A Good Day for Fluency

By Anna Ickes

Fluent reading is reading in which words are recognized automatically.This means that with automatic word recognition, students will be reading faster, smoother, and with more expression. With fluency, readers will begin to read silently which is twice as fast as oral reading The goal of fluent reading is the automatic recognition of words by students. Students will be assessed on their improvement by the formula (words read x 60/seconds) to determine their wpm (words per minute). Repeated reading, which has the best track record for improving fluency, will be another resource used to support the child’s fluency rate.

Materials:

Class set of “A Good Day to Fish” by Susan Harley (One per student)

Stopwatches (one for every two children)

Pencils

Dry erase board and marker

Speed read charts (one per student)

Fluency Rubric (one per student)

Fluency Chart – fish on the line (# of words) to the top of the lake (assessment)

Speed Read Chart:

Name: __________________ Date: ________

Reading time: ___________

Fluency Rubric:

Name: ________________ Evaluator: _______________Date: _________

I noticed that my partner: (mark an X in the blank)

After 2nd After 3rd

Read Faster

Read Smoother

Read with Expression

Remembered More Words

Procedure:

1. Say: Today we’re going to practice reading fluently and with expression. In order to be successful readers, we have to learn how to read fluently. When we read fluently, we recognize words automatically which helps with comprehending a story because you do not have to sound out each word. [Write the sentence “pull the rod out of the water” on the board]. It’s normal to read this as p/oo/-p/oo/l the ro-o-od ow-owt of the wa-wat-water. As you build fluency you will be able to read this more fluently. We will practice reading with expression and adding an exclamation point at the end “pull the rod out of the water!”

2. Say: When we read and we come to a word that we don’t know, we will use a coverup critter. [Give each student a cover-up critter. Write the word boot on the board. Model how to read the word using the cover-up critter] First, we look at the vowels. It says /U/. Now look at the b. /b/ Add the /b/ sound. Put the /b/ and /U/ together to get /bU/. Now we add the /t/ sound. We get boo-t. [Write the word "toon" on the board and sound it out together as a class].

3. Say: Remember that reading fast is not the only thing we need to do. Let’s look back at our sentence on the board. If I read “pull the rod out of the water!” so quickly because I wanted to finish the sentence, I might not understand the sentence. We need to read so that we can understand. We can also crosscheck. [Write “the fish leapt out of the lake” on the board] If I read, “The fish laps out of the lack,” I would think, you know, that just doesn’t make sense. The fish laps? Laps is a word, but how does a fish lap? It must be leapt.

4. [Divide the class in pairs and give all students the two reading rubrics] Say: Today we’re going to read “A Good Day for Fishing.” In this book, Moe goes fishing to catch a yummy dinner. It turns out that Moe catches something besides fish. What can Moe do to have a yummy fish dinner? [Students will take turns reading and recording each other’s progress. The recorder will set a stopwatch and have the reader begin when the clock starts and they will stop when the reader finishes reading. This task will record the speed at which the reader is reading.]

5. After both have filled out the chart, have them read to each other again and have the recorder make notes about the reader’s fluency. The reader and recorder will switch jobs again and repeat. Allow the students three readings by having both readers reading to each other again and each partner taking note on their fluency the third time.

6. Collect all of the time and fluency charts.

7. For assessment, have each student come to the reading corner and read “A Good Day for Fishing” aloud. Time each one individually, make miscue notes, and mark it on their fluency chart. Next, ask some comprehension questions to see if they understood the story

1.) What did Moe catch instead of fish?

2.) How did Moe get the fish for his dinner?

Resources:

Hartley, Susan; A Good Day for Fishing

Murray, Bruce; Developing Fluency

Index