Growing Fluency

Rationale:

This lesson is designed to improve student’s fluency. Students will be able to read fluently, accurately, and effortlessly, making reading more fun. With fluency, students are able to add expression and emphasis on important words in texts. Reading with fluency promote better reading comprehension by allowing more resources to be dedicated to remember the story. By completing repeated readings, of whole passages from the book Stage Fright on a Summer Night. Students will be able to improve their fluency and reading rates.

Materials:

A copy of Stage Fright on a Summer Night (for each student and one copy for teacher)
Stopwatches or phone to keep time
Graph to chart reading time and fluency (for each student)
Partner Reading Checklist (one for each student)
Comprehension Questions/ AR Test Online
Dry erase board and markers
Comprehension questions worksheet

Procedures:

Say: “To become expert readers, we need to learn to read fluently. Reading fluently means reading with speed, accuracy, and expression. We can build our sight vocabulary and begin to recognize words faster. To become fluent, we need to read a book or passage over and over to become familiar with it. Reading fluently will help make reading more fun!”

Say: “I’m going to read a sentence from a book that we will be reading today” (write the sentence on the white board). Tell me if it sounds like I am reading fluently. “Jaaack loooookked up, juuussst in tiiiiime to see a strekk of liiiighttt fffllaaashhh thrrroough the sskky” Oh it’s streak not strek! Now I need to reread the sentence to make sure I can comprehend the words. “Jack looked up, just in time to see a streak of light flash through the sky.” Did you see how after I read the sentence? I corrected my mistake and when I read the sentence again. This is called crosschecking! Now I am going to read to sentence again and add more expression. “Jack looked up, just in time to see a streak of light flash through the sky!” Did you notice how I didn’t have to stop to sound any words out and I could read with lots of expression? I read the sentence fluently!”

Pass out the book Stage fright on a Summer Night. Give book talk: "Jack and Annie return to their magic tree house one summer night. This time they go back in time and all the way to England. In England there is a big production going on, but the actors for the big show are having some trouble. Jack and Annie have to fill in. will the show go on? Will Jack and Annie be able to do a good job? Let’s read to find out what will happen." Read chapters 1-3 aloud to the class with them following along.

Pair students up into groups of two. In each group, one student will be the reader and the other will be the listener. Each student gets a partner checklist

Say: "We are going to work on developing our fluency by rereading during paired readings. You will read chapter 3 of Stage Fright on a Summer Night to your partner then switch jobs with your partner. Repeat until each of you has read it three times. Look at the checklist with me. After the second and third readings, make a check mark by the elephant if they ‘remembered more words’, by the cheetah if they ‘read faster’, by the swan if they ‘read smoother’, and by the monkey if they read with expression. Let’s get started!”

After partner reading, collect the checklists.

Say: “Now I will call you up individually to read with me.”

Time each student’s reading with a stopwatch. While they read, note miscues. After they are finished, calculate the student’s words per minute using the formula (WPM= #words x60 / #seconds). Record this number for your records. Next show the student the Fluency Assessment Graph and mark where they are by moving the kid up the ladder to the tree house until the WPM goal is reached.

Pass out a reading response sheet to each student. This sheet will contain questions to test their reading comprehension.
Say: “after you read with me, I want you to answer the questions on this work sheet to make sure you understand the chapter we read.”

Questions from Chapter 3:

What did Jack and Annie see in a wooden cage on the back of one of the carts? (a brown bean with matted fur).
What did Jack and Annie find out about the Bear Garden when they read more about it? (it’s a place where bears fight dogs).
Where were Jack and Annie in this chapter? (The London Bridge).
What are some things that the shop keepers were selling? (shoes, soap, salt, pies, peas…)