Dancing for Fluency

Growing Independence and Fluency

Rationale: For children to really enjoy reading, and also, to better understand what they are reading, it is critical they learn to read fluently.Fluent reading is the ability to automatically recognize sight words and to read quickly with understanding and expression. The goal of this lesson is to teach students how to become fluent readers by teaching strategies such as decoding, crosschecking, rereading, and fast reading for understanding. They will do this by reading and rereading a decodable text, which is a proven necessity for fluency development.

Materials:

Pencils
Stopwatch (one for each pair of children)
Fluency chartàto record student’s words per minute (one for each child)
Fluency checklist
Reading tracker
Reading comprehension worksheets
Dry erase markers to write sentences on board
Sample sentences for the class
Class set of “Peeping Beauty” by Jane Auch

Procedures:

Say: “Okay class, today we are going to work toward becoming fluent readers. Can anyone tell me what ‘fluent’ means? (wait for response) Correct, ‘fluent’ or ‘fluency’ means to do something accurately and easily. In this case, we are working on becoming accurate and smooth readers. When we become fluent readers, we are able to automatically recognize words and comprehend the story much better. Can someone remind me what ‘comprehend’ means again? (wait for response) Great job! Yes, ‘comprehend’ means to understand. Being able to comprehend our reading allows us to enjoy books so much more and to expand our reading library choices.”

Say: “Now let’s practice out fluency by reading the sentence I have on the board. (Sally hit the tough ball.) I’m going to read the sentence out loud and I want y’all to tell me if I sound like a fluent reader. Sally, h-h-h, /i/-/i/-/i/, t-t-t, hit the t-t-t-/u/-/u/-/u/-g-g-h (tough) ball. Sally hit the, t-t-t-/u/-/u/-/u/-g-g-h, Sally hit the tug ball. Wait, that doesn’t make sense. It must be tough. Sally hit the tough ball. Did you notice that when I got stuck on the fourth word, I reread the sentence from the beginning to figure out what that word was? After rereading, I figured out that ‘tugt’ didn’t make much sense in that sentence. In order for me to figure out what that word was, I went back and reread the sentence and figure out that ‘tough ball' would make a lot more sense than ‘tug ball’. This strategy is called crosschecking and it’s extremely helpful when we are learning to become fluent readers.”

Say: “So students, raise your hand if you thought I sounded like a fluent reader when I read that sentence. (wait for student’s response) Exactly, I was not being a fluent reader. I read that sentence slowly and struggled on decoding the words. A fluent reader would read the sentence like this: ‘Sally hit the ball.’ The difference between how I read that sentence from the first was effortless, automatic, and could easily be understood.”

Say: “Now that we have gone over the differences between a non-fluent and fluent reader, we are all going to try it out ourselves. We are going to practice our fluency by reading “Peeping Beauty” by Jane Auch. Say:“This story is about a hen that had a dream of becoming a ballet star. Her friends, the other hens, laughed at her and said a chicken would never be famous. One day, a fox shows up and promises to make Peeping Beauty a star. Her friends warn her that the fox is only trying to make her into a meal. Do you think the fox will help Peeping Beauty or do you think her friends are right and she is in danger? You will have to read to find out!”

Say: “Okay, now I would like you all to grab a partner and begin working on your fluency skills. (Give each student a peer fluency sheet and give each pair of students a stopwatch or timer.) I would like one partner to read “Peeping Beauty,” while the other person tracks the time. For this assignment I would like you to read the whole story. Each of you are going to read the story 3 times. The first time I would like the student reading to read through the book without being timed, but the second and third time you read the book your partner should time you. I would like the person timing, to write down how long it takes your partner to read the story as well as if he/she is reading with fluency and expression. I want the partner timing to write down if they noticed any changes in how their partner read their second and third time through. After each of you has been the person reading and the person timing, you should talk about the changes you both saw in each other’s fluency and expression. I want each of you to be good listeners and good partners. Now let’s have some fun reading!”

Say: “Remember, if you need any help don’t be afraid to ask. I want this to be a fun assignment for you guys, but you’ve got to make sure to follow instructions. I’ll say the instructions one more time: be encouraging to your partner, keep track of the time it takes your partner to read, and make notes of the changes your partner makes while he/she reads. I’ll be collecting this at the end, so keep track of all of those things. Everyone can begin reading now.”

[Collect the partner reading checklists and calculate the progress of each student.] Say: I will call you up to my desk and we will talk about your progress from the fluency graph after reading “Peeping Beauty,”and you will read a few pages aloud to me. [Use formula (words X 60/ seconds)and the checklist to determine each student’s placement on the graph.] After everyone is finished, we will go over the comprehension questions as a class.

Comprehension Worksheet: