top of page

                                                                                                                    Fly with Fluency

                                                                                                                    By: Maggie Barry

 

Rationale: Students need to learn how read smooth, expressively, and fast. Students will learn to do this through reading and repetition. If the students become fluent readers then they will be more successful in the future with reading. Having repetition helps the students learn how to read faster and more words overtime. This lesson is going to help students become fluent readers by repeatedly reading books fast and smooth. Students are going to read on their own and then also do one minute reading with their peers.

 

Materials: Writing materials, Book: “Back to School with Mac” by Kim DiLerato, speed reading record sheet, stop watch, pencils, bird reading chart.

 

Procedure:

  1. Say: “Today in class we are going to work on our reading but see how fast we can do it and how smooth, this is called fluency. This is very important for all of you to learn so that you can read and understand the books rather then struggle with your words.”

  2. Say: “ We will start with reading a sentence from the book we are going to read. I will read the sentence aloud and want you to listen to how smooth it as and all the sounds of the vowels and words. I am going to read a sentence from the book you will read today; Tt-o-g-e-t-h-e-r, w-e w-i-l-l g-e-t y-o-u r-e-a-d-y f-o-r t-h-e f-i-r-s-t d-a-y o-f s-c-h-o-o-l” . When I read it like that it is very hard to understand because of how choppy it is. But if I read it like this “ Ttooggetthherr wwee wwiillll ggeett yyoouu rreeaddy fforr tthee ffirrst ddaayy oofff sscchooll”. It is much easier to understand, this is fluency when they all blend together smoothly. Can you understand why it is important for us to read like this? When we read smoothly and reread our books it helps us get a better understanding of the book and our fluency skills go up.

  3. Now it is your turn at reading fluency. I would like everyone to go to his or her desks and I will pass out a copy of the book. You are going to read through it on your own multiple times so that you can practice your fluency. This story is about a little apple named Mac who is helping students go back to school. He comes around after summer and is going to help students with the New Year, but how will he does this? Lets read to find out. How does Mac get you ready for school? 

  4. After your have practiced reading a couple times please come up to me and I will pair you with a partner to practice your reading fluency. You will read the book three times while your partner is timing you. Your partner will time you for sixty seconds and then once that is over you will go back and count how many words you read. Then repeat that two more times. You will have a sheet to write down yours and your partner’s words you read three times. Next switch with your partner so they can do the same thing.

  5. During the peer time I am going to walk around the room and notice how the students are doing. I want to make sure that the students aren’t struggling and that they are following the instructions of the assignment.

  6. As the students finish I will have each student come over to my desk and I will have them hand in their sheet to me so that I can tell them how many words they read for a minute and how this relates to their words fluency.  I will show them the picture of the sky and have the numbers ranging from ten to ninety.  I will also ask them open-ended questions about the story they just read. Then I will take the bird and place it on the number of words they read per minute. I will tell the students to keep practicing their reading so that they can move their bird throughout the sky.

 

Assessment: I will assess the students over time and we will repeat this activity again in the future and I will compare their sheets. I will keep each sheet throughout the year to see how they excel.

 

Reference:

Fishing for Fluency by Lauren Emily Shipman. 

 

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/

​

​

bottom of page