Fishing for Fluency!

Growing Independence and Fluency Design

By: Claire Payne

 

Rationale:

Fluency is being able to read quickly where nearly all the words are sight vocabulary. This means that they recognize most of the words on the page, shifting to focusing more on the speed of their reading and their expression. It is an important skill for students to learn. If students are fluent readers, reading becomes more efficient, and they can start to read for understanding at a quicker pace. For students to become fluent readers, they must read, decode, crosscheck, and reread words. Reading books and answering questions about the material encourages students to work on reading comprehension. Students will use the strategy of cross checking after readings of a decodable text and repeated readings to gain fluency and independence in reading!

 

Materials:

1. Timer/stopwatch for each pair of students

2. Cover up critter

3. Sample sentences on a whiteboard for the teacher to model

4. Fluency Checklist (one for each student)

5. Fluency chart

6. Pencil for each student

7. Class set of Junie B. Jones Smells Something Fishy

 

Procedures:

1. Say: “Today we are going to work on becoming fluent readers. We know that our goal is to become fluent readers, but what does that mean? What do you think of when I say a fluent reader? Wait for responses. Fluent readers can read quickly, smoothly, and with expression because they recognize words automatically.  This also helps us understand what we are reading because we don’t have to stop and make sense of each word. This makes reading more fun.”

 

1. Display the sentence strip reading “I have a pet fish” on the board. Say: “Ok, everyone! Listen to how I read this sentence you see on the board. (Read by separating each sound). ‘I  h-h-a-a-v-v (e)  a  pet  f-f-i-i-sh-sh.’ Was that easy or difficult to understand? Wait for response. That’s right, it was not easy to understand what I was saying. Let me try reading this sentence again. Read the sentence slightly faster and slightly more fluently. That was a little better, but I still did not get the full message from the sentence. Let me try once more! Now read sentence quickly, smoothly, fluently, and expressively. I have a pet fish! It makes sense now, right? Does everyone see how I reread the sentence a few times before I could understand the meaning behind it? Which reading did all of you understand and follow most easily? Wait for response. That is exactly why it is so important that we learn to become fluent readers. Today, our goal is learning how to do just that!”

 

1. Say: “When you get to a word you don’t know you can use your cover-up critter to figure out what the word is. Let me show you an example.” Write the word “ball” on the board. “I’ll use the cover-up critter to help me figure out this difficult word. First, I start with the vowel and cover up every other letter. The vowel here is “a” and I know that a = /a/. Once I figure that out, I’ll uncover the letters before the vowel. In this case, it is the letter b, which says /b/. Then I’ll put the b and the a together to get /b/ /a/. Now I’ll uncover the letters that are left, l and l. I know they say /ll/ when they are together. Now I’ll put it all together… /b/- /a/- /ll/… ‘ball.’ That’s not so hard right? It can even be fun if you look at it like a riddle!”

 

1. “What if we come across a word that does not make sense even when we use our cover up critters to decode it?” *allow for answers* “We crosscheck! We use other parts of the sentence that we do know to help us figure out the word we don’t know. Look at the sentence I have on the board.” *write ‘The dog was sad.’* “The dog was /s/a/d/? Is that word /sed/? That isn’t a word! The dog was /sed/? Oh! That word is sad! Now, I’m going to reread this sentence.” *read with expression* “Didn’t that sound like an expert fluent reader? We decoded and crosschecked the unfamiliar word. Then we read it to understand it. When we read a sentence over and over, the words become automatic for us to recognize. This puts them in our sight word vocabulary, and we become skilled readers! Remember, each time you read, you will get better and better.”

 

1. Give an engaging book talk: “Now it’s your turn to practice reading fluently! Everyone turn to the person sitting to your right. This is your partner for this activity! We are going to be reading Junie B. Jones Smells Something Fishy. In this book, there is going to be a pet day at school, but guess what is not allowed? Dogs! That is the only pet that Junie B. has. Will she find another pet to bring? Why do you think that she will choose that? We will have to read to find out!

 

1. Tell the class that they will now be doing repeated reading with an assigned partner. “We do repeated readings because they will help us become more fluent readers. The more we read a story, the better we will be able to read that story. I will read the beginning out loud to you all, and I want you to follow along with me. I will read as fluently and expressively as I can, so pay close attention to the way I read the story.” Read pages 1-3 aloud. 

 

1. Divide the class into reading pairs. Give each pair a copy of the book, a timer, a fluency checklist, a pencil, and a reading time sheet. 

 

1. Once students are ready to go, give instructions. Say: “With your partner, one of you will read first, and the other will record. You all may decide who goes first. When it is your turn to read, you will begin when your partner tells you to. Read the first three pages and your partner will time you. This is not a race, so do not try to go faster than your classmates so you “win.” This exercise is meant to help each of you improve your fluency so that you can read faster and more smoothly, not so that you can read faster than your partner. After you have read and your partner has recorded your time, you will become the recorder and your partner will read. When you are the recorder, tell your partner when to begin reading. When you say “Begin” you will start the timer. When your partner has finished the first three pages, stop the stopwatch. Record their time on the time sheet. Fill out the fluency checklist based on how your partner did. Once you have filled out both forms, switch jobs again. Do this process three times each, so you each read the first three pages of the book three times and you each record the other three times. This will test to see if your fluency has improved through each of the readings.”

 

1. While the students are reading in pairs, walk around the classroom to monitor progress and offer any assistance that might be needed. Also, ask comprehension questions while walking around the classroom: “What pets could the students not bring to class?, If the students had a cat or a dog, what could they bring instead of the animal?, Who is Twitter?”

 

1. Assessment: After the students have read through the passages three times each, have them come one at a time to read the first three pages to you. Ask them to bring their record sheet so you can attach it to the back of the assessment sheet. You will time them on the read aloud and record their words per minute. Assign each student to write one complete paragraph describing the story in their own words. This helps to assess the level at which each child is comprehending the lesson. 

 

Peer Fluency Checklist for Students to record with:

Title of Book:

Total number of words in the 3 pages read:

Reader:

Timekeeper:

1. _____ words in _____ seconds

2. _____ words in _____ seconds

3. _____ words in _____ seconds

What changes did you notice?

1. Remembered more words?  

2. Read Faster?

3. Read smoother?

4. Expression?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

0 - - - - 10 - - - - 20 - - - - 30 - - - - 40 - - - - 50 - - - - 60 - - - - 70 - - - - 80 - - - - 90 - - - - 100

Correct Words Per Minute

Comprehension Quiz

1.What pets could the students not bring to class?

a. a turtle and a fish

b. a lizard and a snake

c. a cat and a dog

d. a bird and a bug

2. If the students had a cat or a dog, what could they bring instead of the animal?

a. some fur

b. their picture

c. a collar

d. a stuffed animal

3.Who is Twitter?

a. a bird

b. a rabbit

c. a dog

d. a hamster

 

References:

 

Dr. Bruce Murray, Making Sight Words.

 

Anna Sienkiewicz, “Fishing for Fluency!”

https://als0095.wixsite.com/readinglessons/growing-independence-and-fluency

 

Sophie Taylor, “If You Teach a Pig Fluency!”

https://smt0034.wixsite.com/mysite/growing-independency-and-fluency

 

Book

Park, Barbara. Junie B. Jones Smells Something Fishy. Manhattan, Random House Books, 1998.

 

Click here to return to the advancements index