Growing Independence and Fluency Design:

Fluency, reading can be so easy it’s like magic!

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Rationale: Gaining fluency in reading does not have to be a hard and laborious task, but can be something different entirely. This lesson will go over tasks, so that children learn to enjoy reading and develop fluency as they read. Fluency is an extremely important skill to develop in reading for many reasons. Once readers have developed more fluency they are able to focus more on reading comprehension, and the meaning of words rather than decoding word by word different passages.

Materials: Pencils, Class set of Magic Secrets by Rose Wyler and Gerald Ames, Timers for each student, Fluency Graph for each student, repeated reading checklist, teacher fluency checklist, Sentence “This is a book of magic tricks. … Be a magician!” -- write these sentences on the board.

Procedures:

1. Say: Alright class today we are going to be applying some of our knowledge about reading. We are going to be building fluency in our reading. This means that we will be working on reading faster, smoother, and with expression. We will be re-reading the same book, so that we become more familiar with it. Once we become more confident in our reading you will be able to share this story with your friends and family.

2. Say: When we read books we sometimes come across books that we do not know, so when we do we use a specific strategy to help us figure out what the word is. Does anyone remember what the strategy is called? **Students respond: Crosschecking! Teacher says: Right! Now I’m going to show you how to cross check a word that I’m struggling with. à write “This is a book of magic tricks” – I’ll read, “This is a book of /m/ /a/ /g/ /i/ /c/, hmm that doesn’t sound right I’ll finish the sentence tricks”. Oh it’s /m/ /a/ /j/ /i/ /c/ tricks! Now I’ll reread the sentence, “This is a book of magic tricks!”

3. Say: Now I’m going to show you how a fluent reader reads. **Write sentence, “Be a magician!” on the board. Say: “Be a mmm-aaa-ggg-i-c-i-a-nnn” Hmm that doesn’t sound right, let’s see when I look at the first part of that big word I see /m/ /a/ /j/ /i/ /k/, but this is saying to “Be a /m//a//j//i//c//i//a//n/”, so what could that mean? Oh it says, “Be a /m//a//j//i//sh//u//n/!” After I broke the word down into smaller parts I was able to decode it and crosscheck by reading the whole word to see that I was supposed to say magician! Next I need to reread the sentence and practice saying the word with expression. “Be a magician!” After I reread the sentence a few times I was able to read the sentence faster, smoother, and with more expression meaning I gained fluency in my reading. Even though, it wasn’t easy at first I was able to learn a new word after reading the sentence. Now you are going to practice using these same skills to read and build fluency!

4. Say (Booktalk): To practice reading fluently we are going to read “How Magic Works” in Magic Secrets. Have you ever wondered how a magician performs his tricks? Well we are going to read about Presto the magician who does a lot of cool tricks. Presto pulls a rabbit out of his hat, eats a goldfish, and even pulls some doves out of his hat! Let’s read to find out how Presto is able to do all of these things.

5. Say: (each student will get a copy of Magic Secrets) Say: Each of you got a copy of Magic Secrets, so I want you to silently read the first story called “How Magic Works”. If you finish before we gather back together as a class you can reread the story to build fluency.

6. Say: We will be working in groups for this next part, so you will turn to your right and the person sitting next to you is going to be your partner. Each partner will practice reading the story 3 times, while the other person times them. You will use the peer checklist that I have given you to check how your partner is doing. So partner one is going to time and complete the checklist first, while partner two reads the passage. After partner two reads the passage you will switch jobs and partner one will read the passage. Make sure that even when you are not reading aloud you are following along in the passage! **if students need to see a model, demonstrate with a student.

7. Assessment: Teacher will walk around the room to check on students as they work in pairs together. Once each student has completed reading three times students will turn in their peer checklists. Teacher will look over to see if students marked fluency improvements. Each student will then come up to the teacher’s desk to read the passage aloud to the teacher. **the passage will be printed on a single page with no pictures, so that it is less distracting for students. Progress will be graphed in a fluency chart, using the formula: words x 60 / seconds = WPM. After each student reads the teacher should praise them for their work, and scaffold words that student struggled with, as well as asking a few reading comprehension questions. Examples of reading comprehension questions: “What did Presto the magician eat? (a carrot) But, what did the audience think he was eating? (a goldfish!)  What does the magician do to make people believe in his magic? (he only lets them see what he wants them to.)”

 

Peer Checklist:

 

Teacher Fluency:

Student Name:

Words x 60/seconds

Reading #1

WPM:

Miscues:

Did the student read with more expression? Yes or No

Did the student read smoother? Yes or No

Did the student read faster? Yes or No

Reading #2

WPM:

Miscues:

Did the student read with more expression? Yes or No

Did the student read smoother? Yes or No

Did the student read faster? Yes or No

Reading #3

WPM:

Miscues:

Did the student read with more expression? Yes or No

Did the student read smoother? Yes or No

Did the student read faster? Yes or No

References:

Wall, Emma, Flying Towards Reading Fluently: https://ecwall2014.wixsite.com/lessondesign/growing-independence-and-fluency-de

Murray, Bruce, Developing Reading Fluency: http://www.auburn.edu/~murraba/fluency.html