Growing Independence and Fluency

Not Too Little to Be Fluent!

Rationale: This lesson is designed to improve students reading fluency. Reading fluently means that a student can read fast and at an even pace while still comprehending what they are reading. Fluency contributes to more enjoyable reading because they are able to read smoothly and use the expression. For this to happen, they must be able to decode words in the text. In this lesson, students will learn the strategies and skills that it takes to become fluent readers through reading and re-reading the book “Not Too Little to Help”.

Materials:

“Not Too Little to Help” on Starfall, but I will print for students
Stopwatch
Pencil
Cover up critter
Fluency checklist
Reading Comprehension questions

Procedures:

Say, “Class, we have done a lot of work on our reading skills, today we are going to complete one of our goals of becoming fluent readers. A fluent reader is someone who is able to read very quickly and smoothly because they are able to recognize the words in a sentence.”
Say, “Today class we will be working on fluency. Does anyone know what it means to be a fluent reader?” stop and allow students to give responses. “Those are all good answers. Being a fluent reader is when you begin to enjoy reading because there is no longer frustration. You can use all the tools we have worked on to allow you to smoothly read through passages and understand concepts in the story. Fluent readers don't have to stop to figure out individual words. Today we are going to search for fluency in our books!”
Say, “We have been learning about several tools that will help you become a more fluent reader. Can any of you remember them?” Stop allowing students to answer. “Those are all excellent strategies to help us read fluently. First, we must be able to decode words. Some words can be really difficult, when that happens, we just need our cover-up critter to help break them down. I'm going to show you how I use my cover-up critter when I'm stuck on a big word.” (Write the word “funny” on the board). “Now this is a big word! Let me show you how I do it. Ffffffff- uuuuuu- nnnnnnnn- iiiiii. Hmm, that doesn’t sound right to me, let me look at it again, ffff-uuuu-nnnn. Now I know what that word is! It's fun! But there's an extra n and a y at the end? Like Funny? OHHH funny! That’s the word!
Say, “Now that I have decoded a word, let's try a sentence!” The sentence is “I see what it is”. “I want you guys to pair up and practice reading this sentence to each other, if you do not know a word, try decoding it as I showed you.” Students will speak the sentence to one another. “Does anyone want to share what they think the sentence is?” students will tell me. “Excellent job everyone! Was there a word that was tricky? The word what, huh? but you guys did a great job decoding it anyway. Here are three rules to keep in mind when we are working on our fluency. We decode as I showed you, We cross-check to see if we can figure out the answer, and then we re-read the entire sentence so we know what's going on. Can anybody tell me what crosschecking is? Cross-checking is a strategy we can use to make sure the word we're using makes sense in the sentence. We can use clues in the sentence to help us cross-check to find the correct word. I'm going to write a sentence on the board, and we will read it together.” Sentence is “My friend is glad”. I'm going to read it out loud for you guys and we're gonna cross-check. My fff—rrrr---iii-dddd is glad? No that doesn't make sense. My friend is glad! Friend makes sense in this sentence, right? Excellent job cross-checking!
Now pass out the books to each pair of students. Say, “we're going to practice being fluent readers by reading not too little to help. It's a funny story about a mouse in a lion! The lion gets into some trouble and doesn't think the mouse can help. Can the mouse help?”
Students will read the whole book silently to themselves first period then they should each read the whole book aloud to a partner. They must not help their partner read while they're listening.
Then pass out the recording sheets and stopwatches to each group. Say, “now we're going to play a fluency game! Put your listening ears on to understand how to play. Reader one is going to start the game off and reader two will be in control of the timer. Reader to is going to read how fast reader one can read the first 2 pages. Reader two will then record the time on the sheet that I've handed out. After recording the information, reader two will read and reader one will time and record. We will do this three times period 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 changing their voice? Mark these changes on your paper”.
After the students have read through the passage three times, I will have the students come one at a time to read the first two pages to me I will ask them to break their record sheet so I can attach it to the back have my assessment sheet. I will time them on the paragraph read aloud and use the formula to record how many words per minute they read.

Reading Comprehension:

Was the rat too little to eat?
Do you think the lion should have eaten the rat?
Do you think the rat should have helped the lion getaway?
Was the rat too little to help?

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

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