Racing Fast With Fluency

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Palina Luangkhot

Fluency 

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Rationale: Fluent reading is essential in comprehending the reading. In order for students to read effortlessly and automatically, they must practice expression, pace, and comprehension. Effortless word recognition allows students to reflect on what they are reading. Through reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading, students will be able to become fluent readers. Students will use the strategy of crosschecking after readings and rereadings of a decodable text to gain fluency and independence in reading.

 

Materials:                   

1. Timer/stopwatch

2. Peer fluency sheet

3. Teacher fluency checklist

4. Reading rate forms

5. Sample sentences for teacher to model

6. Set of decodable books by Matt Sims

 

Procedures:

1. Say, “Class, we have done a lot of work on our reading skills, today we are going to complete one of our goals on becoming fluent readers. A fluent reader is someone who is able to read very quickly and smoothly because they are able to recognize the words in a sentence.”

2. Say, “Fluency is being able to read smoothly and quickly words without having to sound them out. One way to become fluent readers is to practice reading many times. Cars can go really fast and they have to practice many times to drive fast, but smoothly. Today we are going to think of ourselves as race car drivers but still developing fluency by rereading texts.”First, passes out a copy of to each student, and keeps one for herself. Say: "Have you ever started reading a book, and all of a sudden you come to a word on the page you don't recognize? When this happens, you have to stop and sound the word out. If you still do not get the word correct, it is best that you go ahead and finish the sentence then go back and try to figure out that word. After you figure out the word you didn't recognize, reread the word several times, so that it gets easier to recognize while you keep reading. Today, we are going to be reading several times, so that you can recognize words and so that they become easier for us to recognize."

3. I will write an example sentence on the board. An example sentence could be “I will race in my red car.” Say, “What should you do if you do don’t know a word?” You should use your cover-up critter to help you decode. Let’s practice on the word red. Let’s all look at the word redon the board.” First we begin by finding the vowel. The rest of the word is covered up. There is a short vowel in red, e. So, this letter must make the /e/ sound that we learned about. I can look at the beginning of the word now, and there I see the letter r, /r/. I add it to my /e/ sound to get /re/ then blend /re/ with the last sound /d/ and we get rrreeeddd,red. “Now let’s check and see that I blended correctly. Let’s reread the sentence on the board to make sure red makes sense. I will drive my new red car.”

4.  Say: “The first time you pick up a book you may not recognize some of the words. I am going to read the first sentence in the book A Job for Zack, “M- o-m, c-aaaa-n I f-iii-ix hot dogs for us?” said Zack. I noticed I had to stop a few times while reading this sentence. Let me try it again. “Mom, c-aaa-n I fix hot dogs for us?” said Zack. This time was much better. Let me try again. “Mom, can I fix hot dogs for us?” said Zack. Much better! I remembered the words after decoding them a few times. Now, I am going to read it again, but this time I am going to try and read it with fluently. (reads the sentence fast and smoothly). Raise your hand if you could understand the story better when I read it smoothly. That's why it is important to read with fluency. I read the sentence over and over again which lead me to reading it faster, correctly, and with expression. Now I want you guys to try repeated readings to see if you can become a more fluent reader like I did.

5. Say: Now let’s pair up with a partner. You will be reading The Tug.  (hands a book to every pair) The groups will need two reading record sheets, two partner checklists, and a stopwatch. Explain to the class that each time you read a passage you become familiar with it and become better at reading it. First time reading the passage, the teacher reads the text slowly and makes it difficult for the students to understand. Then the second time read it better and on the third time read it fluently with expression. Now it is your turn, read the whole story one time, then reread it two more times just like I did.” The reading partners will take turns reading the article and practicing their decoding and fluency. The teacher should walk around the room observing and taking notes. If one group finishes, they should reread the story one more time.

6. (pass out one stopwatch to each pair and one check sheet per student) Say, "For this activity, each of you will have the job of being the reader and the listener. One of you will read while the other users the stopwatch to see how long it takes you to read the book. If you are the one using the stopwatch, press the button when your partner begins reading. As soon as they finish, press the button again to stop the counting and write down the number on the timer. That number tells us how long it took them to read the story. Now the second time they read, it will be a little different. You will start and stop the timer just like you did the first time, you will also let them write down their time, but this time you will fill out your partner check sheet after they finish. If they remember more words you put a check; if they read faster, you put a check (demonstrate where to put a check). You will record on your partner’s check sheet after the second and third time reading. After the third read, you swap positions. If you were reading first, you are now in charge of the stopwatch, and if you used the stopwatch first, you are now reading.

7. After they have completed their readings pass out race car track graphs and car stickers for each student. Have them fill it out, then collect them. I will then have students come up one at a time and read the article out loud. I will use the charts and graphs for my assessment to see if their fluency has improved and, if not, see which students’ needs more help. (Other students will independently read a book of choice during this time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Reading Checklist (1 per student to use on a partner)

 

WPM = seconds x words / 60 seconds

 

Partner Reading Progress Checklist

Total # of words in chapter: ____

Reader: _____________________

Checker: ____________________

1: ___ Words in ___ seconds

2: ___ Words in ___ seconds

3: ___ Words in ___ seconds

Which turn sounded the smoothest? _______

Which turn had the least number of errors? ____

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References:

 

Griffith, Madeline. The Fast and The Furious Readers. https://sites.google.com/view/ms-griffiths-lesson-plans/growing-fluency

 

Koenig, Claire. The Race for Readinghttp://csk0009.wixsite.com/eportfolio/growing-independence-and-fluecny

 

Murry, Bruce. Partner Checklist: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/fluency.html

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