Miss Johnson's
Lesson Designs
Growing Independence and Fluency Lesson Design
Lassoing Fluency in Reading
Rationale:
To be a successful reader, one must read fluently, accurately, swiftly, and expressively. Fluent readers are able to build reading comprehension through automatic word recognition. Students should be able to recognize words in ¼ of a second. From achieving automatic word recognition, students are able to focus less on decoding and spend more time on comprehension, retention, and reflecting on the text. Accurate reading enables students to use strategies (crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading) and evaluate their reading errors. Reading swiftly allows the reader to read more efficiently and allows more time for reading comprehension. Expressive reading allows readers to convey the intended reaction and message of the author when reading aloud. Students will be assessed on their fluency improvement through repeated readings and charted reading times with a formula (words read x 60/seconds) to determine the student’s words per minute (wpm).
Materials:
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Billy the Ghost and Me by Gery Greer and Bob Ruddick (class set)
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Stopwatches (class set, one per pair)
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Pencils (class set)
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Cover-up critter (one per student)
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Sample sentences written on whiteboard (used for modeling): Kate wrote a note to her pal Sam. ; Jim ate the cake with great delight. ; My friend and I like to ride the waves at the beach. ; The boat rides the waves on the water.
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Reading progress charts (one per student)
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Peer Checklist Evaluation (one per student)
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Teacher Checklist Evaluation with attached comprehension questions:
What does Billy the Ghost do in the beginning to get into trouble?
Where does Sarah live? Describe the setting.
Who is Mr. Beamer? What is his announcement to the town?
Procedures:
1. Introduce the lesson to the students by explaining what it means to be a fluent reader. Teacher says, “To become successful readers we must learn to read fluently. Can anyone tell me what makes a fluent reader? [Responses] Fluent readers are able to read swiftly, accurately, smoothly and with lots of expression. Fluent readers are able to do this because they recognize words automatically and do not have to spend so much time on stopping to decode each word. Building sight word vocabulary allows the reader to spend more time on reflecting on the message of the story, which makes reading more entertaining and enjoyable. Today, we are going to improve our fluency by timed repeated readings with a partner to become successful readers that read fluently, swiftly, accurately, smoothly, and with expression.”
2. The teacher will model to her students how a beginning reader who decodes compares with a fluent reader. Teacher says, “Let’s look at this sentence on the board [Kate wrote a note to her pal Sam]. If I were a beginning reader, I might sound like this when I read the sentence. Kate w-w-r-rooote — a nooo-t-e….Wait, that has a silent e — note — to — her — pppal Sam. Let me read it again. Kate /w/ /r/ /o/ /t/ /e/ a note to her pal Sam. No, Kate wrote a note to her pal Sam. For the word wrote, the w and e are silent and the o makes an ‘oh’ sound. Wrote means to write something like ‘I wrote down the grocery list.’ ” A beginning reader struggles with unfamiliar words, makes many reading errors, and rereads the sentence several times while mental marking and crosschecking to read and understand the sentence. Now, a fluent reader who reads words automatically would read with expression, and say, “Kate wrote a note to her pal Sam.” I read the sentence this time effortlessly, automatically, and with expression. I did not need to decode the words because they had become sight words, allowing me to be able to understand the words and the sentence in its context. Now, turn to your partner and practice reading this sentence on the board [Jim ate the cake with great delight]. The more practice you have reading a book, the faster you will be able to read and comprehend the message of the story.
3. Teacher models how to use the cover-up critter to decode an unfamiliar word and the strategy of crosschecking. Teacher says, “I am going to briefly discuss two of the strategies you can use to become a fluent reader — the cover-up critter and crosschecking. I handed each of you a cover-up critter, which is a popsicle stick with google eyes, and this critter will help you to decode words during reading by cover-up the word and slowly revealing each letter to sound out the word. Breaking the word into smaller pieces makes it a lot less intimating and frustrating when encountering a new, unfamiliar word. For example, if I had this sentence in my reading [write My friend and I like to ride the waves at the beach. on the board]. Pretend I did not know what the word ride. I would cover up the entire word with my cover-up critter and slowly reveal each letter to sound out ride [Teacher models with cover-up critter.]: r-r-iiii-d-d-e-e…/r/ /i/ /d/ /e/… Let’s crosscheck my pronunciation by rereading the sentence to see if the word makes sense: My friend and I like to /r/ /i/ /d/ /e/ the waves at the beach. Oh, /r/ /i/ /d/…ride…the e is silent. My friend and I like to ride the waves at the beach. Ride in this sentence means to move or float on the water like The boat rides the waves on the water. By using my cover-up critter and crosschecking, I was able to understand how to read the word and understand the word in its context in the sentence. These strategies help me to become a fluent reader!
