Growing Independence and fluency Design

STOP MONKEYING AROUND SO WE CAN LEARN FLUENCY

Rationale: This lesson is designed to improve students’ reading fluency. If students want to be comprehensive readers, they need to master the skill of reading fluency. Fluent reading is the ability to recognize sight words immediately and read quickly with understanding and expression. We will be using strategies such as frequent reading, decoding, cross checking, mental marking, and rereading, to help students grow into fluent readers. Being a fluent reader makes reading easier and more enjoyable.

Materials:

Junie B. Jones and a little Monkey Business (Class set)
cover up critters (Class set)
pencils (Class set)
reading timesheet to record data (Class set)
comprehension question (Class set)
Stopwatch (pair of students)
Calculators (pair of students)

Procedures:

Say “Hello class! Today is a very exciting day because we are working on becoming fluent readers. Does anyone know what reading fluency means?” (give them time to think and respond) “Yes! Reading fluently means that we can read smoothly and quickly without sounding out each word. This also helps us make sight words! Sight words are words that we don’t have to sound out because we already recognize them. This will make reading much more enjoyable and efficient because we won’t have to stop and sound out each word. Fluent readers can also put expression into their reading so the audience can hear the emotion in their voice.”
Say “Becoming a fluent reader takes time, so there is nothing wrong with continuing to use our coverup critters when we need to. I am going to sample how to use the cover up critter in case we forgot. (write stands on the board) Like this word stands as in my name is junie b jones the b stands for beatrice. I am going to cover up every letter except s so I can sound it out s-s-s now i will reveal the t t-t-t- and now the a a-a-a so right now we have s-t-a. Now I will show the n so n-n-n and now the d so d-d-d and finally the s s-s-s and when we put it all together s-t-a-n-d-s we have stands. Now everyone choose a random word from the book and practice using the cover up critter” (give them time to complete this task)
Say: “Now that we completed that I am going to read a sentence two different ways and you will tell me which way is easier to understand” (I bounced up and down in my chair) “I b-o-u-n-c-e-d bounced up a-n-d and d-o-w-n down in my ch-ai-r chair” (now read smoothly: i bounced up and down in my chair)- use more emotion/expression when reading this sentence “which sentence do you prefer to listen to?” (everyone says the second one) “why did you like the second one more?” “Yes, because it was easier to understand and more exciting to listen to.” Today we will read over a passage a few times and test the reading fluency of you all and with enough practice you will all become the best readers you can be.”
Say: “Have you ever read Junie B Jones and a little monkey business? Well today we are going to read a little part of it. Everyone loves surprises, but not when it isn't the surprise they want. Did Junie B Jones get the surprise she wanted? Let’s find out.”
Say: “Now we are going to test our reading fluency. I want everyone to grab a partner, grab a reading time sheet, a set of comprehension questions and cover up critters, one for each of you, and one stopwatch and one calculator for the both of you to share. Please bring your own pencil. Now go do that and find a place to sit around the room. Don’t start reading yet.” (allow students time to complete tasks). “Now you are each going to read the first chapter, 6 pages. First you need to count how many words are in the first chapter and write that down.” (give students time to complete that). “Now you are each going to read the chapter 2 times and the partner who is not reading needs to time them and tally up any miscues on the piece of reading timesheet. At the very end you will calculate your fluency by taking the total number of words that you counted up from the pages you read, multiply that by 60, then divide by the number of seconds it took you to read. Then you will put your materials away and go back to your desk to complete the comprehension questions silently and on your own. Any questions? No. Okay. Now you may begin”

Reading time sheet

Title of book:

Chapter:

Name:

Partners name:

(Words x 60)/seconds= WPM

WPM after 1st reading:

WPM after 2nd reading:

Circle either 1st or 2nd reading:

Did your partner remember more words during the 1st or 2nd reading?

Did your partner read faster during the 1st or 2nd reading?

Did your partner read smoother during the 1st or 2nd reading?