A collection of useful lessons designed to improve reading
Champions of Fluency
Growing Independence and Fluency
Greg Bolan
Rationale: In order to comprehend text, students must be able to read fluently. Automatic word recognition and faster, smoother, more expressive reading characterize fluency. By developing fluency, students may devote cognitive resources to comprehension rather than decoding and word recognition. In order to develop fluency, students must read and reread decodable words in a connected text. Therefore, in this lesson students will read, decode, crosscheck, and reread to improve fluency. The teacher will provide models and scaffolding to aid the students’ fluency gains. Improvement will be measured by the formula (words read x 60/seconds). This formula will be used to determine the students’ words read per minute (wpm).
Materials:
-
Smartboard
-
Partner Reading Progress Check Sheets
-
Champs by Matt Sims (teacher copy and copies for each student)
-
Reading Rate Chart (one for each student)
-
Stopwatches (one per pair of students)
-
Reader Response Forms
Procedures:
1.) Say: “In order to be the best readers possible, we must learn to read fluently. To read fluently means to read with ease. We do not have to stop and decode every word we encounter. By learning to read fluently, we will be able to find greater enjoyment in reading. Rather than focusing on decoding, we will be able to direct our attention to the story.”
2.) Say: “I am going to model reading a passage for you a few times. Once I have finished, I’ll take a class poll to see which reading sounded the best.” (Read passage once slow and choppy, making sure to include mistakes). “I th-rew the fri… ‘oh’ Frisbee to my dog wily… oh, Willie and he ca-..caught it- in… his moth… ‘that’s not right’ mouth! (Read passage again without errors, but do not include expression) “I threw the Frisbee to my dog Willie and he caught it in his mouth.” (Read one last time adding smoothness, clarity, and expression). “I threw the Frisbee to my dog Willie and he caught it in his mouth!” Take a class poll by asking for a show of hands. “Who thought the first reading sounded the best? (Allow students to vote). What about the second? (Allow students to vote). Who thought the third reading was the best? (Allow for vote). Why was the third the best? (Allow for student response). Right! The third sounded the best because it was smoother and faster. I even included expression.”
3.) Say: “During the first reading, I used one of the self-help strategies that we have learned- crosschecking. If I came to a word I didn’t know, I made an attempt then went on to finish reading the sentence. Then, I used context to make a correction. I would also go back and look at the word so I could make a few mental notes about any silent letters or odd pronunciations. By making these mental notes, I will know how to read the word the next time I see it in text!”
4.) Say: “Now, let’s try reading the passage on the Smartboard together. I see a couple of tough words!”
-
Choral Read: “I got my dog when we went to Nebraska on vacation. We found him on the side of the interstate looking lonely.”
I heard some of you having a tough time with Nebraska and interstate. Instead of giving up, you kept reading and used the rest of the sentence to figure out these words! Now that we have crosschecked these unfamiliar words, let’s try to read the passage again.” (Choral read passage again).
5.) Say: “Today, we are going to read chapter one of a book entitled Champs. In this book Fred plays baseball for the Jets and he is the star player! The big game is coming up, but the worst possible thing happened. Fred broke his leg! Now he can’t play in the game. Who can take his place on the team? How can they win the game now?"
6.) Display the following directions on the Smartboard and read to students:
-
Pair up with your reading buddy. One buddy needs to come and get the following:
-
2 Partner Reading Progress Check Sheets
-
2 Reader Response Forms
-
2 copies of Champs
-
A stopwatch
-
-
While one buddy gathers the materials, the other will count all the words in the first chapter of the book. You will write this number at the top of your check sheet forms.
-
Take a turn reading the first chapter of the book to each other. While one buddy reads, the other will use the stopwatch to time his or her buddy’s reading.
-
Pay close attention to how many mistakes your partner makes. Make an X for each mistake.
-
Then, do a subtraction problem. Take the total number of words and subtract the number of X’s.
Total – number of X’s
Plug the answer to this into the following blank on your partner reading progress check sheet:
____ words
-
Repeat steps b-d two more times. Each buddy should read a total of three times.
-
Once you have completed all of your readings and calculations, answer the two questions at the bottom of the reading progress check about which turn was the smoothest and which had the fewest errors.
-
Next, discuss the reader response questions with your buddy. Then, go back to your desk and write your answers on a separate sheet of paper. Make sure to answer with complete sentences.
-
Bring your checklists to me and I will calculate your 3 rates. Together, we will place your three stickers on your fluency chart so that we can track your improvement. Place your answers to the comprehension questions in the tray by my desk.
Assessment: I will review each student's responses to the reading response questions and the partner reading progress check sheet to assess each student using the following rubric:
Partner Reading Progress Check Sheet:
Reader Response Form:
References:
Carter, Lauren. Reading Genie Website. “Fluency Fun with Junie B. Jones.” https://sites.google.com/site/ctrdlaurencarter/growing-independence-and-fluency
Murray, Bruce. Reading Genie Website. “Developing Reading Fluency.” http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/fluency.html
Sims, Matt. Champs. High Noon Books. 2001.
Return to the Edifications Index
Questions? Concerns? Email me at gjb0002@auburn.edu