4. The teacher passes out books and cover-up critters for each student. Teacher says, “Now, we are going to be reading Billy the Ghost and Me, but today we are only going to read the first chapter. Booktalk: This story is about a young girl named Sarah and her best friend named Billy who is a ghost that live in the Western town of Cactus Junction. One day, the Cactus Junction bank is robbed. While the sheriff and his men leave town in search for robbers, Sarah and Billy the Ghost realize the two bank robbers are still in town. Do you think Sarah and Billy will try to stop the robbers? Will the robbers be stopped? If so, how? Let’s read to find out!
5. Teacher says, “I want you to beginning reading the first chapter of book on your own using the cover-up critter for assistance. If you finish reading chapter one, begin rereading the chapter again. Do not move on to reading chapter two. I will give you 5-10 minutes to read chapter one, as I walk around the room to monitor your progress. [After the students finish reading the first chapter, assess their comprehension with questions on the first chapter by asking thought-provoking, open-ended questions.]
6. The teacher hands out the Peer Checklist Evaluations, stopwatches, and assigns partners. Teacher says, “Now, I want you and your partner to take turns reading aloud. One of the partners will be the “reader” and will read chapter one of Billy the Ghost and Me aloud, while the other partner will be the “recorder” who times the “reader” with the stopwatch and records the time. Then the partners swap roles. Discuss the chapter with your partner. Then, one partner is the “reader” while the other partner will be the “recorder” that evaluates the “reader” on his/her retention, speed, smoothness, and expression by marking the changes made on the checklist. Switch roles again. Keep repeating this process until both partners have readers and recorders twice with a complete Peer Checklist Evaluation. [Teacher models an example of this process with a student.]
7. Assessment: The teacher will assess her students by listening to their responses and making notes during group discussions and practice trials, collecting Peer Checklist Evaluations, and have a one-on-one individual assessment with each student. The teacher will move around the room to assess student fluency progress and areas to address during the repeated reading trials. Have students come to the teacher to assess their fluency ability in reading two pages from chapter one using the formula (words read x 60/seconds) to chart progress and their reading comprehension level through open-ended discussion questions and vocabulary word meaning on the chapter given verbally. If a student is struggling with the repeated readings and is not progressing, the teacher can intervene and partner with that student to provide assistance.
Peer Checklist Evaluation:
Name: ___________________________ Evaluator: ___________________________
Date: ____________
I noticed that my partner… (put an X in the blank)
After 2nd After 3rd Reading
Read Faster* ________ ________
Read Smoother ________ ________
Read with Expression ________ ________
Remembered more words ________ ________
* 1st time: ____________
2nd time: ____________
Teacher Checklist Evaluation:
Name of student: ___________________ Date: ____________________
-Reading 1
Time: _____________
Total # of words: _____________
WPM: _____________
Miscues: ______________
-Reading 2
Time: _____________
Total # of words: _____________
WPM: _____________ (words x 60 / seconds)
Miscues: ______________
Did the student… (put an X in the blank)
Reading 1 Reading 2
Remembered more words: ________ ________
Read faster: ________ ________
Read smoother: ________ ________
Read with more expression: ________ ________
References:
Bandit Fluency Chart:
Brennan, Caroline. Leaping Into Fluency!
https://sites.google.com/site/carolinesexcitinglessons/home/leaping-into-fluency
Clark, Jessica. Lassoing Reading.
https://sites.google.com/site/mrsclarkslessondesigns/home/growing-independence-and-fluency-design
Greer, Gery and Bob Ruddick. Billy the Ghost and Me. HarperCollins, 1997. 47 pp.
Lassoing Cowboy gif: http://www.sherv.net/cowboy.lasso-emoticon-1862.html
Murray, Bruce. Making Sight Words. Linus Publications, 2012. 335 p.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/awakenings/animalfluencychart.png
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