Growing Fluency: Image

FLYING INTO FLUENCY

Rationale:

The goal of this lesson is to get students to read more fluently so that they spend more time on comprehension and less time of decoding. Students must practice expression, pace, and comprehension if they want to read effortlessly and automatically. 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 gain fluency and independence in reading by crosschecking after reading decodable texts and repeat readings.

Materials:

1.Time/Stopwatch for each pair

2.Sample sentences on white board for teacher to model

3.Peer fluency sheet (one for each of the students)

4.Reading rate forms for teacher

5.Teacher Fluency Checklist (one for each of the students) with attached comprehension questions

6.Pencil for each student

7.Class set of The Little Airplaneby Louis Lenski

Procedures:

1.Say: “We are going to achieve one of our goals in becoming a fluent reader in class today. Does anyone know what a fluent reader is? (Calls on students to answer). A fluent reader is someone who is able to read very quickly and smoothly because they are able to recognize the words. If we can recognize the word, then we can better understand what we are reading because we instantly know each word’s meaning. Reading fluency can also help with adding emotion and expression to the story. It makes reading much more enjoyable!”

2.Say: “Now let’s look at a sentence written on the board: The plane is as big as a school. Everyone put your listening ears on. I want you to tell me if I sounds like a fluent reader when I read this sentence aloud to you. The p-p-p-p-l-l-a-a-n-e, p-l-a-n-e, plane is as bug as a s-s-c-c-h-h-o-o-o-l-l? Oh, that doesn’t make sense. It must be big. The plane is as big as a house. Did you notice that I got stuck on that last word when I read the sentence? To figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried what I thought the word big said, bug. That did not make sense, did it? To fix myself I went back and reread the sentence to figure out which word made the most sense. This strategy of rereading 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. Here’s how a fluent reader would have read that sentence: The plane is as big as a house. I read the sentence effortlessly which meant it was much easier to understand. I want you to turn to your partner and practice reading the second sentence on the board. “Cody likes to walk his dog.” Read it aloud to one another until you read the sentence fluently.”

3.Say: “Now class let’s think back to when I read the first sentence when I got stuck on the word big. To figure out the what the word was, I had to reread the sentence from the beginning and tried to figure out what the word big said; I pronounced it like the word bug. The sentence was very confusing, so I reread the sentence to figure out what the word should say to make the sentence sound correct. This is called crosschecking, and it is very important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers!”

Now pass out the book to each pair that you have assigned. Say: “We are going to practice being fluent readers by reading The Little Airplane. BOOK TALK: Pilot Small is getting his plane reading for a flight. Flying gives him a new perspective on his view of the Earth. What do you think he will see below when he is in the sky? Read the story to find out! Read the story by yourself one time and then you will read it aloud in pairs.

5.Pass out the recording sheets and stopwatches to each group. Say: “We are going to play a game to test everyone’s fluency. Put your listening ears back on to understand how to play. Reader 1 is going to start the game off, and Reader 2 will be in control of the timer. Reader 2 is going to time how fast Reader 1 reads the first two pages. Reader 2 will then record the time on the sheet that I have handed out. You and your partner will switch places after Reader 1 is done. You will each do these three times. 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, meaning more facial movement and change in their voice? Please mark these changes you notice on your paper.”

6.When they are finished with their partner work, have one student at a time come to your desk to read the first two passages to you. They will bring their record sheet, so you can attach it to the back of their assessment sheet. As they read you will time them on the paragraph read aloud and use the formula given to record how many words per minute they read.

7.At the end, the students will answer the reading comprehension questions about the book to measure their comprehension skills.

Reading Comprehension Questions:

What is the theme of the story based on this section?
Does Pilot Small fly above the clouds?
What is one thing that Pilot Small sees?

Fluency Checklist:

Title of Book: __________

Student’s Name: __________ Date: __________
Partner’s Name: __________

After 2nd Reading After 3rd Reading

______________ ______________ Remembered more words

______________ ______________ Read faster

______________ ______________ Read smoother

______________ ______________ Read with expression

(Words x 60)/seconds= WPM

0 - - - - 10 - - - - 20 - - - - 30 - - - - 40 - - - - 50 - - - - 60 - - - - 70 - - - - 80 - - - - 90 - - - - 100

Correct Words Per Minute

References:

Bruce Murray, The Reading Genie, http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

Caroline Harris

Reading Genie Website

Swimming into Fluent Reading

https://ceh0108.wixsite.com/carolineharris/growing-independence-and-fluency

Olivia Hooper

Reading Genie Website

Flying into Fluency

https://oliviahhooper.wixsite.com/mysite-4/growing-fluency

Story: Lenski, Louis. The Little Airplane https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/037581079X?ie=UTF8&tag=notifoflca-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=037581079X

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