Growing Independence and Fluency

Ms. Frizzle and Fluency

Growing Independency and Fluency Design- Anna Bolton

Title: Ms. Frizzle and Fluency

Rationale:

Fluent reading is essential in comprehension. Reading fluency is the ability to recognize words quickly, accurately, and automatically. The student is now transitioning away from being dependent of decoding. This part is important for readers because the students can focus their attention on becoming quick readers, smooth, more expression and comprehending the content. Reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading allow students to be able to improve fluency and grow into improved readers. The student will begin to enjoy to read by improving their sight word vocabulary instead of getting frustrated. This lesson will require students to crosscheck throughout this repeated reading of decodable text while the activity will enhance their fluency and independence in repeated and timed reading.

Materials:

The Magic School Bus Hops Home
White board and marker for each student
Fluency chart
Stopwatch/timer (for each pair)
Reader response form
Pencils

Procedures:

Say- “Good morning class! In order to be the very best readers we can be, we must be able to be fluent readers. Reading fluently is where you can read smoothly and quickly and you do not have to sound out each word you come to. By becoming a fluent reader, we are able to enjoy the book we are reading more because we can focus on the story and not get hung up on each word.”
Say (and model)- I am going to let you listen to me read a short passage two times. When I am done, I will take a vote on which time I sounded better. (Choppily read) “Jjjj-uu-ss-tt, jjjuuuu-sttt, just th-eee-n then, aaaannn-o-th-errrr anoth-er another fffaaa-th-er fath-er father and a ggg-iii-rrll caaa-aaamm cam (come back after to change to came, by cross-checking) in.” (Read smoothly) Let me try this again. “Just then another father and girl came in.” (Ask for a show of hands) “Who liked listening to my first reading? What about the second? Why did the second time sound better to you? Yes, right! The second time sounded better to listen to because I did not have to stop to figure out any words.
Say- Did you notice that I used crosschecking when I could not get a word? I finished the sentence with the word I could not figure out to see if I could figure out the tough, new word that had silent letters, like the e at the end of came. The first time I read them, I pronounced how they should sound, but they did not sound like real words I have ever heard of. After I finished the sentence, I could tell what the words were, like came and not cam.
Say- Let’s try reading the two sentences I wrote on the board together. I see a couple of tough new words on the sentence. (Read chorally) “The teacher walked me around the room to show me where the stuff was. Like the box where we get a treat.” I heard some of you having trouble reading the word treat, but I did hear you read to the end of the sentence to figure out those words. The word treat has /ea/ in the middle of it and we know that /ea/ makes a long /E/ sound. Let’s all read these sentences again now, thinking about the special spellings as we read the words tried and thought.
Say- Today we are going to read about a frog named Bella from the Magic School Bus Hops Home! The class all gets in the school bus with Ms. Frizzle because Wanda brought her friend Bella the frog to class after another friend accidentally opened the window and Bella got out! Let’s read a few pages together to see what they do.
(Write the directions on the board for students to see. As you are writing it down, explain what you will have the students do.) Say- Now, we are going to partner up with our reading buddies. One buddy will come up to the front to get 2 copies of the book, a reading response form, a fluency chart, and a stopwatch. The partner finding a place to read will be counting up the amount of words on the other pages we left off and will write that number at the top of your fluency charts. You and your partner will read those pages 3 times while the other times your reading with a stopwatch. If you are the partner not reading, you need to pay close attention to the mistakes your partner makes. For every mistake, make a little tally. (Show tally method on board) After you have read each time, you will do a distraction problem to calculate fluency. Take the toal number of words from those pages and subtract the number of tallies for each reading. Your answer will read ‘___ word in ____ minutes.’ When you finish timing each other, discuss your answers to the reading response questions. Each of you will write your answers in complete sentences at your desk and turn those and your fluency charts in to me.