Singing and Dancing Our Way Through Fluency

Rationale:

Fluency is the ability to recognize words quickly, automatically, and accurately. Being able to identify words automatically, it allows children to read with enthusiasm and expression. Reading fluently allows for more opportunities for reading comprehension since less time is spent figuring out words or sentences. This lesson will help students understand reading with fluency and speed by timing their reading and having other students assess their fluency with worksheets.

Materials:

Class set of “Clifford’s Birthday Party” by Norman Bridwell (one per student)
Stopwatches (one for every pair of students)
Pencils (one per student)
Speed Read Charts (one per student)
Fluency Rubric (one per student)
Dry erase marker, eraser, and whiteboard
Cover-up critter (one per student)
Reading Comprehension Questions
Fluency Progress Tracker (one per student)

Procedure:

Say: “Today we are going to practice reading fluently and with expression. In order to be a successful reader, you have to learn how to read fluently. When we do this, we recognize words automatically. This helps us comprehend stories that we read because we do not have to decode each word or sentence. [Write sentence, “We had a ball.” On the board]. It is common to read this as, “Weeeee haaaad aaaa baaalllll.” As you build up your reading fluency, you will be able to read it more fluently. Let’s practice reading this with expression and enthusiasm, “We had a ball!”
Say: “When we come to a word that we do not know, I want you to use a cover-up critter. [Give each student a cover-up critter, which can be used for later when they are reading their books to one another. Write the word “print” on the board and model how to use the cover-up critter]. First, we look at the vowel and realize that it is our sticky icky i, so it makes the /i/ sound. Now look back at the first letter. It is the letter p. /p/. Add the /r/ sound to make /pr/. Next add our sticky icky i, /pri/. After that we see the letter n, /prin/. The last letter is t, which sounds like /t/. Add that at the end and we get pr-in-t. [Write the word “block” on the board and sound it out as a class.]
Say: Remember that reading quickly is not the only thing that we need to do. Let’s look back at our sentence that we started with on the board. If I read, “We had a ball!” so fast that I do not understand or remember what I have read, then I need to reread so I can understand and remember the sentence. We can also crosscheck. [Write “We had to pay the bill” on the board]. If I were to read this sentence as “We hid to pay the bill” I would have to stop myself and realize that that does not make any sense. Why would you hide the bill that you have to pay? You wouldn’t! So, then I would know that that word muse be “had,” making the sentence “We had to pay the bill.”
[Divide the class in pairs and give all students the two reading rubrics and give students copy of book]. Say: Today we are going to “Clifford’s Birthday Party.” In this book, we get to hear all about Clifford the big red dog’s birthday party! His owner, Emily Elizabeth, threw him a birthday party and a bunch of his friends got to come. Let’s find out what they did! [Students will get to take turns reading the book to one another and recording each other’s progress. The recorder will set a stopwatch and have the reader begin when the watch starts. They will stop the watch when the reader finishes reading. This task will record the speed at which the reader is reading. They will do this three times per student].
After both have filled out the chart, have them read to each other again and this time the recorder will make notes on the reader’s fluency. The reader and recorder will switch positions and repeat. Allow the students three readings by having both readers reading to each other again and each partner taking note on their fluency the third time.
Collect all of the time and fluency rubrics.
For assessment, walk around the room to observe and monitor students’ reading and recording. Have the students turn in their worksheets when they are finished. Review them to see if fluency improvements were made. Calculating words per minute can be helpful [Words per minute formula: (Words read x 60) divided by total seconds it took to read the text]. Words per minute can be represented on individual student fluency progress tracker with a music note traveling up a microphone. Ask the reading comprehension questions to see how well the students understood the story and this will add to their assessment.

Peer Evaluation Worksheets and More:

Speed Read Rubric

Name:

1st Time:

2nd Time:

3rd Time:

Fluency Rubric

I noticed my partner…

After 2nd Time:

After 3rd Time:

Remember more words

Read faster