Rationale: This lesson is designed to improve students reading fluency. Reading fluently means that a student has the ability to read where nearly all the words are sight vocabulary. As a result of this, readers can read at a fast pace and with expression. First the students must be able to decode words in the text they are reading in order to have reading fluency. In this lesson, students will learn the strategies and skills that it takes to become a fluent reader through modeling and practice. Students will use the strategy of crosschecking after readings of a decodable text and repeated readings to gain fluency and independence in reading.
Materials: Pencils, stopwatch and timer, coverup critters, Llama Llama Loves to Readby Anna Dewdney and Reed Duncan, fluency checklist, reading time log, partner reading progress sheet
Procedures: 1. Say: “Today we are going to learn how to improve our fluency when reading. Can anyone tell me what the word fluency means? Well, fluency is when you read words quickly and automatically with expression. When we read with fluency, we comprehend more of the story and the story becomes more exciting, too. To become fluent readers, we must be able to recognize a large amount of sight words, or words that we know automatically, without having to decode them. To gain sight words we have to practice reading through a method of repeated reading where we can decode, crosscheck, mental mark, and reread.” 2. Say: “Right here we have cover-up critters to help us decode, which means it is here to help us read an unfamiliar word. For example, let’s look at the word school. (Write the word schoolon the whiteboard). I am going to use my cover-up critter to decode this word. I will cover up all the letters except for the first letter, s. /s/…/s/…/s/. Then I will uncover c. /c/…/c/…/c/, this now makes /sc/. Next, I uncover the letter h. /h/…/h…/h, this now makes /sch/. Then I will uncover the oo. /oo/…/oo/…/oo/, we now have /sch/oo/. Finally, I will uncover the last letter, l, and blend all the phonemes together. /sch/oo/l/…/sch/oo/l/… school. This word is SCHOOL. Now let’s use the word in a sentence: “He learns to read and write in school, he loves school.” 3. Now I will show the students the difference between reading a sentence fluently and not reading it fluently. I will write the sentence “I like to read at school” I will read it very slowly at first to show them how a reader who is not fluent would read it. “I lliikkee to rreeaadd at sssccchhhoooooolll” Then I would read it more fluently and faster to show how a fluent reader would read it. I will read it very smoothly, and with expression. “I like to read at school” I will then ask, "Did anyone notice the difference in how I read the sentence? Could you tell that one was smoother than the other? Right, the smoother reading was a more fluent reading and that's how we want to read. Is it easier to understand when it’s read faster and smoother? That's right it is! Now I want you to try and read faster and with expression!” 4. Say: “I want you to read the book, Llama Llama Loves to Readby Anna Dewdney and Reed Duncan, silently at your desk. In this book, Llama Llama loves read. Llama Llama goes to school to learn. He is learning how to read and write. He learns so many things while he is at school. You are going to have to read this book at your desk silently in your head to find out what happens to Llama Llama as he continues to learn new things at school. 5. After the students read silently, I will then pair them up with partners. Say: “You and your partner will now get a stopwatch and a copy of Llama Llama Loves to Readby Anna Dewdney and Reed Duncan, a reading rate chart, and a fluency checklist. You and your partner are going to read, three times each, to build on your fluency. You will take turns switching off, one being the reader and one being the timer. The timer will time your partner reading the book and will record their time on the reading rate chart. When you’re the one timing your partner, be sure that you hit start as soon as your partner starts to read and hit stop as soon as they are done reading. Record all three of the times on your chart. After your partner has read the book once, make sure you fill out the fluency checklist along with the reading rate chart. This will help your partner and see if you’re improving.” Before the students start reading, I will model how to fill in the chart and use a stopwatch. I will then observe the students reading the book. I will walk around the room and answer any questions the students may have and make sure that they are filling in the correct time and the correct information. 6. After the students are done reading collect the data for yourself to analyze and assess how the students did and who still needs to work on their fluency. Use your observations from when you walked around the class as well. Each student will then read to you individually. Mark improvements as needed and their miscues, and ask comprehension questions. I will ask questions such as: a. What does Llama Llama learn first? b. What are some words Llama Llama can read? c. Is Llama Llama having fun at school reading? d. Can Llama Llama write his name? e. Does Llama Llama always try his best when at school? f. What are some of the things that Llama Llama reads about in his stories? 7. Each day, I will set a certain time for the students to get to go with their partners to practice reading for fluency. After a week of reading, I will assess each student individually and give them a different partner. This will allow them to see how another student is reading and what they could learn from them.
Checklist: 1. Did he/she read smoothly? 2. Did he/she show facial expression? 3. Did he/she have voices changes? 4. Does the student have an overall understanding of expression?
Name____________________
Time after first reading___________
Time after second reading____________
Time after third reading______________
The following fluency checklist filled out for each reading partner will also be used as an assessment: · Title of Book: · Student’s Name: · Partner's Name: · Make a check if the following is true after the 2nd and 3rd Readings: · Remembered more words: · Read faster: · Read smoother: · Read with expressions: