Growing Fluency Literacy Design
By: Victoria Olney
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Rationale: Students will be able to read correctly, and effortlessly making reading more gratifying. Once students are able to read with fluency, emphasis helps to add comprehension. Children will be assessed on improvement by the formula (words read x 60/seconds) to determine the child’s words per minute (wpm). Repeated reading will be used in this lesson to help the children’s fluency rate. By engaging in repeated readings and one minute timed readings, students will be able to improve their fluency and reading rates.
Materials:
ï‚· Book: Minnie and Moo: The Case of the Missing Jelly Donut
ï‚· White board
ï‚· Markers
ï‚· Basketball star jumping number line- reading rate chart
ï‚· Timers
Procedure:
1. Say: “We are going to see different ways we can build our fluency reading muscles. Who can tell me what fluency means? [Listen and respond to student responses] That’s right, fluency is being able to read quickly and automatically like a robot, just like a robot we have to program the skills it takes to build fluency muscles. A robot has strong metal parts but we have muscles that help us keep our eyes on the word we are reading, and muscles to hold the book still, and turn the page. We are going to build those muscles!! I promise these activities will make fluency muscle building easy. I’m going to say a sentence and I want you to tell me if I am reading fluently or not. The c-a…ca-t cat me…me-ow-d meowed at the m-mii-mil…milk. Did I read that fluently? You’re right, I read that very slowly and without much fluency. I’m going to read it again to see if it is more fluent. The cat meowed at the milk. I read it with more fluency the second time. Now I am going to add some expression. The cat meowed at the milk!”
2. Teacher models how to use crosschecking when you do not know a word: If we were reading the sentence ‘Minnie could not find the jelly donut’ out of the book Minnie and Moo. If I did not know the word find. I would use my cover-up critter, but I would finish the sentence first to see if it made sense. Then the kids can separate the word and break it apart /f/ /i/ /n/ /d/. (A good way to do this is to have the students use their arms and pull them apart as they go.) Once the student had said the word reread the sentence to that it will make more sense to them. Cross checking is important so that you know that is it the correct word for the story, context clues help with this also.
3. Give each student a partner. Pass out a book Minnie and Moo to each student. Present the Book talk:
“Today we are going to read Minnie and Moo: The Case of the Missing Jelly Donut. In this story, Minnie and Moo discover that their delicious jelly donut is missing! They must work together to solve the mystery of who stole their donut! Follow along in your book while I read the first two pages. I am going to read them three times to practice reading fluently. When I finish you will do the same thing with your partner.” Read the first two pages aloud to the students. The first time you read, read slowly and sound out each word. The second time, improve your reading by reading more smoothly, quicker, and with some emotion. Say: “Now it is your turn. You and your partner will read the whole story out loud together once. Then, you will reread it again, reading more fluently and with more expression.
4. As students are working, walk around make sure students are working together and staying on task.
5. After all students have read the second time, hand all children a stopwatch and the word per minute charts to each group. Tell them: “It’s time for the Fluency Game!! One person will be the timer and one will be the reader, then you will swap. I want partner one to start as the timer and partner two to start as the reader. I will show you all how to use the timers. I will put one minuet on all the stop watches. The reader will read until the timer goes off. The timer will count the number of words the reader read in 1 minute. Then, you will graph it on the chart I have passed out. After you have graphed the reader’s number, I want you to swap jobs.” As you are explaining the graph, show the students what you mean. Use an extra graph to visually demonstrate the oral instructions. “Do this three times. Use the different ‘trackers’ to mark each one-minute read, so each partner should have three ‘trackers’ on the chart marking their words per minute for each round.” Tell students that the goal of this activity is to reach 85 words per minute by the third round. This way they will be able to compare how they did the first verses the second time reading the chapter. Hand out to each student an animal identifier card, the student will self-reflect on how they felt they progressed. This way they will be able to compare how they did the first verses the second time reading the chapter.
6. Later when the students have completed their three one-minute reader, collect their graphs. Consider these graphs for your assessment. This will allow the educator to teach the students according to the level they are on as well as give the educator an idea of what target areas need attention. To assess comprehension, the teacher will ask the following comprehension questions:
a. What happened to the jelly donut?
b. How did Minnie and Moo solve the mystery?
Reference:
Jennifer Falls "Go, Go Speed Reader"
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/odysseys/fallsgf.html
Book:
Cazet, Denys. Minnie and Moo: The Case of the Missing Jelly Donut. New York:
HarperCollins, 2005. Print
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