Racing to Read Fluently
Growing Independence and Fluency
Rationale: Students read slowly when they first begin
reading, but increase speed as words become automatic. Word
recognition becomes quicker and more involuntary through
decoding. Fluency allows students to concentrate on comprehension
instead of on having a hard time to decode words. Some signs of
fluency are rapid, more expressive, unvoiced, and instinctive
reading. Fluent readers also feel gratification in reading,
because they are not having a hard time with each and every word but
have a bigger sight vocabulary. Reading and rereading decodable
words in a connected text helps students become more fluent
readers. This lesson will help children learn how to read more
rapidly and confidently. They will work on their reading fluency
through repetitive readings under time constraints. The learners
will gain fluency through repeated readings and one-minute reads.
Materials:
-Class set of decodable books, Red Gets Fed by Sheila Cushman (one per
student)
-stopwatch
-pencils
-dry erase board and marker
-one minute read charts for each student
-fluency rubric for each child
-progress chart for each child (a baseball player going around the
bases; gets to move to the next base when they progress.)
One Minute Read Chart:
Name:______________________ Date:____________
1st minute: ______
2nd minute: ______
3rd minute: ______
Fluency Rubric:
Name:______________________
Evaluator:_______________________ Date: ____________
I noticed that my partner: (put an X in the blank)
After 2nd After 3rd
Read
Faster
______ ______
Read
Smoother
______ ______
Read with
Expression
______ ______
Remembered more
words
______ ______
Procedures:
1. Introduce the lesson by explaining the distinction between a fluent
and beginning reader. "Today, we are going to practice reading
more fluently. Who knows what fluently means? That's right,
you guys are smart! Fluent readers read quickly. They also
read automatically. (Write the following on the board: 'My car is
fast') A beginning reader sounds like this when reading the
sentence on the board: 'Mmmmyy cccaaarrr iiisss fffaaasssttt.'
Then they might say 'Mmyy- my- ccaarrr car- is- ffaassstt-fast'
stumbling over the words and repeating words that they do not
recognize. A beginning reader who can read the words
automatically might say 'My car is fast' but sound like a robot,
because he or she does not read with expression. But a fluent
reader who recognizes words automatically and reads with expression
sounds like this: 'My car is fast!' Fluent reader sounds like
this, because all of the words are apparent to the reader. The
only way to become fluent is to practice. The more practice that
you have with a book, the more rapidly you are able to read it.
Reading a book that you have already read before also helps you become
more natural with books that you have never even seen before.
Let's get practicing, so that we can become fluent readers too!"
2. First, I will review the cover-up strategy with all of them.
"Okay everybody, what do we do when we come to a word that we cannot
read? You are right, we use cover-ups! For example if I saw
this word (write stomp on the board) when I was reading and did not
know it, I would cover-up all the letters (s, t, m, p) but the vowels
because I know that
o= /o/. Now look at the letters before the vowel o, the
st. Blend these phonemes with the vowel o. This sounds like
/s/t/o/. Then blend the letters at the end of the word, the mp,
with the rest of the letters to make /s/t/o/m/p/. When you see a
word that you don't know how to read, use the cover-up method to help
you decode the word."
3. Tell the students: "To understand what we have read, we cannot just
concentrate on reading fast. We can crosscheck what we read to
make sure our sentence makes sense. For example, if I read this
sentence (Write on the board: "The mice squeaked.") as "The mace
squeaked" then I could use my crosschecking ability to decide that mace
doesn't squeak so my reading doesn't make sense. I would then
reread my sentence correctly as "The mice squeaked."
4. I will break the class up into pairs. I will then give our
book, Red Gets Fed to each child; I will also hand out a Fluency Rubric
and One Minute Read Chart to each individual child. I will give
the following book talk about Red Gets Fed, but will be cautious not to
give away the resolution to the conflict: "Red is a pet dog. He
is a sweet, but mischievous dog. He goes and bothers Meg trying
to wake her up so that she will get him something to eat. Do you
think that Meg will wake up and feed Red? We'll have to read to
find out what happens."
5. I will tell students to take turns reading to their partner.
The person who is not reading will note how many words the "reader"
reads within one minute. The "recorder" will tell the "reader"
when to start and stop by using the stopwatch. The "recorder"
will then make a note on the One Minute Read Chart about how many words
were read in that minute, while the "reader" can move his
baseball. They will then switch turns (the "reader" becoming the
"recorder" and vice versa) and do the process again.
6. After both children have finished the whole book one time, I will
have them practice by doing a repeated reading of the same text.
This time I will also remind each "recorder" to fill out the Fluency
Rubric after the "reader" has read the book.
7. Let the students to do one more rereading of the book for a total of
three readings of the book. Remind the children to carry on
recording their partner's one-minute reads and to complete the Fluency
Rubric. I will let the students discuss how they got better
within their readings and rereadings of the book with their partner.
8. I will then collect the students' completed Fluency Rubrics and One
Minute Read Charts. I will compare the students' first, second,
and last readings to check for development in fluency.
Assessment: I will have each child read a section to
me in the reading center out of Red Gets Fed. The passage will
contain approximately 60 words. I will measure how fast they read
by timing them and recording their time on a checklist. They will
then be able to read the passage through two more times and try to
better their score. Our class will also have a conversation about
Red Gets Fed to make sure that everyone has understood the text and did
not just race through the reading without understanding the text.
References:
Cushman, Shelia. Red Gets Fed. Educational Insights: Carson, CA, 1990
Murray, Bruce. Developing
Reading Fluency.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/fluency.html.
Jenson, Grace. Va va Voom Into Independence and Fluency
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/passages/jensengf.html
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