Growing Independence and Fluency

Becoming Captains of Fluency

(with Junie B. Jones)

Rationale:

This lesson is aimed to help students read more fluently, and also advance in reading comprehension for more advanced books. Fluency is the effortless and automatic recognition of words in a reading while still comprehending what the student has read. Fluency helps to make reading more enjoyable for the students because they are able to smoothly read through the story and utilize expression. Before this goal can be accomplished, the students must be able to decode words in the text that they are reading. This lesson will guide students through reading, decoding, cross-checking, mental marking, and rereading, to become fluent readers. As a result, students will develop more confidence in their reading abilities and their reading proficiency will improve.

Materials:

Junie B. Jones is Captain Field Day by Barbara Park (enough for half of the class)
White board/markers (one for each student)
Fluency Chart
Stopwatch/phone for timer (one per pair of students)
Reader response form

Procedures:

Say: In order to become great readers, we have to first become fluent readers. Who can tell me what fluency means? [listen to student responses]. Great! Fluency means that we can read accurately and smoothly. When we become fluent readers, we will be able to read faster, more accurately and while showing expression! This also means that we don’t have to sound out each word when we come to it. As fluent readers we will enjoy reading so much more because it will be easier for us and we don’t have to focus as much on each individual word.
Say/model: "I am going to let you listen to me read a sentence two times. When I'm done, we take a vote on which time I sounded better. (Read by sounding out words) “T-h-th-ii-ss This m-o-or-nn-i-ing morning I w-o-k-e wokey (come back after cross checking to make woke) u-p up v-e-r-y very ex-c-i-ite-ed excited.” (Read smoothly) Let me try this passage again. “This morning, I woke up very excited.” (Ask for a show of hands) “Who liked listening to my first reading? How about the second? Why did the second time sound better to you? Right! The second time sounded a lot better to listen to because I didn't have to stop to figure out any of the words. I read through the sentence fluently” Being able to read through a sentence fluently like that requires practice. Today we are going to read through a passage a few times then test our fluency with that same passage.
Say: What did I do when I did not get the word woke the first time? [Student responses] Right! I went back and cross checked using the words I did know. When I did that I realized that woke fit there “I woke up.” As we are moving forward with fluency, it is important to remember if there is a word that you don’t know or you’re unsure of, keep reading to the end of the sentence! Sometimes there are clues in the sentence that can help us uncover what another word means! Also, if you noticed that you made a mistake, you can go back and fix it! These are two important strategies that all fluent readers use!
Say: “Today we are going to read about a girl named Junie B. Jones. It is field day at her school! She is super excited. I'm not going to tell you what happens or what field day is so you’re going to have to read it and find out for yourselves.”
Say: “Now, we are going to partner up. One of you, come grab a copy of the book, a reading response questions form, a fluency chart, and a stopwatch. The other please find a place to read. When you get your books I want you to count how many words are on the first 5 pages of the book and write it on top of your fluency chart. You and your partner will each read those 5 pages 2 times while the other times how fast you read with a stopwatch. If you are the partner that is not reading, pay attention to any mistakes your partner makes. For every mistake make a little tally. (Ex: tally method on the board)“ After you have read each time, you will calculate fluency. Take the total number of words from those pages and subtract the number of tallies from the mistakes in the reading. Your answer will read ‘___ words in ___ minutes.’ “When you finish timing each other, discuss your answers to the reading response questions. Each of you will write your answers in complete sentences back at your desk and turn those and your fluency charts in to me.”