Flying to Fluency
Growing Fluency and Independence
Rationale: Fluency in reading is the ability to recognize words quickly, accurately, and automatically. For children to really enjoy reading, and also, to better understand what they are reading, it is critical for them to learn how to read fluently. When children can read fluently, their effort transfers to comprehension rather than the mechanics of reading such as decoding and blending. Students will learn to read fluently through reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading. Students will improve their reading rate and grow into confident, more expressive, and fluent readers.
Materials: Stopwatch for each pair of students, class set of Berenstain Bears Take Off! By Mike Berenstain, sample sentences for teachers to model (on board), peer evaluation worksheet for each student, cover-up critters for each student (popsicle stick with googly eyes), printed passage of the book on one page, fluency chart (airport runway), small airplane to track fluency, comprehension worksheet for each student
Procedure:
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Say: “Today we are going to work on our fluency in reading! This means you are going to be able to read words easily and correctly. When we are fluent readers, we can better understand the text we are reading, and we get the chance to read the story with expression to make it more exciting or interesting! We are going to practice this today by reading the same book more than once. Each time we read it, we will be more familiar with the words. This is called repeated reading. Once we have mastered this book, all of you will feel more confident to read this book to your classmates, family, or even act it out!”
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The teacher will then model crosschecking and decoding by reading a sample sentence from the board. Say: “I want everyone to look at this sentence” (sample: Look at the plane flying above us). “Let’s read it together. “Llllooooookkk aaattttt ttthhhee pllll….” “When I get stuck on a word, I finish reading the sentence…. flying above us.” “If I still cannot figure out the correct word, I can use my cover up critter. First, I uncover the first letter in the word, this tells us to say /p/” (I continue this with each letter in the word) /p/ /l/ /A/ /n/. “I need to remember that the a_e says /A/, so this word is pronounced as p-l-A-n.” “Oh plane! Like I can fly in a plane to go somewhere new! I used crosschecking to reread the sentence to try and figure out the word. I am getting better because I keep rereading! Now that I know the correct word, I can mentally mark the spelling to help me remember it in the future.”
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Say: “Let’s see the difference between a fluent reader and a non-fluent reader. I am going to read this sentence on the board: “I once flew in an airplane for six hours” This is how I may read the sentence the first time I see it: “I oooncce ffflllleeeww iinn annn aaiiirplllannnee ffoorr siiixx hhoourss.” When I read it slow and stretched out, it is hard to understand what I read. But if I read it again, I can try to read it faster and more smoothly: I o-n-c-e f-l-e-w in an air-p-l-a-n-e for six hours.” See! That was a little more fluent, but I think I can read it even better! (I will read it smoothly and with expression) I once flew in an airplane for six hours!! That time, the words flowed smoothly, it was easy to understand what I said, and you know how I felt. This is how a fluent reader should read the sentence. Now you try reading the sentence fluently. (Have students read sentence aloud and practice using expression).
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Say: “It takes practice to become a great reader. When I first read the sentence, it was difficult because I had never read it before. I had to spend time decoding the words. But, when I read it again, it was a little easier because I has already decoded it. I read it the third time more smoothly and with more expression! I became fluent by rereading the sentence until I understood what it was saying. That is how you can become fluent readers too!”
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Say: “To practice reading fluently, we are going to read the book “The Berenstain Bears Take Off”. This story is about the Berenstain Bears who attend the Big Air Show at Bear Country Airport and watch jet planes, helicopters, rocket planes, and more, all from inside a hot-air balloon! What are some things you think the bears will learn about on their adventure?
6. Children will be given a copy of the book, their own cover-up critter, evaluation worksheet, comprehension worksheet, and one stopwatch per pair of students. Say: “Now we are going to practice reading fluently by working with a partner. Each of you will take turns reading the story, before we end you will each read it three times. Remember to crosscheck and use your cover-up critter to help you figure out words if you get stuck. While you read, your partner will time you by using the stopwatch. Record the time on the worksheet. Your partner will be listening closely to see if you are reading smoothly and with expression. Remember to use kind words when discussing with your partner, we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. After you finish reading and recording, discuss the book with your partner. You should go back to your seat and fill out your reading comprehension worksheet and turn it into me.
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 to see if fluency improvements were made. Calculating words per minute can be helpful (Words per minute formula: (Words read x 60)/total seconds it took to read the text). Call each student to your desk to read the passage to you. (Be sure to put the passage all on one page so the reader isn’t distracted by the illustrations or turning the page). Time the student while he/she reads the passage. Once you calculate their words per minute, allow them to put the airplane onto the appropriate number. The goal is to get the student reading 85 words per minute which would put the airplane into the air! Before you end the lesson, review the answers to the reading comprehension questions to see how well the students understood the story.
Reading Comprehension Worksheet:
1. What did the bears learn about on their adventure?
2. What did the first plane look like?
3. What did the last plane look like?
4. What was one new thing you learned about planes after reading this book?
References:
Book: Berenstain, M. Berenstain Bears Take Off! New York: HarperCollins.
Cover-Up Critters: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/materials.html
Hicks, Elyssa. “Flying into Fluency”: http://erh0014.wixsite.com/elyssahicks/growing-fluency-and-independence
