Miss. Sykes' Website
We Have Bear-y Good Fluency
Rationale:
Reading with fluency is reading at a faster pace, smoother, and with expression. Students must learn how to decode before working on fluency. Decodable books must be read many different times in order for a student to gain fluency on that text. This lesson encourages students to practice reading decodable books effectively. In this lesson, we will work on gaining fluency through repeated reading and one-minute reads. All of these activities provide practice to help increase fluency.
Materials:
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sentence strip with ''The bed was red.''
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class set of Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
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laminated (reusable) Speedy Reading sheets and laminated bears for marking number, one for each student
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stopwatch
Procedure:
1.) I will first explain what fluency is and what we are going to do today: ''Today we are going to discuss something called fluency. Does anyone know what being a fluent reader means?
''Being a fluent reader means that you know how to read something smoothly. If we want to be really good fluent readers, we have to practice!''
''First, I am going to show you the difference between a fluent and non-fluent reader. I am going to read this sentence that is on the board first without fluency: ''Th-e b-e-d-w-a-s-r-e-d. Did that sound like a smooth sentence to you? I bet it wasn't very fun to listen to because I read it so slowly. Let me try it again, this time smoother and faster. The bed was red. Reading sounds so much better when we read it smoothly. Now you see how important being a fluent reader is! Reading fluently can be hard, which is why we have to practice reading as much as we can. When you get to a word you do not know, remember you can cross check to figure out the tricky word, use your cover up critter or figure out the vowel sound first and then put together the rest of the word.''
2.) Now it's your turn to try. Each of you will get a copy of Bear Snores On to read. It is really cold outside and Bear’s friends come by to stay warm. Bear is sound asleep and even though his friends are being loud, he doesn’t wake up! What will happen when bear wakes up to find all of his friends in his home without permission? When you get your book, I want you to practice reading the book to yourself. Practice it many times because in a few minutes we will pair up and a friend will time your reading.'' Students spread out in classroom and read and reread Bear Snores On.
3.) Once the class has had a few minutes to read and reread Bear Snores On, I will pair up students and explain to them that one of them will be the "reader", while the other is the "recorder." Once the first person has read, they will switch jobs. I will explain that I am going to use a timer and after one minute goes by I will stop the reader. When one minute is up, the reader will put their finger on the last word they read and the recorder will count how many words the reader read and the reader will mark it on their Speedy Reading Sheet using the laminated bear marker. Now they will switch roles and the recorder will now become the new reader.
4.) Allow the students to repeat this 3 more times so you can average the results, marking each read on the Speedy Reading sheet.
5.) After the class has finished their one-minute reads, I will read the entire book to the class so they will know how it ends and what fluent reading of a book sounds like. We will discuss it and then talk about how listening to it read fluently makes it more enjoyable to listen to and easier to understand.
6.) Assessment: The teacher will look at how many words each student read in one minute. Also, teacher can have children do this lesson over with another book, maybe a more challenging decodable text, to see where their level of fluency is.
References:
Shupp, Elise. Worming Our Way Through Speedy Reading. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/solutions/schuppgf.htm
Wilson, K., & Chapman, J. (2014). Bear snores on. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.