Growing Independence & Fluency

FLOATING TO FLUENCY

GROWING INDEPENDENCE AND FLUENCY LESSON DESIGN

Rebekah Kennedy

Rationale:

The goal of this lesson is to help students develop fluency. A fluent reader can read quickly and accurately. Being fluent allows readers to better comprehend the text. This lesson will explain to students how to become fluent, and it will allow students to practice their fluency with reading and re-reading. Also, each student will read for fluency with the teacher, and will graph the progress and scaffold unfamiliar words between readings

Materials:

Chart to record student’s fluency
Stopwatch
A hot air balloon Velcro that moves up into the sky in relation to students WPM (1 for each student)
Copy of passages for each student and copy to use for modeling (see below)
Book: Hot Air: The Noon Balloon passages sheet for each child (see below)
Fluency checklist
Cover up critter

Procedures:

Explain what it means to be a fluent reader—Say: It is important for every reader to become fluent. Fluency will help you read faster, and it will allow you to better comprehend the text. When you are fluent, you are able to read more automatically and effortlessly, and you can enjoy the book you are reading. We become fluent by making sight words. To make sight words, we decode. Sometimes we mess up a word when we first read it, but that is okay. We can crosscheck, which means we finish the sentence and we can search for a word that makes more sense. Every reader, even me, must read and re-read to become fluent. It l takes practice so that is what we are going to do today.

Model reading without fluency, with better fluency, and then with expression. Say: I am going to read a sentence aloud from The Noon Balloon a few times, then we are going to talk about what sounded better (show on overhead: They climbed aboard the Noon Balloon)
- “They /c/ /l/ /i/ /m/ /b/ /e/ /d/ aboard the Noon Balloon. Hmmmm oh its climbed”
- Say: I struggled with one of the words I don’t know. I was difficult to decode, but when I finished the sentence, I was able to crosscheck the word to get climbed. In my head I am going to mark how to say it. Now I am going to read it again so that the sentence sounds smoother and makes a little more sense.
- “They c-c-l-i-i-mb-ed aboard the Noon Balloon.” (Say it slowly)
- It was easier that time since I had made the mental mark of how to pronounce climbed. Now I am going to say it one last time:
- “They climbed aboard the Noon Balloon.” (say with expression)
- Ask the students to compare how it was read each time.
- The last time I read was even smoother and I was able to read it with expression. I did this not because I just read faster but because I read it, cross-checked, made mental markings, and then re-read. That will help me be more fluent.

Say: Now you are going to practice! We are going to read a book about an adventure on a hot air balloon because we are trying to float up to fluency. This book is about a young boy and girl who dreamed about going on a hot air balloon ride. The book tells about the journey they wished to have. What do you think they are going to see on their hot air balloon ride? Let’s read the book to find out. Everyone read it to themselves silently.
- Make sure they are reading silently.
- Call students in groups back to desk to ask short question about text to make sure they are reading.

Now everyone get with your partner (already assigned). With your partner you are going to practice reading and recording. The first reader will read the first 6 pages of the book three times. The recorder will fill out a sheet, marking how the reader is improving each time (fill out form below). You will mark if the reader read remembering more words, faster, smoother, or with expression after the 2nd and 3rd time reading the text. (Each pair has a book and checklist. Monitor progress).

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

Assessment:

While students are working with partner, call each individual student to be assessed. They will read a passage of the text. I will ask three comprehension questions: Who was with the girl and the boy on the magical balloon ride? What are three things they saw on their balloon ride? What did they do when the journey ended?

I will time students on how long it takes them to read the passage. I will record the students word per minute on the chart (see below).
- Words x 60/seconds = WPM

When the student receives the words per minute they will move their hot air balloon to the correct WPM. The goal is to get the hot air balloon to the clouds as soon as possible. The student will re-read the passage with me a few times. I will scaffold between readings by helping decode words (use cover-up if necessary), and I will ask open ended questions (“What would you see if you were dreaming about a hot air balloon ride?”)

References:

Brown, Margaret Wise, P (2014). The Noon Balloon. Paragon Books. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25311987-the-noon-balloon

Fluency is “SPOOK”tacualr!! A Growing Independence and Fluency by Christine Haley http://cmh0049.wixsite.com/christinelessons/growing-independence-and-fluency

Fluency Chart

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