Growing Independence and Fluency

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Fluency Fish

Growing Independence and Fluency Design

Rationale:

Fluency in reading is a very important skill for students to have. Fluency allows readers to understand the meaning of a text and enjoy the story. In order to become a fluent reader, students need to have automatic word recognition, read and re-read texts, decode, cross-check, and mental mark. This lesson will have students read and re-read a text where they practice decoding, cross-checking, and mental marking until they acquire automatic word recognition and can read the story fluently.

Materials:

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish by Dr. Suess, pen/pencil, stopwatch, fluency checklist sheet, cover-up critter (we will make fish cover-up critters for this lesson and use them), whiteboard, dry erase markers, words per minute chart (one for each student that I will use to record on) with a fish by the timeline with the 60 seconds on it (I will make this myself there is no reference for it.)

Procedures:

First, the teacher will explain fluency and why it is important. Say: “Today we are going to work on becoming fluent readers. Has anyone heard of the word fluency before?” (pause and let them answer). “Good! Now what do you think being a fluent reader means?” (allow time for students to respond). “Being able to learn new words and add them to the sight words we already know so we can read smoothly and quickly. That’s called fluency! Being a fluent reader makes reading more fun because you can focus on the meaning of the story instead of trying to learn new words. Doesn’t being a fluent reader sound like fun? Let’s try it out!”
Say: “So, today we are going to work on reading and re-reading a book to help us become fluent readers. Doesn’t everyone want to be able to love reading even more? This is how we do it. To start off, before we start reading our book, we are going to practice reading and re-reading a word and then a sentence until we are fluent in reading it. Everyone show me your cover-up critters! Good! Let’s get ready to use them. First, I am going to model how to spell the word fish (write fish on white board). I am going to use my cover-up critter to decode this word. I am going to cover up all of the letters except the first one the letter f. /f/. Next, I will uncover the i. Then I will uncover the sh and blend the letters together /f/../i/../sh/. Fish! This is the word fish! Now let’s use it in a sentence. ‘The fish is blue.’ (write on white board). Listen to me say ‘The fff-i-ssshh i-s bbb-lll-uuee. The f-i-sh is b-lue.’ Oh! The fish is blue! This is called cross-checking and blending. We read the rest of the sentence (cross-checking) to determine what the sentence said and then we blended the words together to get the full sentence. This is how we become fluent readers, by cross-checking, blending, and reading and re-reading something until we can read it smoothly all together. This makes reading a story much more enjoyable.”
Say: “Now it’s your turn to practice reading fluently! Everyone knows Dr. Suess right? We love his books. Everyone is going to get out their copy of One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish by Dr. Suess. Some of you may know this story, it is about all different types of fish. But, it’s not just about fish. Dr. Suess tells us about lots of different pets and animals some of us have never heard of. Do you think you know all of the pets out there? You might be shocked at all the pets Dr. Suess tells us about. I want us to all read silently to ourselves about what kind of pets Dr. Suess knows about. Remember to use your fish cover-up critter if you need it.”
Students will read the whole book to themselves. Say: “When you are done I want you to get with a partner and read the book to them. Your partner is not supposed to help you. You are to listen to your partner while they read and do not help them at all. Just listen. Then you will swap and the other partner will read while the other listens.”
Say: “Good job! Now that everyone has taken a turn reading to their partner we are going to play a fluency game. I am going to pass out a sheet of paper (fluency checklist) and a stopwatch, each person gets one. Now, you will each read the story to each other three times. The person with the stopwatch will time the person reading for one minute. At the end of one minute put a mark where they stopped so you can go back and count the words. The readers should then finish reading where they left off. You will do this three times and make a mark where they stopped each time and record the amount of words they read in a minute. After recording the information you will switch roles. Pay attention to how their reading improves each round and make sure you write any changes down on your paper. If your partner is having trouble you can help them this time but do not interrupt. Remind them to speak slowly, decode, and cross-check. Go ahead and start.”
After the students have finished I will call them up individually and tell them to bring their sheets with them that their partners recorded their words per minute on. They will read the first five pages to me and I will assess their words per minute (with WPM fish timeline sheet referenced in materials) on their sheets and make my own recording.

Assessment: As mentioned in step six, I will assess students fluency with WPM chart/timeline . I will make notes of miscues, decoding, and cross-checking when they read aloud for me. Students will also answer these five questions: 1. Did your partner read faster in their second or third reading? 2. Did your partner read smoother in their second or third reading? 3. Did your partner read with fluency and expressions in their second or third reading? 4. What animal in the book had a hump? (a wump). 5. Which pet liked to wink and drink? (a yink).

Words x 60)/seconds= WPM

0 - - - - 10 - - - - 20 - - - - 30 - - - - 40 - - - - 50 - - - - 60 - - - - 70 - - - - 80 - - - - 90 - - - - 100

Correct Words Per Minute

References:

Boles, Emma-Ruth, Swimming Into Fluent Reading

https://erb0060.wixsite.com/website/growing-independence-fluency

Bruce Murray, The Reading Genie, http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

Story:

Dr. Suess, Penguin Random House LLC, One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish