Growing Independence and Fluency

Dragons Love to be Fluent

Rationale: This lesson is designed to improve students reading fluency. Reading fluently means that a student has the ability to read where nearly all the words are sight vocabulary. As a result of this, readers can read at a fast pace and with expression. First the students must be able to decode words in the text they are reading in order to have reading fluency. In this lesson, students will learn the strategies and skills that it takes to become a fluent reader through modeling and practice. Students will use the strategy of crosschecking after readings of a decodable text and repeated readings to gain fluency and independence in reading.

Materials: Pencils, stopwatch and timer, coverup critters, Dragons Love Tacos by Daniel Salmieri, fluency checklist, reading time log, partner reading progress sheet.

Procedure:

Say: “ Alright, Class! Today we are going to learn how to improve our fluency when reading. In order to be good readers, we need to be able to read fluently. Can anyone tell me what the word fluency means? Well, fluency is when you read words quickly and automatically with expression. When we read with fluency, we comprehend more of the story and the story becomes more exciting, too. To become fluent readers, we must be able to recognize a large amount of sight words, or words that we know automatically, without having to decode them. To gain sight words we have to practice reading through a method of repeated reading where we can decode, crosscheck, mental mark, and reread.”

Say: “Right here we have cover-up critters to help us decode, which means it is here to help us read an unfamiliar word. For example, let’s look at how I say this sentence (Model reading a sentence fluently and non-fluently). “I love to go to school and read books” “I l-l-o-o-o-o-v-v-e-e t-o go t-o s-s-c-h-o-o-o-l-l an-d r-e-e-a-a-d-d b-b-o-o-o-o-k-k-s-s.” Did I read that sentence fluently? NO, absolutely not! How about this time- “I love to go to school and read books”. That time I read the sentence fluently and it was much easier to understand!

Say: Let’s learn how we will become fluent readers! What do we do when we see a word we don’t recognize? Do we just skip over it? No! One way to read a word that is unfamiliar to us is to use a “cover up”. For example, if you come across the word frog and did not know how to say it, we would cover up the f in the word and along with the r and g, leaving just the vowel o. I will then think to myself, “Hmmm, lets think. What does the O sound make? (Wait for response) The O sound makes my mouth into a circle when I say it and sounds like “ahh” like when you go to the doctor and the doctor tells you to open up, you say “ahhhh”. Next, I will uncover the g and think about the sounds they make and combine them to say the ending of the word “og”. Then, I will reveal the first two letters, fr. /f/ /r/. Now lets combine the letters and their sounds to read the word: /f/ /r/ /o/ /g/….Frog. Great job everyone!! This is an example on how you use cover-ups to read a word.

Say: Okay, now that we have learned about cover-ups, we are going to learn about another strategy called crosschecking. When we are unsure about a word, we reread the sentence with the word we think it is to see if it makes sense. For example, if we read this sentence “I went to the lake and saw a snake in the water.” If you come across the word snake and you’re unsure what the word is, we would first try to decode it. If we could not successfully decode it, we would try to put the word we think it is and read it in the sentence. When we reread the word in the sentence and know that, “No, we don’t see snacks in the water!” Then we would know that the word does not make sense.
Say: To practice reading fluently, we are going to read the story Dragons Love Tacos. This story is about all the different kinds of tacos that dragons love to eat. One day, a dragon is lured in to a birthday party. The only way to get the dragon there is to say there are going to be tacos there. Dragons do NOT like spicy foods. But what happens if the dragon accidentally eats the spicy salsa? Oh boy, lets read and find out! (Read to story aloud).
Children will be given a copy of the book Dragons Love Tacos, their own cover-up critter, evaluation worksheet, comprehension worksheet, and one stopwatch per pair of students. Say: “Now we are going to practice reading fluently by working with a partner. Everyone will pair up with someone in the class. Each of you will take turns reading the book. Before we end, you will each read it three times. Remember to crosscheck and use your cover-up critter to help you figure out words if you get stuck. While you read, your partner will time you by using the stopwatch. After you are done reading the story, have your partner record your time on the worksheet. Your partner will be listening closely to see if you are reading smoothly and with expression. Remember to use kind words when discussing with your partner, we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. After you finish reading and recording, discuss the book with your partner. Talk about what happened and what was your favorite part! When you are done, return to your seats and fill out the reading comprehension worksheet. Turn it in when you are done.

Assessment:

Walk around the room to observe and monitor the students’ reading and recording. Have the students turn in their worksheets when they are finished. Review to see if fluency improvements were made with the individual students. Calculate words per minute for each student to see where they are. Each student will have a turn to read to me individually. Each student will be timed and assessed with miscues and fluency on their reading by me. After reading the passage, ask questions about the story/plot to test reading comprehension.

References:

Book: Dragons Love Tacos by Daniel Salmieri.

Bruce Murray, The Reading Genie: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/advancements/

Caroline Shea, Moving into Fluency: https://chs0025.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/growing-independence-and-fluency

Reading Checklist:

Partner Reading Progress Checklist

Total # of words in story: ________

Reader:______________

Timer/Checker:_______________

1: _____ Words in _____ seconds

2: _____Words in ______seconds

3. _____Words in ______seconds

Who soundest the smoothest while reading?______________

Which turn had the least number of errors? ______________

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