Sailing into Fluency
Rationale:This lesson will help students develop fluency in more difficult and longer texts. Fluent readers are able to blend words correctly, read quickly, and read effortlessly. We want to motivate readers to read and reread decodable words in texts. During this lesson, students will be practicing their fluency, reading silently, and also, reading with a partner. They will then read independently with you and you will graph their progress. You will also be going over miscues in between readings. This lesson allows teachers to be able to track their students’ progress and ability to read fluently and independently.
Materials:sample sentences on white board for modeling, stopwatch for each pair of students, pencil for each student, fluency checklist, fluency timesheet, comprehension questions for each student, and a class set of The Deep Sea by Matt Sims.
Procedures:
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Say: “We are going to be learning and practicing how to read fluently today. Being able to read fluently means that we can understand the words that we are reading and follow along with the storyline. If we become more fluent, we can comprehend texts while also reading with expression. In order to read fluently, we must practice, so that is what we are going to work on today.”
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Say: “I will read the sentence on the board, He signs his s-s-o-o-ng. Signs his song?, that doesn’t make sense. Oh it must be “sings”, the boy sings his song. Did you all notice that I got stuck on the third word in the sentence? I read all the way to the end of the sentence. Then I went back and reread the sentence with the word I thought it was, signs. Then I went back to reread with the word that made the most sense which would be sing. If a fluent reader were to have read this sentence, it would have sounded like this… “He sings his song.” The sentence was easy to understand because I did not have to stop and fix a word, I read it effortlessly. Now we are going to read the next sentence to a partner. “I went to the store today.” Read it to each other until you have read it fluently.
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Say: Now you all remember when I read the first sentence and got a bit stuck on the word sings. When I was stuck, I read through the sentence with the word I thought it was, which was signs. Then I reread the sentence to figure out that sings fit the best. This process is called crosschecking. Crosschecking will be an important tool to use in order to become fluent readers.”
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Say: “We are going to practice our reading fluency by reading this book silently to yourselves. [pass out the book The Deep Sea to each student] This book is called The Deep Sea by Matt Sims. It is about two friends Dave and Bill, who enjoy sailing Dave’s boat named The Rip Tide. One day they go out sailing out to Gull Rock, they are having fun seeing seals all along their way, until, Uh-Oh! They run into a log and it makes a hole in the boat. Will they still be able to make it to Gull Rock? Will they sink? We will have to read to see what happens with Dave and Bill.”
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Allow the students time to read the book to themselves. Then, in partners, students will each take turns reading the book to each other, in order to keep practicing their fluency.
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“Now we are going to test each other to see if we can read fluently. [pass out stopwatches, fluency timesheet, and fluency checklist, and pencils] Partner 1 will read first. While they are reading, Partner 2, you will be using the stopwatch to time your partner’s reading. You will say go and hit start on the stopwatch when Partner 1 is ready to begin reading and stop the stopwatch when they are done reading. Partner 1, you will read 2 more times. Make sure that you [Partner 2] are recording all 3 times on your time sheet and progress on fluency checklist. Then you and your partner will switch. Partner 2, you will now read 3 times and Partner 1 will record and time. Please make sure that you are listening and recording on the fluency checklist to see if your partner: remembered more words, read faster, read smoother, and read with expression the second and third times. By doing this, you will be able to see if your fluency has improved in each of the readings.”
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Once partner work is finished, students will work on the reading comprehension worksheet. You will pull students individually to read to you. They will have their timesheet and fluency checklist with them so you can keep it all together. Have the students read the first two chapters of the book to you. As they are reading to you, you will time them on the passage and plug it in the formula to record their words/minute.
***words x 60/seconds=words per minute***
Reading Comprehension Questions:
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Where do Bill and Dave sail to each week?
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What 2 animals do they see on their way to Gull Rock?
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What happened to make the boys have to ride in the small boat?
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How did Dave and Bill show teamwork and friendship throughout this experience?
Fluency Timesheet
Reader: _______________________
Recorder: _____________________
Total # of words in chapter: _________
1: _____ words in _____seconds
2: _____ words in _____seconds
3: _____ words in _____seconds
Fluency Checklist:
After 2ndreading After 3rdreading
Remembered more words
Read faster
Read smoother
Read with expression
Reading Progress:
0 - - - - 10 - - - - 20 - - - - 30- - - - 40 - - - - 50 - - - - 60 - - - - 70 - - - - 80 - - - - 90 - - - - 100
References:
Google Photos
Miranda Chambliss, Making Friends with Fluency https://mkc0040.wixsite.com/mirandachambliss/growing-fluency-design
Sims, M. (1999). The deep sea. Novato, CA: High Noon Books.
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