Growing Independence and Fluency

Swimming into Fluent Reading

Rationale:

To comprehend reading, you must be a fluent reader. Students must practice expression, pace, and comprehension if they want to read effortlessly and automatically. Effortless word recognition allows students to reflect on what they are reading. Through reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading, students will be able to confidently improve their reading rate and grow into fluent readers. Students will gain fluency and independence in reading by crosschecking after reading decodable texts and repeat readings.

Materials:

Timer/stopwatch for each pair
Sample sentences on the whiteboard for teacher to model
Peer fluency sheet (one for each student)
Reading rate forms for teacher
Teacher Fluency Checklist (one for each student) with attached comprehension questions
Pencil for each student
Class set of To the Sea by Cale Atkinson

Procedures:

Say “We are going to achieve one of our goals in becoming a fluent reader in class today. Does anyone know what a fluent reader is? (Calls on students to answer.) A fluent reader is someone who is able to read very quickly and smoothly because they are able to recognize the words. If we can recognize the word, then we can better understand what we are reading because we instantly know each word’s meaning. It makes reading much more enjoyable!”
Say: “Now let’s look at a sentence written on the board: I broke my foot. Everyone put your listening ears on. I want you to tell me if I sound like a fluent reader when I read this sentence aloud to you. I b-b-r-r-o-o-o-k-k-e, oh broke my fat. Oh, that doesn’t make sense. It must be foot. I broke my foot. Did you notice that I got stuck on the last word when I read the sentence? To figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried what I thought the word foot said, fat. That did not make sense, did it? To fix myself I went back and reread the sentence to figure out which word made the most sense. This strategy of rereading is called crosschecking, and it is super important to us when we are learning to become fluent readers! Since I figured out these hard words while reading it helped me become fluent. Here's how a fluent reader would have read that sentence: I broke my foot. I read the sentence effortlessly which meant it was much easier to understand. I want you to turn to your partner and practice reading the second sentence on the board. “Sammy went to the park.” Read it aloud to one another until you read the sentence fluently.”
Say: “Now class let’s think back to when I read the first sentence when I got stuck on the word foot. To figure out what the word was, I had to reread the sentence from the beginning and tried to figure out what the word foot said; I pronounced it like the word fat. The sentence was very confusing, so I reread the sentence to figure out what the word should say to make the sentence sound correct. This is called crosschecking, and it is very important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers!”
Now pass out the book to each pair that you have assigned. Say: “We are going to practice being fluent readers by reading the To the Sea. BOOK TALK: There is a little boy named Tim. Tim makes a new friend named Sam. Sam is not a human, he is a WHALE! What will these two do together? What adventures will they go on? You will have to read the rest to find out!
Students will read the whole book silently to themselves. Then they will read the book to their partner without helping them or getting frustrated.
Pass out the recording sheets and stopwatches to each group. Say: “We are going to play a game to test everyone’s fluency. Put your listening ears back on to understand how to play. Reader 1 is going to start the game off and Reader 2 will be in control of the timer. Reader 2 is going to time how fast Reader 1 reads the first two pages. Reader 2 will then record the time on the sheet that I have handed out. You and your partner will switch places after Reader 1 is done. You will each do these three times. 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 change in their voice? Please mark these changes you notice on your paper.”
When they are finished with their partner work, have one student at a time come to your desk to read the first two passages to you. They will bring their record sheet, so you can attach it to the back of their assessment sheet. As they read you will time them on the paragraph read aloud and use the formula given to record how many words per minute they read.

Reading Comprehension Worksheet:

When did Tim meet Sam? (after school)
Who did Tim meet? (Sam, the whale)
How did Sam get out of the water? (He took a wrong turn because he did not know his left from his right)
What did Tim and Sam have in common? (they felt like no one knew who they were)

Fluency Check List:

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

(Words x 60)/seconds= WPM

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

Correct Words Per Minute