Growing Independence and Fluency

Going Bananas for Fluency

Rationale:

Fluent reading is essential in comprehending. In order for students to read effortlessly and with automaticity, they must practice expression, pace, and comprehension. Effortless word recognition allows students to reflect on what they are reading. Through reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading, students will be able to confidently improve their reading rate and grow into fluent readers. 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

· Timer/stopwatch for each pair

· Class set of Curious George

· Sample sentences on white board for teacher to model

· Peer Fluency Sheet (one for each student)

· Reading Rate forms for teacher

· Teacher Fluency Check (one for each student) with comprehension questions

Procedures:

Begin the lesson by stating, “Alright class, today we are going to become fluent readers. It is one of our goals to be fluent readers, but what exactly does that mean? What does it mean to be a fluent reader? A fluent reader is someone who is able to read very quickly and smoothly because they recognize the words. This helps us understand what we are reading because we automatically understand each word. This makes reading much more enjoyable.”

Now say: “Now lets look at a sentence written on the board: Bob drives fast in his truck. Everyone put your listening ears on. I want you to tell me if I sound like a fluent reader when I read this sentence aloud to you. B-b-b, /o/-/o/-/o/, b-b-b, Bob, d-d-d-i-i-i-v-v-v-e-s, f-f-f-a-a-s-s-t-t, f-a-st, fast. Bob d-/i/v-es fast in his truck, Bob dives fast in his truck. Oh, that doesn't make sense. It must be drives. Bob drives fast in his truck. Did you notice that when I read the sentence, I got stuck on the second word? To figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried what I thought the word drives said, dives. That did not make sense, did it? So I went back to reread to figure out what the word should read that would make sense. This strategy is called crosschecking, and it is super important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers! Since I figured out these hard words while reading it helped me become fluent. Thumbs up if you think I read that like a fluent reader. Exactly, no I wasn’t reading like a fluent reader because I had to decode the words in the sentence. Here's how a fluent reader would read that sentence: Bob drives fast in his truck. I read the sentence effortlessly, and it was much easier to understand!

Say: “Now let’s think back to when I read the first sentence when I got stuck on the word drives. To figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried what I thought the word drives said, dives. That made the sentence very confusing. So I reread the text to figure out what the word should say so the sentence makes sense. This is called crosschecking, and it is very important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers!

Now assign partner for each student and pass out the books. Say: “We are going to practice being fluent readers by reading Curious George. George is a curious monkey who lives in Africa. A man in a yellow hat visits Africa, and George takes his hat. This makes the man in the yellow hat find George. He takes George home with him. What happens to George when he goes to live with the man in the yellow hat? What adventures does he go on as a curious monkey? You will have to read to find out what happens to “Curious George”.

Students will read the first three pages silently to themselves. Then they should each read a couple pages aloud to their partner. They must not help their partner read while they are listening

Then pass out the recording sheets and stopwatches to each group. Say: “Now we are going to play the fluency game. Put your listening ears back on to understand how to play. One reader is going to start the game off and the other reader will be in control of the timer. The first reader is going to time how fast their partner reads the first two pages. They will then record the time on the sheet that I have handed out. After recording the information, the second reader will read and their partner will time and record. Do this three times each. As you listen to your partner read aloud the pages, I want you to be listening for how their reading changes each time. Do they remember more words, do they read with more expression? Mark these changes on the paper I gave out.

After the groups have read through the passage three times each, have the students come one at a time to read a paragraph from the first couple pages to you. Ask them to bring their record sheet so you can attach it to the back of the assessment sheet. You will time them on the paragraph read aloud and use the formula given to record how many words per minute they read.

Words x 60/seconds read

Use a list of comprehension questions to assess how their fluency is affecting their comprehension.

References:

Curious George by H.A. Rey

Johnson, Jacquelyn. Monkeying Around with Fluency.

https://sites.google.com/site/jjreadinglesson/home/monkeying-around-with-fluency

Faison, Mary Cameron. Monkeying Around with Fluency.

http://marycameronf.wix.com/msfaisonsreadingtips - !monkeying-around-with-fluency/c1kx1

Peer Fluency Check:

Name of Reader: ____________________

Date: _________________

1st Time: ________

2nd Time: ________

3rd Time: ________

I noticed that my partner…

After which read? 2nd 3rd

Remembered more words

Read faster

Read smoother

Read with expression

Teacher Fluency Check:

Name of Reader: _______________

Date: _________________

Time: ________

Words x 60/time in seconds: _______WPM

Comprehension:

1. What was this paragraph about?

2. What characters are being discussed?

3. Is there a problem happening in the story?