Susan's Lesson Designs

Procedures:​

1. Say: “Today we are going to learn how to improve our fluency when reading. Can anyone tell me what the word fluency means? Fluency is when you read words quickly and automatically with expression.  When we read with fluency, we comprehend more of the story and the story becomes more exciting as well. To become fluent readers, we must have a large sight word vocabulary, or words that we know automatically, without decoding. To gain sight words we have to practice reading through a method of repeated reading where we can decode, crosscheck, mental mark, and reread.”

2. Say: “We have cover-up critters to help us decode, which means to read an unfamiliar word. For example, let’s look at the word frog. (Write the word frog on the whiteboard). I am going to use my cover-up critter to decode this word. I will cover up all the letters except for the first f. /f/…/f/…/f/. Then I will uncover r. /r/…/r/…/r/fr/. Next, I uncover the letter o. /o/…/o/o/o/…/f/r/o/. Then I will uncover the g. /g/…/g/…/g/ f/r/o/g/. Frog. This word is Frog.  Let’s use the word in a sentence: “The frog jumped into the pond.” A frog is an amphibian, which means they can live both in the water and out of the water.

3. “Now I am going to show you how a fluent and a non-fluent reader might read. Let’s look at a sentence.” [Show sentence on the board ‘Frogs love to hop on lily pads.’] A non-fluent reader might read like this: ‘F-ro-gs /l/ /O/ /v/ /l-O-v/, to hop, oh Frogs love to hop, on ll-iiii-lly pads.’ Notice how I read really slow and stretched out my words? I even read a word wrong and had to correct myself. That makes it difficult to understand what I am reading. If I read it again, I might be able to read a little faster and smoother. Let’s try: ‘Frogs love to hop on l-i-l-y pads.’ That was a little better, but not as smooth as a fluent reader. Let’s read it one more time [read smoothly and with expression]: ‘Frogs love to hop on lily pads.’ That time my words flowed together, and it was easier to understand what I was reading! That is how a fluent reader would read. Now let’s read it together: ‘Frogs love to hop on lily pads.’ ”

4. Say: “It takes a lot of practice to become a fluent reader. Notice how when I read the sentence ‘Frogs love to hop on lily pads,’ for the first time, it was very difficult because I had not read it before, and I had to spend time decoding words. When I read it the second time, it was a little smoother because I had decoded it already. As I read the sentence the third time, I added expression while I read. I became fluent by rereading, and that is how you can become fluent too!”

5. Book talk: Say, “We are going to read Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel, Chapter 1. This story is about a frog and a toad and they are good friends. Do you have a good friend? Toad is super sleepy, but Frog really wants Toad to wake up to have someone to hang out with. Do you think that Toad will be a good friend to Frog and hang out with him? You will have to read to find out!”

6. Pass out a book to each student. Students will read the whole book silently to themselves. Then they will read the book to their partner without helping them or getting frustrated.

7. 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.”

8. 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. I will also ask them the comprehension questions to assess their understanding of the story.

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Reading Comprehension Worksheet:

1. What season was Frog telling Toad about?

2. What was Toad doing when Frog walked in the house?

3. How long was Toad asleep for?

4. How did Frog get Toad out of bed?

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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