Growing Independence and Fluency
In order for students to learn how to
read faster, smoother, and more expressively, they must become fluent
Fluency refers to a student’s ability to read words accurately and
automatically. This lesson focuses on students’ development of the
read quickly, smoothly, and expressively. When a student accomplishes
tasks, he or she has gained fluency. In this lesson, fluency is gained
repeated reading, timed reading, and one-minute reads.
* “The dog plays all day long in the
written on the board
* Laminated cut outs of Speedy Gonzalez
Velcro on the back
* A laminated picture of a dusty pathway (like
that is numbered from one end to the other with a block of cheese and a
the end and pieces of Velcro by each number
* Class set of the book of What Will
we are going to work on a reading skill called fluency. Fluency is when
you can read fast, smoothly, and also with expression. If we want to
become fluent readers we must practice a lot though. I am going to read
this sentence on the board without fluency. “Th-e
a-ll d-ay i-n th-e p-a-r-k.”
That was pretty hard to understand wasn’t it? Now I am going to read it
fluently. (Point to each word as I read). “The dog plays all day in the
park.” That was a lot easier to understand and it was faster, right? So
we see how important it is for us to be able to read fluently.
Sometimes when we are reading, we will come to words that we do not
know. When that happens, remember to use your cover up critter, or
cross check by reading the rest of the sentence, or pick out the vowel
sound first and then read the beginning of the word and put it all
together” (model each of these methods when explaining them).
- Split the class up
into pairs. Pass out to each student: a copy of the book What
Will the Seal Eat, a Speed Record Sheet, a Fluency Literary Rubric,
and a laminated Speedy Gonzalez cut out.
- I will explain to
the students that one person is going to be the “reader” and the other
is going to be the “recorder.” After the first person has read,
they will switch jobs. Then I will tell them that they will start
at the beginning of the book and read for one minute. I will be
in charge of starting the stopwatch and telling the “reader” when to
stop after one minute. When I say stop, the reader will put
his/her finger on the word they were on. The “recorder” will
count the words that the “reader” read and then record them on the
Speed Record Sheet. The “reader” will now move their Speedy
Gonzalez up to the number on the pathway that matches the number of
words they read. The “recorder” will also fill in the Fluency
Literary Rubric by coloring in the circles that describe how
the “reader” did. They will then switch roles and the “reader”
becomes the “recorder.” They will then follow the same steps in
their new jobs.
- Allow the students
to repeat this three times, in order to compare their results.
- After every pair of
students has completed the “one minute reads” three times, I will read
the rest of the book to the class in case they didn’t get to finish it
during their minute reads.
- Then we will have a
discussion about the book, in order to make sure they comprehended what
they read individually and what I read.
- For assessment, I
will take up the Speed Record Sheet and the Fluency Literary
Rubric. I will compare the first and last readings because they
should have increased with each time.
Barrowclough, Lauren. Ready, Set, Let’s
Cushman, Shelia and Kornblum,
Rona. What Will the Seal Eat? Phonics
Educational Insights, 1990.
Kenny, Heather. Racey
Kimberly Barton- email@example.com
to Odyssey’s Index