Flowing
Through Fluency
Growing
Independence and Fluency Lesson Design
Rationale: Students read slowly when
they first
begin to read. As word recognition
becomes quicker and more automatic to children, they begin to read
faster by
decoding. Fluency focuses on children
comprehending instead of struggling to decode words.
When children begin to read fluently, they
begin to read faster, show expressive reading, become involuntary
readers, and
reading silently.
Materials:
One Minute
Read Chart:
Name:______________________
Date:____________
1st
minute:
______
2nd
minute:
______
3rd
minute:
______
Procedures:
1. I will
begin the lesson by explaining the
difference between a beginner reader and a fluent reader.
I will first ask the class what they think a
fluent reader does. I will explain to
them that fluent readers read fast and can read with expression. I will then write on the board the following
sentence: 'I like to play outside.' "Now class, how do you think a
beginner
reader will read this sentence? That's
right. A beginner reader might have
trouble reading some words and may take a long time to read the
sentence. A beginner reader might sound
like this: "I
llliikkkee tooo ppplllaaayyy oouuttssiiiiddde." They
might even sound like this: "I
llliiikkkeee like to ppplllaaayyy play ooouuutttsssiiidddeee outside",
where they stumble over a lot of words that they do not recognize. Another way a beginner reader may say this
sentence is: "I like to play
outside", where they are decoding the words rather fast, but are not
reading the sentence with expression. A
fluent reader on the other hand can read fast and read with expression. A fluent reader might say this sentence like
this: "I like to play outside!"
We are going to practice today on becoming a fluent reader. Reading books over and over is a good way to
become fluent readers. Let's begin
practicing!"
2. I will
review with the class how to use
cover-ups to help them decode words. "How
do we use our cover-up critter to help us decode a word that we might
not know?
(I will write the word 'flash' on the board).
That's right. We start with the
vowel which is /a/. We cover up
everything after the letter a including the letter a.
We will look at the letters before the letter
a, which is fl. We will blend these two
letters
together to get fl. Then we add
the letter a,
3. "When
becoming fluent readers, we cannot
just focus on reading fast. When we read
a sentence, we make sure we crosscheck to make sure the sentence makes
sense
that we are reading. (I will write this
sentence on the board: He sleeps on the bed.) For example, if I read
this
sentence like this: "He sleeps on the bead", then I could use my
crosschecking skills to determine if the sentence makes sense. I know that you don't sleep on a bead, you
sleep on a bed. I know now that my
reading doesn't make sense, so I will reread the sentence again
correctly like
this: "He sleeps on the bed."
4. I will
pass out to the class the book, Hot at
the Dam. I will also hand out the
One Minute Record Chart and the Fluency Recorder Chart. I will give a
book talk
from the book, Hot at the Dam. "Pam and
Pat run to the dam. Pam and Pat's friends hop to
the dam. When they get to the dam, they are so hot! What should they
do? Well,
you will have to read the book to find out!"
5. I will
partner the students up with partners
that are close to his/her reading level.
One partner will be the "reader" while the other partner will
be the "recorder". The reader
will read the book and will read as many words as they can in one
minute. The "recorder" will have a
stopwatch and will tell the "reader" when to begin reading and when
to stop. The "recorder" will
also record how many words the "reader" read in one minute on the One
Minute Record Chart. The reader will get
to read three times. The reader will be
able to move the basketball player up towards the basketball goal each
chance
depending on how many words they got right.
The partners will then switch rolls and they will do the same
thing with
the other partner and the process will be repeated.
6. I will
allow the students to read over the book
one time. After both students have read
over the book at least one time, I will have them fill out a Fluency
Rubric of
their partners. The "recorder"
will allow the "reader" to read over the book and after the "reader"
is done reading the entire book, they will fill out the first part of
the
fluency rubric. The partners will switch
positions and the process will be repeated.
7. After each
student has read the book 2 times, I
will have them repeat the process again and read the book for the third
time. The partners will fill out the
second part of the fluency rubrics. I
will have an open discussion with the class on how they thought they
improved
from reading the book more than once with their partner.
8. I will
collect all of the One Minute Record Charts
and the Fluency Rubrics. I will assess
the students understanding by having each
student read a passage, of about 60 words, to me in
the reading center out of the book, Hot
at the Dam. I will check the students' fluency by using a one
minute record
sheet. I will check the students'
comprehension by asking them questions about the reading.
While the one student is doing a one minute
read with me, the rest of the class will be practicing their fluency by
reading
a book while sitting at their desk.
Reference:
Angel,
Veronica. Hot at the Dam
Cadrette,
Mallory. (2007).
A Fluency Reading Design.
Genie
Website: retrieved March 31, 2008. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/encounters/cadrettegf.html
Murray,
Bruce. Developing
Website:
retrieved March 31, 2008. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/fluency.html
Rosko,
Natasha. (2007). A Fluency Reading Design.
University
Reading Genie Website: retrieved March 31, 2008. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/encounters/roskogf.html