Fluency is “SPOOK”tacular!!!

A Growing Independence and Fluency

Christine Haley

 

Rationale:

This lesson aims to help students develop fluency in longer, more developed texts. Fluent readers can read quickly, accurately use blending, and read automatically. We want readers to be able to… Read and Reread decodable words in connected text. Throughout this lesson students will practice their fluency and gain experience with reading text silently as well as reading to a partner. They will read for fluency with the teacher, graphing progress and going over unfamiliar words between readings. At the end of the lesson, the teacher will have a better idea of the student’s ability to fluently and independently read texts.

 

Materials:

• The book: Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds (one for each student pair and one for the teacher)

• Stop watch/timing device for each pair of students

• Chart to record student's words per minute

• Copy of passage on the smart board to model fluent reading

• Copies of passage (one for the students to read and one for each student for the teacher to record on)

• Fluency checklist (to pass out to students)

• A zombie with Velcro that moves along through a graveyard scene to get to a bucket of Halloween candy in relation to the students WPM (1 for each student)

 

 

 

 

0 - - - - 10 - - - - 20 - - - - 30 - - - - 40 - - - - 50 - - - - 60 - - - - 70 - - - - 80 - - - - 90 - - - - 100

Correct Words Per Minute

 

 

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

 

 

Procedure:

1. First explain to the students what it means to be a fluent reader.

Say: We want to all become fluent readers because being fluent means we don’t need extra help to read the things that look interesting to us. Wouldn’t you all like to be able to read whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted? A fluent reader reads with expression and automatically. They can use special voices for different characters or quiet voices for suspenseful portions of a story. They can also recognize all the words in the book and understand the text they are reading. The story is their main focus, and they get to enjoy it! Doesn’t that sound great? All it takes is a little practice. Today we are going to do just that- practice!

 

2. Say: There are a couple things that you have already learned that will help you become a more fluent reader. Let’s go over them. First, you need to be able to and know how to decode words. It’s okay to get stuck on a difficult word sometimes. I’ve been a fluent reader for a long time now and sometimes I even get stuck on strange looking words! Cover-up critters are great tools that can help us break up words that we may get stuck on into smaller parts that make it easier. Your cover-up critter is your helpful friend! If we are still stuck we can use a great method called cross checking. This is when we finish reading the sentence to figure out if we can get the word from the context of the other words in the sentence or the pictures on the page. This tactic can help us better understand the meaning of the sentence so that we can get back to the story. Do you remember learning how to crosscheck? When we come across a word that doesn’t quite fit in its sentence, we need to look at the other words around the “fishy” word and the pictures on the page to decide if something else fits better. Then, we mentally mark the letters from that word that made us decode it incorrectly. In the future, we can now remember how to read the word without having to crosscheck again! Isn’t that great? We also want to always remember to reread when you come across a sentence that gives you trouble.  Let’s go over our reading tools together again: We decode, crosscheck, discover the word, mentally mark irregularities, and reread the entire sentence for comprehension. Now we are ready to read for fluency! This is going to be fun and a little bit spooky…

 

3. Say: Now I am going to read out loud. Listen as I read: (Read sentence from passage on smart board so that students can follow along from their seats)

 

Read out loud:

/J/ /a/ /s/ /p/ e/ r/ Jasper… couldn’t… get /e/ /n/ /ow/ /g/ enowg… /c/ /a/ /r/ /o/ /t/ /s/ carrots.

 

4. Say: I had a lot of trouble with that sentence. I didn’t know some of those words, and they had letters that made them hard to decode. I’m going to use my cover-up critter to decode these difficult words and see if the sentence makes a little more sense:

 

“J-j-j-asp-p-er c-c-oo-u-l-d-n’t get e-e-n-o-u-g-h carrots.”

 

I broke the word up into smaller parts that make more sense to me. I think I should try one more time so that the sentence sounds a little bit smoother:

 

“Jas-per could-n’t get e-nough carr-ots.”

 

That was it! The sentence made sense and I read it smoothly. Did you understand what I read? Jasper must really like carrots. Since I was able to break up the word and figure it out with my cover-up critter I am going to go back and read the sentence again so I can mentally mark the passage. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots.”

 

 Wow, I was able to read that a lot faster and more fluently. Going back to reread the sentence was important because now I know all of the information and my brain didn’t have to work quite as hard.

 

5. Say: Now I am going to read the sentence one more time so that I can add expression. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots.”

 

6. Now, take a moment to ask the students a few questions about the way that you read the sentence. Say: What did you notice about the first time I read the sentence? Did you have a hard time understanding the sentence the first few times I read it? By the end, what changed?

 

7. Activity:

Say: Now it’s your turn to practice! Since it is October and Halloween is right around the corner, we are going to read a spooky book. Do you think that sounds fun? This book is called Creepy Carrots. It is about a very curious rabbit named Jasper. He loves to eat carrots, and he eats them all day long. One day, Jasper starts to feel like someone or something is following him… Could it be some creepy-crawly carrots? Let’s read this book to find out! I want you all to take a few minutes to read this book silently at your desk. Try not to make any noise while you read.

 

Teacher walks around with a clipboard and marks whether students are:

____ Voicing

____Whisper

____Lips moving only

____Silently reading in their head

 

 

Assessment:

Say: Great job reading silently, friends. I am going to call you back to our reading table in groups of five and we are going to talk about the Creepy Carrots book together. When I call your name, please come back here with me. If you aren’t at this table, you need to keep practicing your silent reading. (Call students back to reading table in groups of five. Ask short, quick questions- 1 per student- to check for comprehension and make sure students were actually reading). Send all students back to their desks.

 

8. Paired Reading:

Say: Next, we are going to break into pairs. You and a partner will take turns being the reader and the recorder. Since you’ve already read this text silently at your seat, you have seen all of the words before. The reader will read the first 15 pages of Creepy Carrots three times and the recorder will fill out a sheet, marking how the reader is improving. The recorder will mark if the student remembered more words, read faster, read smoother, and read with expression the 2nd and 3rd time they read the book. Then you will switch places and repeat. Remember to use your decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading skills. You can do it!

(Pass out fluency checklist to each student, and give them time for each partner to read/fill out the checklist for their partner. Take these up. Teacher should walk around and monitor progress.)

 

 

9. Assessment:

For assessment, I will call students to my desk individually to read a passage of a text that they have been reading with their partner. (Choose three-page potion of Creepy Carrots). I will also ask comprehension questions: Why did the carrots start following Jasper? What did Jasper do to fix the situation? I will time the students on how long it takes them to read the 121-word passage. I will record the student's words per minute on a chart

 

Words x 60 = WPM

Seconds             

 

When the student receives his or her words per minute, they will then move their zombie in the graveyard to the correct WPM. The goal is to get the zombie to the fluency feast (the Halloween candy) as quickly as possible! The student will reread the passage a few times with me, moving their zombie to the appropriate point on the graph each time. Between readings, I will scaffold by asking open-ended questions like, “What would you have done if you were Jasper?” and “What do you think Jasper should do now?” Between readings, I will also point out words they have trouble with and use cover-ups to help them decode the word properly.   

 

 

References:

Reynolds, A., & Brown, P. (2013). Creepy carrots! New York: Weston Woods Studios. Print.

Not So Frightening Fluency by: Maddie Ridpath

http://mrr0022.wix.com/ridpathsrockstars#!growingindependence-/c4xp

 

 

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