GROWING INDEPENDENCE AND FLUENCY
Flying Fun for Fluency
Rationale: Students become fluent readers by recognizing words effortlessly and automatically, which enables them to read faster, smoother, and with more expression. Fluent readers are able to understand the message of a text by improving their reading comprehension. This lesson was designed to build reading fluency through silent, repeated, and timed readings with the teacher and peers. During the lesson, students will use reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading to improve fluency throughout their repeated readings of Berenstain Bears Take Off! This lesson strives to instill in each child the enjoyment of reading, and to eliminate the frustrations students may encounter when they read.
Materials:
Cover-up critters for each student
Class set & teacher copy of Berenstain Bears Take Off! By Mike Berenstain
Sentence sample to model for students (written on whiteboard)
Passage from the book for Assessment (printed on one page)
Stopwatch for each pair of students
Fluency Chart (airport runway) & Moveable Fluency Tracker (small airplane)
Peer Evaluation worksheet for each student
Reading Comprehension worksheet for each student
Procedure:
1. Say: “Today we are going to work on our fluency in reading! This means you are going to be able to read words easily and correctly. When we are fluent readers, we can better understand the text and it gives you the chance to read the story with expression to make it more exciting! We are going to practice this today by reading the same book more than once. Each time we read it, we will be more familiar with the words. This is called repeated reading. Once we have mastered this book, all of you will feel confident to read this book to your classmates, family, or even act it out!”
2. Model decoding and crosschecking by reading a sample sentence written on the board. Say: “I want everyone to look at this sentence” [sample: Look at the plane flying above us.] “I will read it for you. “Llloookkk aaatttt tttthhheee plll….” When I get stuck on a word, I finish reading the sentence….fllying above us.” If I still can’t figure out the correct word, I can use my cover-up critter. First, I uncover the first letter in the word, this tell us to say /p/ [continue modeling this way with each letter in the word] /p/l/a/n/e/. “I need to remember that the a_e say a, so this word is pronounced as [pl-A-n].
Continue by saying: “Oohhh, plane! So the sentence says—‘Look at the plane flying above us!’ I used crosschecking to reread the sentence to try to figure out the word. I am getting better because I keep rereading! See, even Ms. Peel can get stuck on difficult words that need to be decoded and reread for understanding. Now that I know the correct word, I can mentally mark the spelling to help me remember it in the future! And never forget to reread the whole sentence. Once I can remember the sentence, I will increase my fluency and be able to reread it with expression. If you follow these steps, you too can be reading and enjoy ‘flying fun with fluency!”
3. Say: “Let’s see the difference between a fluent reader and a non-fluent reader. I am going to read this sentence on the board: ‘The airplane flew higher every hour that passed.' This is how I may read the sentence the first time I see it: ‘The airrplaannee fffllleeewww hhhigghheeerrr eeverryy hhooourrr tthhaat passseedd.’ When I read it slow and stretched out, it is hard to understand what I read. But if I read it again, I can try to read it faster and more smoothly: ‘The a-i-r-p-l-a-n-e f-l-e-w high-er every hour that p-a-s-s-e-d.’ See! That was a little more fluent, but I think I can read it even better! [Now read it smoothly and with expression]. ‘The airplane flew higher every hour that passed!!’ That time, the words flowed smoothly, it was easy to understand what I said, and you know how I felt. This is how a fluent reader should read the sentence. You will all become fluent readers by this method—repeated reading! Now you try reading the sentence fluently. [Have students read sentence aloud and practice using expression].
4. Say: “It takes practice to become a great reader. When I first read the sentence, it was difficult because I had never read it before. I had to spend time decoding the words. But, when I read it again, it was a little easier because I had already decoded it. I read it the third time, I was able to say it smoothly and add expression! I became fluent in reading by rereading the sentence until I understood it. That is how you can become fluent readers too!”
5. Say: “To practice reading fluently, we are going to read the book The Berenstain Bears Take Off! This story is about the Berenstain Bears who attend the Big Air Show at Bear Country Airport and watch jet planes, helicopters, and rocket planes all from inside a hot-air balloon! What are some things you think the bears will learn on their adventure? [Let children discuss their ideas—keeping them motivated and interested in the book through comprehensive questions].
6. Children will be given a copy of the book, their own cover-up critter, evaluation worksheet, and comprehension worksheet. One stopwatch will be given to every pair of students. Say: “Now we are going to practice reading fluently by working with a partner. Each of you will take turns reading the story, before we end you will each read it three times. Remember to crosscheck and use your cover-up critter to help you figure out words if you get stuck. While you read, your partner will time you by using the stopwatch. Record the time on the evaluation worksheet [worksheets may be numbered for children to better understand]. Your partner will be listening closely to see if you are reading smoothly and with expression. Remember to use kind words when discussing with your partner, we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. After you finish reading and recording, discuss the book with your partner. You should go back to your seat and fill out your reading comprehension worksheet and turn it into me.
Assessment:
Walk around the room to observe and monitor students’ reading and recording. Have the students turn in their worksheets when they are finished. Review to see if fluency improvements were made. Calculating words per minute can be helpful [Words per minute formula: (Words read x 60) divided by total seconds it took to read the text.] Call each student to your desk to read the passage to you. [Be sure to put the passage all on one page so the reader isn’t distracted by the illustrations or turning the page.] Time the student while he/she reads the passage. Once you calculate their words per minute, allow them to put the airplane onto the appropriate number. The goal is to get the student reading 85 words per minute which would put the airplane into the air! Before you end the lesson, review the answers to the reading comprehension questions to see how well the students understood the story.
*Examples below for Assessment, Reading Comprehension Questions, and Fluency Scale.
Resources:
Hicks, Elyssa. Flying into Fluency.
http://erh0014.wixsite.com/elyssahicks/growing-fluency-and-independence
Berenstain, M. Berenstain Bears Take Off! New York: HarperCollins.
View my example (mentioned above) here
Plane Gif: