Lesson Designs for Reading

Smooth Like Fluency!

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Maggie McCullough

Growing Independence and Fluency

 

Rationale: The goal of this lesson is to help student develop fluency in longer, more developed texts. Fluent readers read quickly and use blending to read effortlessly. We want readers to be motivated to read and reread decodable words in connected text. Throughout this lesson, students will practice fluency and experience reading silently as well as reading to a partner. They will read for fluency with the teacher, graphing the progress and going over unfamiliar words in between the readings. At the end of the lesson, the teacher will have a better idea of the students’ ability to fluently and independently read texts.

 

Materials: stopwatches (for every student), fluency graphs (for each student), class set of The Story of Ferdinand (by Munro Leaf), coverup critters, whiteboard and markers, partner Reading Progress Checklist, Reader Response form (both forms are shown below)

 

Procedure:

1. Say, “Today we are going to learn about reading fluency. This is important because reading fluency means that we are able to understand what we are reading and what is happening in the story. The more fluent a reader reads, the more we can understand the story we read. Along with being able to understand what we are reading, fluent readers are able to use expression when they read. We can change our voice and make it louder if a character is angry, or soft if our character is shy. Today, we will practice our skills so we can become fluent readers!”

2. Say: “I am going to read this sentence on the board and I want you to tell me if I sound like a fluent reader or not. [Read: There was a little bull and his name was Ferdinand.] Thhhere was a llii-tt-ll-ee bull and his n-aa-mmmm was Ferrr-dd-ii-nand. Nam? oh wait, that word is name. That was hard to understand what I was saying because it was very strectched out. If I read again, I can try it faster. There was a lii-ttle bull and his name was Fer-din-and. I can try it again and this time use expression to. There was a little bull and his name was Ferdinand! See how that was fluent and much easier to understand the sentence. When I practice reading I build sight word vocab and reading becomes more automatic and fluent.”

3. Say, “There are some skills that we have already learned that will help us to become fluent readers. The first one is decoding. Remember, we use this when we get stuck on a word we don’t know. Our cover up critter helps us to decode. This breaks the word down into its individual sounds. Another thing we can do is crosscheck. Crosschecking is when we don’t know a word, or a word sounds funny, we finish the sentence and then try and use the information from that sentence to figure out our word. In my sentence that I read if first said “nam” but I finished the sentence went back and realized it was name. That is crosschecking. I mentally marked how that /A/ sound. Make sure to reread the sentence after you decode or crosscheck for good practice and understanding.”

4. Say, “Now, let’s read together- . If we have trouble with a word like ‘other’ we can decode or crosscheck. “Let’s all read the sentence again to practice our fluency [class reads together]. After we practice we can read the sentence faster and with better understanding. We are getting more fluent! When we read this sentence again, now we can add more expression.”

5. Say, “Now we are going to read The Story of Ferdinand. Ferdinand was a young bull. See him on this page. All the other bulls would run, jump, and butt heads, but Ferdinand was different. Ferdinand likes to sit all alone under a tree. His mom worries that he is all by himself. What do you think will happen to Ferdinand? Will he make any friends or ever fight like the rest of the bulls? We will have to read to see!”

6. Say, “Now, we are going to practice building fluency with a partner. Pair up and come grab a Partner Progress Checklist, Reader Response Form, a stopwatch, and two copies of The Story of Ferdinand. You are going to time your partner each time they read. Your partner will read 3 times. Make sure you time them each time they read and write down the time on the piece of paper. While they are reading, write down any time they pronounce a word wrong. Remember that mistakes are alright because we are learning and getting better. The more you read and practice, the better you should get! After every time they have read, write down the time and the number of words missed on the Reading Progress Checklist. Once you have done all this talk to your partner about the book and discuss what happened. After, fill out the reader response worksheet.

 

Asses- by evaluating the reading response form and determine each student’s WPM. The teacher should take the total number of words and subtract the incorrect words. After this, the teacher should divide by the time (in seconds) and write down the student’s WPM. You can show the student their progress on a fluency chart. Set the reader’s fluency chart and make sure you have attainable goals.

 

Forms (below):

 

Reading Progress Checklist

 

Total # of words _______

Reader: ____________

Checker: ___________

 

1. Words incorrect: ____ Time:______

2. Words incorrect: ____ Time:______

3. Words incorrect: ____ Time:______

 

Which time was the smoothest?

 

 

 

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Reader Response

Directions: Write your answer in a complete sentence below.

 

1. Where did Ferdinand like to sit?

 

 

 

 

1. What made Ferdinand jump and run around?

 

 

 

 

1. What did Ferdinand do in the fighting ring?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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References:

Sarah Hassett, Spring into Fluency, https://smhassett3.wixsite.com/lesson-designs/growing-independence-and-fluency

 

Leaf, Munro. (1936). The Story of Ferdinand. Penguin Group: New York.