Frog and Toad are Fluent Friends
Growing Independence and Fluency
Rationale:
Students read slowly when they first begin reading, but increase speed as words
become more effortless and automatic. As children learn to decode, words turn
into sight vocabulary making reading more simple and enjoyable. Fluency is
reached by a series of decoding words, making sight vocabulary, scaffolding,
readings and re-readings. As children become fluent, comprehension is in reach
motivating young readers.
Materials:
Class set of Frog and Toad Are Friends (one per student)
Stopwatch (one per pair of students)
Pencils
Smart board
Fluency rubric for each child
Reading Progress Chart:
Procedures:
1. Introduce the lesson by explaining what it means to be a fluent reader.
‘Today, we are going to practice reading more fluently. Fluently means
that you are reading faster with less mistakes and more enthusiasm, it helps you
understand the story. The Result of fluency is automatic word recognition.
Fluent readers read quickly. Their reading is also very effortless and
automatic. (Write the following on the board: The frog and the toad were
best friends!) A beginning reader sounds like this when
reading the sentence on the smart board: ‘teeee te the, frooog frog and te the
tood taaad toa toad were best frreends frin friends.’ A beginning reader who can
read the words automatically might say The frog and toad are best friends’
but sound like a robot or read without
expression, but a fluent reader who recognizes words automatically and reads
with expression sounds like this: ‘The frog and toad are BEST friends!!’
Fluent readers sounds like this because they are able to read the words
effortlessly and automatically. The only way to become fluent is to
practice reading. The more practice that you have with a book, the faster you
are able to read it. Today we are going to practice this with a partner.
2. First say: ‘Today we are going to review the cover up critter strategy class.
Who remembers how we use our cover up critters?’ I will model using the same
sentence on the smart board. ‘If you cannot read the word toad, we can use our
cover up critter like this: start with t then uncover your vowel sounds /t/ /oa/
/d/, toad!’ ‘Now whisper to your neighbor how you would uncover frog if you did
not know how to read it.’
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.’ I will model crosschecking with our sentence. ‘ (The
frog and the toad are best friends!) We may read (The frog and the tod are best
friends.) What is a tod? That doesn’t make much sense. Lets read it again and
crosscheck to see if we can make sense of it. (The frog and the toad are
friends.) That makes more sense.’
4. Break the class up into pairs. Then give each child the book Frog and Toad
are Friends, and the fluency rubric. Tell the children that they will be reading
the first story called ‘Spring.’ I will give a short booktalk: ‘Frog and Toad
are good friends. One day Frog goes to Toads house to wake him up to come out to
play because it is spring time. Toad is too tired though. See how Frog can get
Toad out of his bed.’
5. The students will partner read aloud in their groups the story first. Then,
they will take turns either reading, or being the recorder. The person who is
not reading, the recorder, will write down how long it takes the reader to read
the story using the stopwatch. The recorder will then make a note on the
Reading Progress Chart about how many long it took the reader to read the story.
Next, the partners will switch roles. And then repeat the process.
6. Let the students do the third reading. Have the partners record information
on the rubrics and charts. Have the children talk to their partners about what
they did better during each re-read.
7. Collect the students’ charts and rubrics. Calculate the students’ words per
minute. Have the students that did not score close to the 85wpm mark do a
repeated reading one on one with the teacher for extra help. I will use
words*60/seconds to find the children’s wpm.
Assessment:
The repeated reading rubrics and progress charts will help me to see which
children need extra help and which ones are gaining fluency.
Sources:
Hayes Adams: Ameilia Bedilia Wants you to read more Fluently!
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/awakenings/adamshgf.htm
Lobel, Arnold, and Arnold Lobel. ‘Spring.’ Frog and Toad Are Friends. New York:
Harper Trophy, 1979. N. pag. Print.
Name:______________________ Date:____________
Reading Progress Chart
1st reading: ______
2nd reading: ______
3rd reading: ______
-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
______ ______