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Fishing For Fluency 

Growing Independence & Fluency

Katie Stuart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rationale:

This lesson is designed to help students read fluently. Fluency makes reading more enjoyable for students because they are able to read the story smoothly and use their cognitive efforts to understand the meanings of all of the words in the text. But first, they must be able to decode words in the text in order to read with more fluency. Through crosschecking, mental marking, decoding, reading, and rereading, students will have all of the tools to grow into fluent readers and confidently improve their reading rate. Reading books and answering questions about the material encourages students to work on reading comprehension. Students will use the strategy of crosschecking after readings of a decodable text and repeated reading to gain fluency and independence in reading.

 

Materials:

  1. White board and dry erase markers for teacher

  2. Class set of Curious George Goes Fishing

  3. Sample sentences for the teacher to model

  4. Comprehension questions for worksheets

  5. Cover-up critter

  6. Pencils

  7. Stop watches for each pair of students

  8. Peer fluency sheets for students

  9. Peer fluency sheets for teacher

 

Procedures:

  1. Say “Today we are going to become experts at being fluent readers! Every reader must know how to read fluently. Does anyone know what being a fluent reader means? Fluency is being able to read words easily, correctly, and at a smooth pace. If you are able to read fluently then you are better able to focus on what is going on in the story. Being a fluent reader allows you to comprehend the text better which will allow you to read the story with great expression. Now we are going to get some great practice with fluency and reading expression.”

  2. Say “I need you all to look at the board and try to read the sentence I wrote (board has the sentence “I like to fish in a river” written on it). Let’s all pretend that we are not yet fluent readers. Remember we use our cover-up critters to help us sound and blend words we are stuck on. Starting at the beginning of the sentence, /I/, /l/-/l/-/l/-/i/-/i/-/i/-/ck/-/ck/-/ck/, lick, to fish in a /r/-/r/-/r/-/i/-/i/-/i/-/v/-/v/-/e/-/e/-/r/-/r/-/r/, river. Oh, that doesn’t make sense. It must be like! I like to fish in a river. Did you notice when I read the sentence I got stuck on the word like? To figure it out, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried out that word. It didn’t make sense though, so I went back and reread the sentence to figure out what the word should be to make sense in the sentence. This strategy is called crosschecking and it is really important to use when learning to be fluent readers. Now I am going to read the sentence again, “I like to fish in a river.” Could anyone notice any differences between the first time I read the sentence and the second? The second time was quicker and smoother. I read it with expression and fluency. That’s how I want all of you to be able to read. Now turn to a partner and practice reading the second sentence on the board (the second sentence on the board reads “I use worms as bate.”) Read it aloud to one another until you can read the sentence fluently.”

  3. Say “Now I want you all to read the book Curious George Goes Fishing. We are going to start by reading silently to ourselves. This story is about George, a very curious monkey who sees someone fishing. He decides he wants to try it out too! Now you are going to have to keep reading to find out how his fishing experience goes. Remember that we are reading silently to ourselves. This means that your lips will be silent and not moving.”

  4. Say “Now we are all going to partner up with our shoulder partner. Each group will receive a stopwatch and something to record times and observations. One partner is going to read first while the other one keeps time. The first partner is going to read the story three times. I want you to read the first 10 pages of Curious George Goes Fishing. The first read through does not have to be timed. The second and third time I want your partner to keep track of how long it takes you to read those pages. I also want to partner who is taking time to notice if their partner reads with fluency and expression. They may improve each time they read it through, take notes if you are able to see improvements. Now everyone needs to be a good partner and participate in this activity. I will be walking around to ensure everyone is following rules correctly. The sheets you are recording this information on will be turned into me at the end.”

 

Fluency Checklist for students to work with:

 

Title of book: ________________________
Your name: ____________________   Date: __________
Partners name: _________________
After 2nd Reading: After 3rd Reading:
________________ ________________ Remember more words
________________ ________________ Read Faster
________________ ________________ Read Smoother
_______________ ________________ Read with Expression
_______________ ________________ Words/Min

 

  1. Say “Now I am going to have you come up to my desk one by one to read with me. This will allow me to help you if needed and to see how great you are getting at becoming a fluent reader. I will start calling you up one by one now. (This will allow me to collect data from the students and see who still needs improvement. To help monitor fluency, you can use the formula (words x 60/seconds) and this will allow you to see how many words your students is reading per minute. Mark improvements and miscues while you are working with each student.)

 

 

 

Fluency Checklist for teachers to use:

Students name:

Words x 60/seconds:

Improvements:

Miscues:

 

  1. Say “Now that we have read the book a few times through, we are going to answer a few questions to see how well you comprehended the book. We are working on these independently. I will collect them once everyone is finished.” (Hand out reading comprehension question sheet.)

 

Reading Comprehension Questions:

  1. What did George make a fishing pole out of?

  2. What did George put on the hook to attract fish?

  3. What did George end up doing with his string instead of fishing?

 

  1. The information received from the Fluency Sheet’s and the answers from the reading comprehension sheet will be used to assess the students’ progress in reading fluency and comprehension.

 

References:

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