Growing Fluency :  Fancy Fluency  

                                     Joy Boldt  

 

 

 

 

Rationale: 

This lesson is designed to improve students reading fluency. Reading fluently means that a student has the ability to read at a fast, even pace and with expression. They must first be able to decode words in the text they’re reading 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. Through reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading, students will be able to confidently improve their reading rate and grow into fluent readers. 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

• Stop watch and timer

• Fluency chart to record students words per minute

• Cover up critters 

• Fancy Nancy by: Jane O’Conner 

• Reading rate chart 

• Fluency checklist 

 

Procedures: 

 

1. Say: “Today we are going to learn how to improve our fluency when reading. Can anyone tell me what the word fluency means? 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 as well. To become fluent readers, we must have a large sight word vocabulary, or words that we know automatically, without decoding. To gain sight words we have to practice reading through a method of repeated reading where we can decode, crosscheck, mental mark, and reread.”

 

 2. Say: “We have cover-up critters to help us decode, which means to read an unfamiliar word. For example, let’s look at the word tiara. (Write the word tiara on the whiteboard). I am going to use my cover-up critter to decode this word. I will cover up all the letters except for t. /t/…/t/…/t/. Then I will uncover I. /i/…/i/…/i/ti/. Next I uncover the letter a. /a/…/l/u/n/…/t/i/a. Then I will uncover another i. /i/…./i/…/i/ t/i/a/r Finally I will uncover the a and blend all the phonemes together. /t/i/a/r/a/…/t/i/a/r/a/… tiara. This word is TIARA.  Let’s use the word in a sentence: “The fancy princess wore a tiara on her head.” A tiara is a what a princess wheres on her head, like a crown. 

 

3.  Now I will show the students the difference between reading a sentence fluently and not reading it fluently.  I will write the sentence “The princess lost her glass slipper.”  I will read it very slowly at first to show them how a reader who is not fluent would read it. “The Priiiiincesss lost her glaaassss sliiiiiipppper.” Then I would read it more fluently and faster to show how a fluent reader would read it.  I will read it very smoothly, and with expression. “The princess lost her glass slipper" Then I will ask, "Did anyone notice the difference in how I read the sentence?  Could you tell that one was smoother than the other?  Right, the smoother reading was a more fluent reading and that's how we want to read.  Is it easier to understand when it’s read faster and smoother?  That's right it is! Now I want you to try and read faster and with expression!” 

 

4. Say: “I want you to read the book,  Fancy Nancy by Jane O’conner silently at your desk. In this book, nancy is a young girl who loves to be fancy.  She likes for things to be colorful, sparkly, and of course fancy. She is trying to teach her family what it means to be fancy, and how they should do it. Lets read and find out if she teaches her family to be fancy.  Reading silently is without whispering or moving your lips. I want you to read it silently in your head.” 

 

5.  After the students read silently, I will then pair them up with partners. Say: “You and your partner will now get a stopwatch and a copy of fancy nancy, a reading rate chart, and a fluency checklist. You and your partner are going to read, three times each, to build on your fluency. You will take turns being the reader and one will be the timer. The timer will time your partner reading the book and will record their time on the reading rate chart. When you’re the one timing your partner, be sure that you hit start as soon as your partner starts to read and hit stop as soon as they are done reading. Record all three of the times on your chart. After your partner has read the book once, make sure you fill out the fluency checklist along with the reading rate chart. This will help your partner and see if you’re improving.” Before the students start reading, I will model how to fill in the chart and use a stopwatch. I will then observe the students reading the book. I will walk around the room and ask any questions the students may have and make sure that they are filling in the correct time. 

 

    Checklist:           

·         Did he/she read smoothly?

·         Did he/she show facial expression?

·         Did he/she have voices changes?

·         Does the student have an overall understanding of expression?

 

The following fluency checklist filled out for each reading partner will also be used as an assessment:

·         Title of Book:

·         Student’s Name:

·         Partner's Name:

·         Make a check if the following is true after the 2nd and 3rd Readings:

·         Remembered more words: 

·         Read faster:

·         Read smoother:

·         Read with expressions:

 

 

6. After the students are done reading, collect the data for yourself to analyze how your students did and who still needs to work on. Have each student read to you individually to you. Mark improvements needed and miscues, and ask comprehension questions  I will ask questions such as: 

“What are some things fancy nancy taught her family?” 

“What were some of fancy Nancys favorite things to do?”. 

“What was her family reaction like?”

 

7. Each day I will set a certain time for the students to get to go with their partners to practice reading for fluency. After a week of reading I will assess each student individually and change their partners up and let them see how another student is reading and what they could learn from them.

 

 

 

 

 

References: 

“The Reading Racer” by Mia Reynolds 

https://princessmcat2.wixsite.com/mysite/growing-fluency

 

“Fluent as the pace of the city” by Katie Caroline Bennett 

https://kcb0031.wixsite.com/mysite/growing-fluency

 

“Fantastic Fluency” by Maddie Gorman

http://mlg0023.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/growing-independence-