Expressive Fluency

By:  Lauren Sprouse

Growing Independence and Fluency 

 

Rationale: Once you have reached fluency in your reading, you are now an expert reader! Fluency is the ability to identify words accurately, rapidly and automatically and to read at the rate in which you speak. There are three significant skills needed to become a fluent reader: the ability to read faster, smoother, and more emotionally. To gain fluency, students need to read and reread the same text multiple times so that they will learn to recognize all of the words automatically. This lesson will have students read decodable text with partners.

 

Materials:

∙A copy of Amelia Bedelia for each student

∙A Partner Check Sheet for each student

∙pencils

 

Partner Check Sheet

 

When I listened to my partner read:

 

                                                            After 2nd read                                  After 3rd read

1. Remembered more words     ________________                ________________

 

2. Read faster                                  ________________                ________________

 

3. Read smoother              ________________                ________________

 

4. Read with expression   ________________                ________________

Name of Partner: ____________________________________

 

 

Procedures:

1. Explain to the students what it means to be a fluent reader. Say: “Today we are going to talk about how important fluency is. To be fluent readers we need to read with expression, which means that we put feeling and emotion in our voice; we read smoothly and we read rapidly, at a speaking speed.” Explain to your students that today we will be reading and rereading the story Amelia Bedelia. Rereading the text will help us become more fluent readers. Reassure them that they might not know every word the first time they read it through but that they need to use the crosschecking method to figure out the word. Crosschecking is after correcting the word the reader re reads the sentence. Next time they read this story they should be able to recognize the word with a little more ease and by the last time they hopefully should know how to read the word fluently.

2. Write the sentence “Amelia Bedelia loves cleaning! Do you like cleaning?” on the board. Model for the students two ways to read this sentence. The first way you read it should be slow and drawn out. For example, say “A-m-e-l-I-a B-e-d-e-l-I-a l-o-o-v-v-e-e-s c-l-e-a-n-I-n-g! D-o y-o-o-u-u l-I-k-e c-l-e-a-n-I-n-g-g??” Next model for the students how to read this sentence fluently. “Amelia Bedelia loves cleaning! Do you like cleaning?” Ask the students which way sounds better the first way when I said it really slow or the second way when I read it fluently with expression?

3. Engage the students in a book talk about the story Amelia Bedelia. This story is about a girl who loves to help people out. Amelia Bedelia helps two people out with their house. Some of her ways are not the best way to help people. Do you think her ways are helpful?. What will happen? Do you think the house owners will like their house? Let’s read the story to find out.

4. Have the students partner up and go to different places in the room. Each child should receive a Partner Check List. Explain to the students that one person is going to be the “reader” while the other person is the “recorder”. The reader will read the book three different times and the recorder will write down the number of words read each time. Also mark on the partner read sheet, after the 2nd and 3rd time, the changes in your partners reading. The recorder records how well the student comprehends the story.

5. For assessment, the teacher will call students up individually and have them bring their Recording sheets. Have the students recall what happened in the story to assess their comprehension skills. The teacher will ask many questions about the story like: Does Amelia have fun while working? What did she do? What chores does Amelia do? Does she do the chores correctly? Does she make the home keepers happy? Why or why not? Did she get in trouble?

 

Resources:

 

Amelia Bedelia by: Peggy Parish; Scholastic Publication Date:  September 1993

 

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/doorways/hausfeldagf.htm Alle Hausfeld (Let's Go Fly A Kite For Fluency) 

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/awakenings/iveyjgf.htm Jennifer Ivey (Express Yourself)

 

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