Ms. Faison's 

Monkeying Around With Fluency

Fluency Lesson

By: Mary Cameron Faison

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rationale:

Fluent reading is essential in comprehending. In order for students to read effortlessly and with automaticity, they must practice expression, pace, and comprehension. 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 use the strategy of crosschecking after readings of a decodable text and repeated readings to gain fluency and independence in reading.

 

 

 

Materials:

 

·      Pencils

·      Timer/stopwatch for each pair

·      Class set of Junie B. Jones & a Little Monkey Business by Barbra Park

·      Sample sentences on white board for teacher to model

·      Peer Fluency Sheet (one for each student)

·      Reading Rate forms for teacher

·      Teacher Fluency Check (one for each student) with attached comprehension questions

 

Procedures:

           

1. ​Begin the lesson by stating, “Alright class, today we are going to become fluent readers. It is one of our goals to be fluent readers, but what exactly does that mean? What does it mean to be a fluent reader? A fluent reader is someone who is able to read very quickly and smoothly because they recognize the words. This helps us understand what we are reading because we automatically understand each word. This makes reading much more enjoyable.”

2.  

   Now say: “Now lets look at a sentence written on the board: Sam made lunch on the beach. 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. S-s-s, /a/-/a/-/a/, m-m-m, Sam, made l-l-l-u-u-n-n-c-ch, l-un-ch, oh lunch. Sam made lunch on the b-/e/-ch, Sam made lunch on the bech. Oh, that doesn't make sense. It must be beach. Sam made lunch on the beach. Did you notice that when I read the sentence, I got stuck on the last word? To figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried what I thought the word beach said, bech. That did not make sense, did it? So I went back to reread to figure out what the word should read that would make sense. This strategy 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. Thumbs up if you think I read that like a fluent reader. Exactly, no I wasn’t reading like a fluent reader because I had to decode the words in the sentence. Here's how a fluent reader would read that sentence: Sam made lunch on the beach. I read the sentence effortlessly, and it was much easier to understand! Now turn to a partner and practice reading the second sentence on the board. Pat the dog eats my shoe, and he runs like an ant! Read it aloud to one another until you read fluently

3.  

   Say: “Now let’s think back to when I read the first sentence when I got stuck on the word lunch. To figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried what I thought the word beach said, bech. That made the sentence very confusing. So I reread the text to figure out what the word should say so the sentence makes sense. This is called crosschecking, and it is very important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers!

4.  

   Now assign partner for each student and pass out the books. Say: “We are going to practice being fluent readers by reading Junie b. Jones & a Little Monkey Business. Junie B. Jones is very excited because she has a new baby brother. Before she meets her baby brother she overhears her grandmother calling him ‘the cutest little money’. The next day Junie B. Jones goes to school and tells all of her friends that her new brother is a monkey. Is her new brother a monkey? What will her friends think? You will have to read to find out what happens to Junie B. Jones and her brother.

5.  

   Students will read the first three pages silently to themselves. Then they should each read a chapter aloud to a partner. They must not help their partner read while they are listening

6.  

   Then pass out the recording sheets and stopwatches to each group. Say: “Now we are going to play the fluency game. Put your listening ears back on to understand how to play. Reader 1 is going to start the game off and Reader 2 will be in control of the timer. Reader 2 is going to time how fast Reader 1 reads the first two pages. Reader 2 will then record the time on the sheet that I have handed out. After recording the information, Reader 2 will read and Reader 1 will time and record. Do this three times each. As you listen to your partner read aloud the pages, I want you to be listening for how their reading changes each time. Do they remember more words, do they read with more expression? Mark these changes on your paper.

7.  

   After the student pairs have read through the passage three times each, have the students come one at a time to read a paragraph from the first two pages to you. Ask them to bring their record sheet so you can attach it to the back of the assessment sheet. You will time them on the paragraph read aloud and use the formula given to record how many words per minute they read.

 

Words x 60/ seconds read

 

Use a list of comprehension questions to assess how their fluency is affecting their comprehension.

 

References:

Emily Mitchel, A Growing Independence and Fluency Lesson

            https://sites.google.com/site/thefluencyfox/

 

Carly Woods,  Flying Fluently into Space

            https://sites.google.com/site/misswoods14/flying-fluently-into-space

 

Johnson, Jacquelyn, Monkeying Around with Fluency

            https://sites.google.com/site/jjreadinglesson/home/monkeying-around-with-fluency