Growing Independence and Fluency

Pedaling for fluency

Rationale:

In order to be a successful reader, we must learn how to read automatically, fluently, and consistently without extreme scaffolded help. Reading fluently is essential for comprehension, expression with reading, and increasing the speed that you read at. At earlier ages we focus on decoding every word, but now we can read, and reflect on that material to continuously better ourselves in several aspects of reading. Through decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading we can build self-assurance in fluent reading which will in turn make us overall superior readers.

Materials:

Copy of Amelia Bedelia Means Business by Herman Parish for each student
Partner Evaluation forms for each student
Classroom set of Stop Watches for calculating WPM
Personalized graphs to chart reading time
Classroom set of Cover-up Critters
Sentences to write on board or project: “She could tell you how it had gotten every dent.” and “Sometimes my bike breaks.”

Procedures:

Say: Who wants to become an excellent reader?! Well I think I have a special trick that can help you out! In order for us to become expert, independent readers we must learn to read fluently. This means we read without with certainty and confidence, effortlessly, and we recognize words immediately without having to constantly sound out and blend. For us to be able to recognize words immediately we have to build up a big sight word vocabulary. What’s that? Well a sight word vocabulary includes all the words we might run across in our texts while reading. When we have a big sight word vocabulary we can understand as we read, and enjoy the story. This allows us to read with expression and faster speed! We can also read bigger and longer stories when we have a larger sight word vocabulary. So how can we do this?! Practice makes perfect right? So, we will do what is called Repeated Reading where we use a process of: decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and finally rereading to build sight vocabulary and comprehension skills!
Say: I’m going to show you how we will crosscheck when we come across a word that we may not know in the sentence. (Model as you speak) For example, in the sentence, “She could tell you how it had gotten every dent.” I might first read, “She could tell you how it had gotten every /b//en//t/…bent. Hmmmm she could tell you how it had gotten every dent, oh! dent! She could tell you how it had gotten every /d//en//t/!” Then I would reread the sentence again with the correct word and then move on so I don’t forget what’s going on in my store. Make sense?
Say: Now, I’m going to show you what the difference is between someone who is a fluent reader and someone who is not. Let’s look at another sentence…(display this on board) “Sometimes my bike breaks.” Someone who is not a fluent reader might read it like this: Sommeetiiimmes my-y bike breaaaks. I read that slow and stretched out like silly putty so it’s hard to know what I even read right? A fluent reader would read it like this: Sometimes my bike breaks. You see how everything flowed from one word to the next and I could comprehend exactly what I read? That’s what it sounds like to read fluently. Now you try to read the sentence (allow time for students to read).
Say: To practice reading fluently we are going to read this book called Amelia Bedelia Means Business! This is a story about a little girl named Amelia who meets a new student named Suzanne. Suzanne has a beautiful bike that she rides to school everyday, and Amelia LOVES it! When she goes home and tells her mom that she wants that bike too, her mother tells her that it just costs too much…a whole arm and a leg! Since Amelia doesn’t want to lose either of her arms or legs she decides to get a job to buy the bicycle! She tries working at a Diner, Lemonade Stand, and even baking treats to sell! Do you think she will EVER get enough money to buy a beautiful bike like Suzanne? Let’s read and find out!
Students will each be given a copy of the book and use their cover-up critters for decoding as needed. Say: Now we are going to silently read to ourselves to practice reading fluently. If you finish before anyone else, start from the beginning and really make sure you understand the story. (Walk around the classroom as silent reading is done. Make sure students are staying on task and give allotted time for children to read the book- may need to be broken down into groups of chapters).
Say: Now we are going to split off into partners so I am going to count off by 1s and 2s at each table. 1s will work with each other’s and 2s will do the same. First, partner 1 will read and partner 2 will time them. Then, we will switch roles. After we read our stories aloud, I want you to talk about what you just read with your partner, do this quietly so we don’t interfere with our fellow readers. After discussing, we will read aloud again, this time we will check off on our partner evaluation (hand out evaluation) to see if we are reading faster, remembering more words, reading smoother, and reading with more expression. Then we will switch roles again so that both partners get feedback. Understand? (Take questions or model so students understand).
Assessment: After all students have finished partner evaluations and readings, get each student to turn in their checklist. As they do this have them individually perform repeated readings and graph his or her progress on the fluency chart (do this 3 times). This will encourage students to keep working hard and move Amelia further along the road on her bike! Make sure to give praise for aspects they are doing well on or have improved on. Also, make suggestions on aspects of reading they could work on to improve their fluency. Once this has been completed, ask comprehension questions to follow reading: Why did Amelia get so many jobs? Why do you think her mom said it would cost an arm and a leg for the bike? Do you think Amelia will get more jobs to buy things in the future?

Partner Evaluation:

Fluency Graph:

Teacher Fluency Checklist:

Student Name:

Words x 60/seconds

Reading #1

WPM:

Miscues:

Did the student read with more expression? Yes or No

Did the student read smoother? Yes or No

Did the student read faster? Yes or No

Reading #2

WPM:

Miscues:

Did the student read with more expression? Yes or No

Did the student read smoother? Yes or No

Did the student read faster? Yes or No

Reading #3

WPM:

Miscues:

Did the student read with more expression? Yes or No

Did the student read smoother? Yes or No

Did the student read faster? Yes or No

References:

Dunn, Morgan. “Marching Through Fluency.” http://lmd0015.wixsite.com/literacy-designs/projects

Parish, H., & Avril, L. (2015). Amelia Bedelia means business: Amelia Bedelia unleashed. New York: Greenwillow Books.