Fast and Fluent Frogs

Growing Independence and Fluency

 

Laura Hale

 

Rationale:  Reading fluency us a goal of reading instruction.  In order for students to read more fluently, a student must learn to read quickly, smoothly, and expressively. Word recognition can be an enjoyable task rather than a struggle.  One way students can increase their reading fluency is by doing repeated readings of text.  The more they read a text and become familiar with it, the easier it is for them to read it.  In this lesson, students will learn how to become a more fluent reader by learning how to read quickly, smoothly, and expressively. Increased fluency will be gained through repeated readings and one minute readings.  Students will also learn an effective decoding strategy to help decode unknown words.

 

Materials:

-paper

-pencils

-class set of Letâs Go Froggy by Jonathan London

-class set of laminated bike illustration with words per minute written on them with   accompanying Velcro frog cutout.

-stopwatch or timer for each pair of students

 

Procedures:

  1. Review techniques they have already learned to decode words.  Say, ãBefore we begin our lesson today, can anyone tell me a technique we learned to use when we come across a word we do not know how to say? Cover-ups is correct.  Can someone else come show me on the board how we would use the cover-up method on the word fluency? (have the student model to the rest of the class)  We noticed that we look at the first part of the word that contains the vowel.  The next step was to add the beginning sounds of the word.  Once we have done this, we will have most of the sounds in the vowel and we will be able to sound out the last part of the word.ä

 

  1. ãLet me show you another example of a cover-up on the board.  Our first example of our vowel-first cover-up is the word ship.  This vowel says /i/.  Now, look at the beginning ösh. (cover up all but this part of the word)  The ösh in ship says /sh/.  The sounds we have so far are /sh/ /i/, which makes /shi/.  Now, letâs uncover the ending part of the word.  The ending letter is p. The p says /p/.  That makes /shi/ /p/--/ship/.  Remember to use the vowel cover up method to figure out unknown words.ä

 

  1. Remind the students how important it is to become faster and faster at reading.  ãLearning to become a faster reader helps us to understand what we are reading.  It may also help you to like reading more because it wonât be a struggle.  In todayâs lesson, we are going to work on strategies that can help us to learn to read at a faster pace.ä

 

  1.  Ask the students, ãHave you ever come across a sentence in reading that you read slowly and a bit broken up like a robot would read it.ä  Model reading a sentence slowly like they may do. ã( The frog wants to learn to ride his bike). If you read that sentence again, you maybe a little faster.  Letâs read it together again. (The frog wants to learn how to ride his bike.)  The more you do something, the better you become at it.  This applies in reading as well.  Letâs read the sentence again and add expression as you read it. (The frog wants to learn how to ride his bike.)ä

 

  1. Introduce the book Letâs Go Froggy to the students.  Shoe them the front cover of the book. ãCan anyone guess what this story is about just by looking at the cover?  Well, this little froggy is having a bit of trouble learning how to ride his bike.  Letâs read the story to see if he can learn how.ä  Pass out books to the class.  Pass out bike and frog cut outs. Allow the students to read the book silently.  Remind the students that when they finish to sit quietly with their head on their desk so you will know when everyone has finished.

 

  1. Pair up students with a partner.  Pass out a timer to each group of students.  Explain to the students they will be doing one minute readings.  One minute readings are when students read for one minute out loud and their partner times them.  Explain to them to be sure and count how many words per minuate they got and record that number by putting the Velcro frog on the bike at the word per minute point. Remind students that as the frog moves towards the seat on the bike, their reading fluency is increasing.

 

  1. Have each students take out a piece of paper and a pencil.  Have them number to three.  Have them record how many words per minute they got on the three one minute readings.

 

  1. As the students begin to read and time each other with their partner, you should walk around the room to answer any lingering questions.  Observe as students engage themselves in the activity.

 

  1. For assessment, instruct the students to write their name on their paper that contains the one minute reading scores.  Have them circle their fastest reading score.  Take this up so you will be able to compare their beginning and ending results.

 

  1. Remind the students to read and reread books they have at home or from the library.  Mention that they can show their parents how much they have improved at reading!

 

 References:

 Eldredgem J.Lloyd. (2nd Ed.) Teach Decoding:  Why and How.  Upper Saddle River,    Pearson Prentice Hall.

 London, Jonathan.  Letâs Go Froggy.

http://www.auburn.edu/%7Emurraba/connect/conwaygf.html Fast Little Monkeys by Kelby Conway.

 http://www.auburn.edu/%7Emurraba/connect/overstreetgf.html Racy Reader by Jill Overstreeet

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