Growing Independence and Fluency Design
Ashley Colquhoun

Rationale: Fluency is being able to read quickly where nearly all of the words are sight vocabulary. This means that they recognize most of the words on the page, shifting to focusing more on the speed of their reading and their expression. It is an important skill for students to learn. If students are fluent readers, reading becomes more efficient, and they can start to read for understanding at a quicker pace. In order for students to become fluent readers, they must read, decode, crosscheck, and reread words. Reading books and answering questions about the material encourages students to work on reading comprehension. Students will use the strategy of cross checking after readings of a decodable text and repeated readings to gain fluency and independence in reading!

 

Materials:

1. Put sample sentence on a whiteboard for the teacher to model

2. Fluency Checklist (one for each student)

3. Fluency chart

4. Timer/stopwatch (1/pair)

5. Pencil for each student

6. Class set of Daisy Dawson Is on Her Way!

7. Reading comprehension worksheet

 

Procedures:

1. Say: “Good afternoon class! Today we are going to try and reach our goal of becoming fluent readers! What do you think it means when I say you will be a fluent reader? A fluent reader is someone who can read automatically and quickly but also reading with good expression and knows most sight words. When we become fluent readers, reading becomes more fun and enjoyable for us!

 

1. Say: “Let’s do a short review before we get started! Do you remember what we do when we get stuck on a word? We use our beloved cover up critters to help us sound out and blend the word. Let’s look at this sentence on the board: I like to go on walks. I am going to read this sentence to you, and you are going to listen to find out if I am a fluent reader! I llllllliccccccc to go on wwwwaaaallkkkks. Oh, that doesn’t make sense. It must be like. I like to go on a walks. Did you notice that when I read the sentence I got stuck on the word like? To figure out what word it was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried out that word. That did not make sense, though! So, I went back and reread the sentence to figure out what the word should be to make sense in the sentence. This strategy is called cross checking, and it is really important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers! Hold you hand up to your chest and give me a thumbs up if you think I read like a fluent reader? I did not read that sentence as a fluent reader since I had to reread the sentence to figure out the last word. Here’s how a fluent reader would have read that sentence: I like to go on walks. I read the sentence effortlessly which meant it was much easier to understand, too! Now turn to a partner and practice reading the second sentence on the board: I always wear my favorite gym shoes. Read it aloud to one another until you can read the sentence fluently!”

2. Say: “Now it’s your turn to practice reading fluently! Everyone turn to the person sitting to your right. This is your partner for this activity! We are going to be reading a small part of Daisy Dawson Is on Her Way! In this book, the main character Daisy Dawson is on her way tp school but her mom gets upset at her because she was late three times last week. Daisy gets very distracted by the beautiful things in nature. What do you think Daisy finds? Do you think she is going to make it to school on time today?

3. Students will read the first chapter silently to themselves. After, they will each read the first three pages of chapter 1 only . They cannot help their partner read while they are listening.

4. After they read, pass out the book, stopwatches, and fluency checklists to each group. Say: “Now we are going to play a fluency game. One partner will start the game off and the other partner will be in control of the stopwatch. The student with the stopwatch is going to time how fast their partner reads the first chapter. They will record the time on the sheet that I have handed out to you. While you are listening to your partner read, make sure to take notes and write down any words your partner does not read correctly. At the end of chapter one, add up the amount of missed words and subtract that from the total words read. After writing it down, the partners will switch jobs! Do this three times each. As you listen to your partner read, I want you to be listening to how their reading changes between the three times they read. Do they remember more words, read faster, read smoother, or read with more expression? Mark these changes on your paper. Remember to only read the first chapter. Once you have completed three rounds, go ahead and switch partners.

5. [As the teacher] while students are reading in pairs, walk around the classroom to monitor progress and offer any assistance that might be needed but refrain from correcting reading while a student is in the middle of a timed period.

6. After the students have read through the first chapter three times each, have them come one at a time to read the first three pages to you. Ask them to bring their record sheet so you can attach it to the back of the assessment sheet. As they read aloud, you will time them on their reading of pages one through three and record their words per minute.

 

Assessment: I am going to assess students by recording their reading progress by counting how many words per minute and on then fill out the checklist listed below.

 

Reading Comprehension Worksheet:

1. Who is Daisy Dawson? (She is the main character of our book and is the little girl who is on an adventure on her walk to school.)

2. What type of creatures did Daisy see on her walk to school? (Worm, bee, spiders, butterfly, singing blackbird, dog)

3. Daisy also meets a dog on her way to school, what is the dogs name? (Boom, 

 

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 

 

Time:                         Time:

 

(Words x 60) / seconds = WPM

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Correct Words Per Minute (circle the number or on the dotted line and write number above)

 

Voake, S. 1. In Daisy Dawson is on her way! essay, Scholastic. 2007. https://www.amazon.com/Daisy-Dawson-Her-Steve-Voake/dp/0763642940

Sienkiewicz, Anna. “Fishing for Fluency” https://als0095.wixsite.com/readinglessons/growing-independence-and-fluency