Growing towards Fluency!

A Growing Independence and Fluency Design

Rationale:

This lesson is designed to improve students' reading fluency. Reading fluently means reading with automatic word recognition and nearly all the words are a part of his or her sight vocabulary. As a result of this, the student is capable of reading at a fast and even pace without disrupting their reading comprehension. Fluency has the ability to make reading more rewarding for students because they learn how to read with more expression at a smoother rate. Before the students can reach a level of reading fluency, they must first show proficiency in decoding words. This lesson will allow students to learn the strategies and skills that it takes to become a fluent reader through the reading and rereading of the story The Kissing Hand.

Materials:

Class set of the story The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
Stopwatch to time readings
Pencil
Cover-up critter
Fluency checklist copies for students
Chart for recording words per minute while reading
Whiteboard
Dry erase markers / dry erasers

Procedure:

1.) First, the teacher will explain the concept of fluency to the classroom. The teacher will say, “Good morning class! Today we will learn about what it means to become a fluent reader. Can anybody guess and tell me what it means to read fluently?” After calling on many students, the teacher can explain that “fluency is when students develop many words in their sight vocabulary and having a big sight vocabulary means that you will be able to recognize many words immediately while reading. This will help you improve your speed, vocabulary, expression and smoothness when reading. These things will aid you in focusing more on understanding the meaning of the passage. So class, what does fluent reading look like? When a fluent reader reads a passage, they can understand what the story is about and use lots of emotion when they are reading aloud. Fluent readers are also able to finish a passage quickly with no errors or long pauses. Today we are going to work on growing into fluent readers!”

2.) Say: “We have cover-up critters to aid us in decoding, which means to read an unfamiliar word by using the letters to match the sounds that are in the word. Now lets try the word love as an example (write the word on the whiteboard). Now I will use my hand as a cover-up critter to help us decode the word love. I will first cover up all the letters except for the first letter l. /l/.../l/.../l/. Next, I will uncover o. /o/.../o/.../lo/. Then I will uncover the v. /v/.../v/../lov/. Then I will uncover the e and blend the phonemes together. /l/.../o/.../v/.../e/.../love/. This is the word love. Let’s use this word in a sentence: “Mrs. Racoon helps Chester to love school.” That sentence is true for our story, but we know that like Chester we can not like school sometimes and with love from family we are able to get over our fears!

3.) Say: “Next, I will model the difference between fluent and non-fluent reading. I will write these sentences, “School is starting in the forest. Animals round up their children for class.’ I will read them very slowly at first to resemble how a non-fluenty reader would read the sentences. “School is starting in the ffff-o-rr-e-st; forest. Animals rrr-oo--n-d (/roond/) up their children for class. Oh! That word must be round not /roond/. (Explanation: round in this sentence means to gather. The animal parents gather their to go to class.)” Next, for this demonstration, I will read in a monotone voice that will be off-putting to the class. I will then explain that the books we will read to practice fluency should be on a level that students can succeed at, so they should be on a level that students can succeed at, so that way they don’t have to decode more than one or two words in a sentence. Then I will read it two more times increasing in fluency, speed, smoothness, and expression to show how fluent readers read the sentence. “School is starting in the forest. Animals round up their children for class.” Next I will ask the students, “Did anyone notice differences in the three readings of the sentences? Were you able to tell one was smoother and quicker? I bet that the reading you liked most was the one that was smoother and quicker. We are going to practice our fluent reading skills today! I want each of you to grow and become fluent readers. So today I want you to try and read more quickly and with more expressions each time that we read the story!”

4.) Say: “Alright class, I want you to read the book The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn at your seat. This is a story about a little racoon named Chester. He lives a life that is kind of like yours! He enjoys his family, friends and toys. Chester has to go to school just like you do but Chester is fearful. I want you to read this book silently in your head and find out what it will take for Chester to go to school!

5.) After the students have read silently, I will then pair them up with partners. Now say: “You and your partner will now grab a stopwatch, a copy of The Kissing Hand, a reading rate chart, and a fluency checklist. Then you and your partner are going to each read three times. You will take turns being the reader and the timer. The person who times will time the reading and record those times on their reading chart and the reader will focus and work on their fluency more and more each time. When you are the timer, make sure that you hit start as soon your partner starts to read and hit stop as soon as they finish reading! Be sure to record all three of the times on your chart. Then after your partner has finished reading each time, fill out the fluency reading checklist. When you fill out this chart, it will help your partner determine how their fluency is improving. Be listening for how their reading changes each time. Do they remember more words? Do they read with more expression (more facial movement) and change in their voice? Make sure to mark what you notice on your paper. After your partner completes each of the three readings, I want you to give them a special comment or compliment about how well they did or their speed, smoothness, expression or how well they did remembering the hard words.” Before the students start reading, I will model for them how to fill out the chart and use the stopwatch. Then I will walk around the room and observe the students reading the book. By walking around I will be able to answer any questions the students may have and I will be able to monitor if they are correctly filling in the times.

6.) After students finish reading and working with their partner, have one student at a time come up to your desk and read the first two passages to you. They will bring their record sheet, so you can attach it to the back of their assessment sheet. Now as they read, you will time them on the paragraph read aloud and use the formula to record how many words per minute the student reads.

7.) Now the students will answer the reading comprehension questions about the book. This will measure their comprehension of the reading.

Reading Comprehension Questions:

What is Chester scared of? (going to school).
What did Chester want to do instead of go to school? (stay home with Mrs. Racoon, play with friends, play with his toys and read his books)
What did the kissing hand help Chester remember? (that his mothers love would always go with him, even to school)
What does Chester do to his mothers hand? (he gives her the kissing hand too)