each of
you as well." Give a book talk to your students about Henry and
Mudge and the Snowman Plan. Henry and his dog, Mudge, see that
there is a snowman building contest on Saturday. Henry
gets excited and runs home to ask his father if they can enter.
When Henry and Mudge arrive at home, Henry's father is painting
a chair green; however, there is more green paint on the father than on
the chair.
Henrys father says that it is alright to enter the contest, so
Saturday Henry, Mudge, and the Father go to contest and build their
snowman.
There are many different kinds of snowmen, cat snowmen, families
of snowmen, and even an Abraham Lincoln snowman.
When the judges get to Henry and his father's snowman, they ask
what it is? "You are going to have to read the book to find out what
kind of snowman Henry and his father built and whether or not the
judges like it."
5.
Partner the students up with students that are close to their reading
level. "Between you and your partner decide which of you will be the
reader and which one of you will be the recorder?" "If you are the
reader you are going to read as many words in the book as you can in
one minute. If you are the recorder you are going to write or record
how many words your partner reads in one minute. If you are the
recorder make sure that you record the number of words your partner
reads on the one minute record sheet." "The reader will have three
chances to read as many words as they can in one minute." "The reader
will be able to move their monkey closer and closer to the bananas in
the tree based on the number of words they read correctly." "After the
reader has read three times swap roles and allow the recorder to now be
able to read as many words as they can in one minute." Model for you
students how to complete this task by reading as many words as you the
teacher can in one minute and then record your time on the one minute
record sheet.
6.
Have the students read the book one more time by themselves. After each
of them finishes reading the book one more time you are going to fill
out the fluency rubric chart on your partner." Model for your students
how to record on the fluency rubric chart. "If you are the reader you
are going to read the book again and after you have finished reading
the record will fill out the first part of the fluency rubric chart."
"Then after the first reader has finished swap roles with your partner
and repeat the process."
7.
Have the students read the book two more times, and then have them
repeat the process one last time. "After your partner has read the book
for the third time, fill out the second part of the fluency rubric
chart, and swap roles one last time." Have a group discussion with the
class on how they thought they improved with their fluency by reading
the book with their partners more than once.
8.
Finally collect all of the one minute record charts and the fluency
rubrics. The teacher will assess the students by having each student
read a passage from the book Henry and Mudge and the
Snowman Plan to me in the reading center for one minute. I will
check the fluency of the students by using a one minute record sheet. I
am also going to check the students' comprehension of the story by
asking them questions about their reading from the story. While I am
working with one student at a time on their one minute reading the rest
of the students will be reading a book independently and practicing on
their fluency.
References:
Goodwin,
Candace. (2008). Smooth Sailing Through Reading:
Fluency Lesson Design. Passages.
Rylant,
Cynthia. (2002). Henry and Mudge and the Snowman Plan.
Scholastic: New York, NY.