Ms. Muller's Class
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"Curious About Fluency"
Growing Independence and Fluency Design
Rationale: Fluency is automatic word recognition, which is very important for reading. Students need fluency to be able to save their mental resources for comprehension. Fluent readers have a large sight vocabulary and read smoothly with expression. We will learn fluency skills by reading and rereading decodable words in a connected text.
Materials: class set of Curious George by H. A. Rey, a stopwatch for each pair of students, a Reading Record time sheet for each student, fluency peer checklists for each student, graph of words per minute with a monkey climbing to the top of a tree to track student progress
Procedures
1. Say: “Good readers are fluent, which means they read smoothly and with expression. We want to be fluent readers so we can read words accurately without using all our effort. When we read fluently, the story is more exciting and we are better able to understand what is happening in the story. We can practice fluency by reading a book several times out loud. Each time we read it, we will be able to read it better and more fluently.”
2. Say: “I am going to show you how to work on your fluency. I am going to read a sentence from the book Curious George.” Read sentence sounding every word out. ‘G-g-g-e-e-o-o-r-or-or-g-g-g-ge w-a-a-s s-s-a-a-d-d, b-u-t he w-a-s s s-t-t-i-i-i-l-l-l a l-l-i-i-t-t-t-l-l-e c-c-u-u-r-r-i-i-o-ou-ou-s-s.’ Hmmm, that was hard to pretty hard to understand. Let me read it again. ‘Georrrrggge was saaad, but he was stiiillll a liiitttle currriousss.’ That was a little better, so I am going to try again. ‘George was sad, but he was still a little curious.’ Now you can understand what is happening! I am going to read it one more time with expression and at a faster pace. [Read sentence again with expression and proper emphasis.] It takes a few times to get it just right, but that is why we do repeated readings!”
3. Say: “Even when you are a fluent reader, you will still run into words you don’t know. To figure out how to pronounce words we don’t know, we use a strategy called crosschecking. Crosschecking is when you try to read a word and it doesn’t sound right, so you read to the end of the sentence and see if you can figure it out. Let me show you how it works. [Show page of Curious George.] I am going to try to read this sentence, “After that, George was more careful to be a good /m//o//n//k//e//y/, until at last the long trip was over.” Oh, the monkey made the trip so that word must be monkey! Monkey is said /m//u//n//k//E/. “After that, George was more careful to be a good monkey, until at last the long trip was over.” I reread the sentence to make sure I understand and get back into the story.
4. Say: “Next I am going to read the sentence written on the board and I want you to tell me if I am a fluent reader. [Use expression]. “The bird swooped down and grabbed a fish in its beak!” Am I fluent reader? [Wait for response.] Very good!
5. Say: We are going to read Curious George. George is a very curious monkey. A man with a yellow hat sees George and decides to take him back home with him to the city. George has to take a boat to get to the city. George is still very curious in his new home. What is he going to do in the city? Will he get in trouble? Let’s read to find out!”
6. Say: “First, I want you to read Curious George by yourself. If you finish before everyone else, start reading it again.”
7. Allow students to read silently on their own. Say: “Now that you have the book once, I am going to assign you a partner. You will alternate reading the book to each other. Each of you will read the book to your partner twice. Be sure to use crosschecking if you don’t know a word. When you read the book the second time, try to read more smoothly and with expression.”
8. Pass out a stopwatch to each pair and a checklist to each student. Say: “Partner 1 will read the book first and Partner 2 will use the stopwatch to time how long it takes to finish the book. Partner 2 is also going to fill out the checklist about their partner’s reading. Write the time it takes them to read on the Reading Record sheet. After Partner 1 finishes the book, you will switch jobs.” [Students will do peer assessments]. “Once you are done, turn in your score sheets to me.”
9. Have students come up to your desk individually and ask them comprehension questions about the book. Ask “What is one mischievous thing George does?” “How does George get to the city?” and “Name one place that George goes.” Then use their score sheet to determine the words per minute and graph it using a monkey climbing a tree to show the student their progress.
References:
Rey, H.A. Curious George. Houghton Mifflin Company. 1941.
Vinson, Caroline. No Monkeying Around with Fluency: Growing Independence and Fluency Lesson. http://clv0005.wixsite.com/caroline-vinson/single-post/2015/11/03/A-Fluency-Lesson.
McMichael, Beverly. Fluency with George: Growing Independence and Fluency Lesson. http://bcm0023.wixsite.com/bevslessondesigns/growing-independence-and-fluency
Murray, Bruce. The Reading Genie, “Growing Independence and Fluency”
Assessment Sheets
Reading Record
1st read: ________________min ________________sec
2nd read: ________________min ________________sec
3rd read: ________________min ________________sec
