Growing Independence and Fluency

Fishing for Fluency

Growing Independence and Fluency Design

Rationale: The goal of this lesson is to help students develop fluency in reading longer, more developed texts. The readers will be able to gain more fluency by creating new sight vocabulary so that they can read words easily and automatically. Fluency is important because it allows readers to focus their energy on their comprehension of the text. To achieve this, readers will read and reread decodable words, increasing their fluency and speed. Throughout this lesson, students will practice their fluency by reading and rereading the story The Rainbow Fish. They will also gain experience with individual silent reading and partner reading. They will read for fluency with the teacher.

Materials:

The book Rainbow Fish (copy for teacher and a classroom set)

Stop watch for each group of students

Board or projector teacher can use to show examples

Chart paper to record WPM for each student

Fluency Checklist for each student

Fish (one per student) with Velcro that moves from one end of ocean to the other (away from the fisherman) to count words per minute

Coverup critters for class

(fisherman) 0---------10-----------20-----------30----------40-----------50----------60-----------70----------80----------90---------100

Correct WPM

Fluency Checklist

Title of Book: ___________________________

Student’s Name: _______________ Date: ______________

Partner’s Name: _______________

After 2nd Reading After 3rd Reading

______________ _______________ Remembered More Words

______________ _______________ Read Faster

______________ _______________ Read Smoother

______________ _______________ Read with More Expression

Procedures:

“Hello students. Today we are going to practice our fluency with reading. Being a fluent reader means being able to read the words in stories accurately, automatically, and with expression. We all want to become fluent readers so that we don’t need help. Becoming fluent takes practice, but it gets easier. Fluency will allow you to enjoy reading and read for fun.”
“There are a few things that will help you with fluency. First, we have learned how to decode words. If you get stuck on a long or hard word, don’t worry. You can use your coverup critter. Now I will teach you how to use a coverup critter.” Write a decodable word on the board. “I just wrote the word tight. Now I am going to use my coverup critter to help me decode this word.” Cover all of the word except for the t. “T says /t/.” Uncover . “ says /I/. So we have /t/ and /I/. That says /tI/.” Uncover the rest of the word. “Now, my last phoneme is /t/ again. /tI/ and /t/. /tIt/. That spells tight! Now I am going to crosscheck. Let’s say that I have a sentence that says my pants are too tight. Does that make sense? Yes! What if I decoded the word as /tigt/. I would reread the sentence. My pants are too tigt. Does that make sense? No. Then I would say, Oh my pants are to tight. That makes more sense. Whenever you get a word wrong before crosschecking, that is okay! Just reread the sentence to practice the word after crosschecking. So we decode, then crosscheck, then reread.”
“Now I am going to read a sentence from the board. I will let you all guess if I am reading fluently or as a beginner. Here is the first sentence The vas, I mean vase, feeeeeell on the grund. No that doesn’t make sense. Grooouuund. The vase fell on the ground. Does it sound like I am a fluent reader or a beginning reader?” Allow students to decide whether you are fluent or a beginner. The answer is beginner. “Good. Now let me read it again. The vase fell on the ground. Am I a beginner or a fluent reader?” Allow students to assess which type of reader you are. The answer is fluent.
Ask students to analyze why they thought you were a beginning reader at first and then why you were a fluent reader second. “What did you notice when I read the first sentence?” Give students a minute to answer. “Good. It was hard to understand at first because I did not really know the words. I had to crosscheck and reread. What did you notice about the second sentence?” Give students a minute to answer. “I read the second sentence with a lot more expression because I knew the words. I did not have to spend time decoding.”
“Now it is your turn to practice. Today we are going to read The Rainbow Fish. This story is about a beautiful fish with sparkling scales. All of the other fish were amazed by his beauty. This fish was very mean, though. Nobody wanted to be his friend, so he became very lonely. Will the fish learn how to make friends and put his looks aside? Let’s find out. Now everybody, go get your reading partners (groups of 3) and find a spot in the room where you can read. I need one person from each group to come to the front and get a Reading Fluency Checklist. Count how many words are on the first two pages. Each partner will take turns reading the book aloud. Each person needs to read two pages. They will read these pages three times. While one partner is reading, another will use a stopwatch to record the time. The third partner can note the reader’s mistakes. This includes saying a word wrong, not knowing a word at all, or skipping the word. When we finish reading, we will take the total number of words minus the number of mistakes. We have to do this all three times. This way, we can see how each of you are making progress with your reading! Also, you all will fill out the Reading Fluency Checklist for the person reading. This will show which reading was the fastest and which reading was the smoothest. Remember to read with expression and have fun!” Walk around and monitor the students as they are reading. Take up Reading Fluency Checklists when they are done.
“Now that everybody is finished, I am going to let you go back to your seats and practice reading silently. If I call your name, come to my back table with me (in small groups). We will read, and I will ask you questions to make sure that you understand the story.” This way you can make sure that the students were actually reading and comprehending the text.
“Now I will call each of you to read to me one at a time.” Assessment: Call each student to the back to read whatever passage that they read with their partners. Ask 2 or 3 comprehension questions (Example questions: Why didn’t the fish have any friends? Do you think the fish was selfish at first? What advice did the octopus give the fish?) Time how long it takes the students to read their two pages. Record students’ words per minute on chart (Multiply number of words read by 60. Divide this number by the number of seconds it took to read pages). When the students receive their WPM, they will move their fish. The goal is to move the fish as far away from the fisherman as possible. The students will reread the passage with the teacher, moving their fish. Between readings, the teacher will scaffold by asking open-ended questions. Additionally, point out words words they had trouble with, helping then decode with the coverup critter.

Resources:

Book:

Pfister, M., & James, J. A. (1992). The rainbow fish. New York: North-South Books.

Brown, Sherrell. Flying into Fluency

https://sites.google.com/view/readingwithmsbrown/growing-independence-fluency

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