Fishing for Fluency
Rationale: In order to comprehend reading, you have to be a fluent reader. Students must practice expression, pace, and comprehension if they want to read effortlessly and automatically. Effortless word recognition allows students to reflect on what they are reading. Through reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading, students will be able to confidently improve their reading rate and grow into fluent readers. Students will gain fluency and independence in reading by crosschecking after reading decodable texts and repeat readings.
Materials:
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Pencils
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Timer/Stopwatch for each student
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Paper
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Coverup critters
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Teacher Fluency Checklist
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Peer Checklist (one for each student)
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Copy of Dr. Seuss I Wish I Had Duck Feet (Class group set)
Procedures:
1. Say: “Today we are going to achieve one of our goals in becoming a fluent reader in class. What does it mean to be a fluent reader? [listen to responses]. A fluent reader is someone who is able to read very quickly and smoothly because they are able to recognize the words. When we read with fluency, we comprehend more of the story and the story becomes more exciting, too! To become fluent readers, we must be able to recognize a large amount of sight words, or words that we know automatically, without having to decode them.”
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2. Say, “Now let’s look at a sentence written on the board: ‘The duck has a loud quack.’ Everyone put your listening ears on. I want you to tell me if I sound like a fluent reader when I read this sentence aloud to you. “The d-d-d-u-u-u-c-c-c-k-k-k, d-u-c-k, oh duck. The duck has a loud quake.” Wait a second, that doesn’t make sense. It must be quack. The duck has a loud quack. Did you notice I got stuck on a word when I read the sentence? To figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried what I thought the word quack said, quake. That did not make sense, did it? To fix myself, I went back and reread the sentence to figure out which word made the most sense. This strategy of rereading is called crosschecking, and it is super important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers! Since I figured out these hard words while reading, it helped me become fluent. Here’s how a fluent reader would have read the sentence: “The duck has a loud quack.” I read that sentence smoothly and fluently, which meant that it was much easier to understand.
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3. Say, “Now let’s think back to when I read the first sentence and got stuck on the word quake. To be able to figure out what the word was, I had to reread the sentence from the beginning and try to figure out what the word quack said; I pronounced it like the word quake. This was a little confusing, so I reread the sentence to figure out what the word should say to make the sentence sound correct. Crosschecking is what this is called, and it is very important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers!”
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4. Say: “Now I want you all to read the book, I Wish That I Had Duck Feet. We are going to practice being fluent readers while reading this book. In this book, a little boy looks at the advantages and disadvantages of having different animal’s appendages or body parts – such as duck’s feet, deer antlers, a whale’s spout, an elephant trunk, and a long, long tail. Which one is the little boy going to choose or will he choose one? You’ll have to keep reading to find out.
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5. After the students read the first 10 pages silently to themselves, I will put them into partner groups to reread the first couple of pages without helping each other or criticizing. I will give each pair a copy of the book, a timer, a fluency checklist, a pencil, and a reading time sheet. Then say, “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.”
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6. Say: “You and your partner are going to read three times each to help build fluency. You will take turns being the reader and one will be the timer. The timer will time your partner reading the book, and record their time on the reading rate chart. When you are the one timing your partner, be sure that you hit start as soon as they start reading and hit stop when they are done. Record all three times on your chart. After your partner has read the assigned pages, see if you are improving.” Before the students start reading, I will model how to fill in the fluency checklist and use the timer. I will then observe the students reading the book. I will walk around the room and answer any questions the students may have. I will also make sure that they are filling in the correct time. I will then make sure to explain, “As you listen to your partner read the pages, I want you to be listening for how their reading changes each time. Do they remember more words? Read faster? Read smoother? Read with expression? Please mark these changes that you notice on your paper.”
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7. After the students are done reading with their partner, I will ask them to come to my desk one at a time to read the first five pages to me. They will bring their record sheet with them, so I can attach it to the back of their assessment sheet. As they read, I will time them on the read-aloud and use the formula given to record how many words-per-minute they read.
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8. Each day I will set a certain for the students to get together with their partners to practice reading for fluency. After a week of reading, I will assess each student individually and give them different partners. This will allow for them to see how another student is reading and what they could learn from them.
Reading Comprehension Worksheet:
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What were one of the advantages as to why little boy wished he has duck feet?
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What was the reason the little boy will not have duck feet?
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What was the second animal appendage that the little boy talked about having?
Fluency Checklist:
Title of Book: ________________________________________________
Student’s name: _____________________________ Date: _______________
Partner’s name: ________________________________
After 2nd Reading After 3rd Reading
___________ ___________ Remembered more words
___________ ___________ Read faster
___________ ___________ Read smoother
___________ ___________ Read with more expression
(Words x 60)/s
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Edit Text
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Seconds = WPM
0 - - - - 10 - - - - 20 - - - - 30 - - - - 40 - - - - 50 - - - - 60 - - - - 70 - - - - 80 - - - - 90 - - - - 100
Correct Words Per Minute
References:
Book: Dr. Suess, I Wish that I had Duck Feet. Random House Books. 1965.
Other Lesson:
Kendall Woody, “Fishy About Fluency!” https://kwoody335.wixsite.com/kendallwoodylessons/growing-independence-and-fluency-1
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