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Rationale:

 

In order to become a skilled reader, fluency is crucial. Fluent reading allows the reader to begin to focus on the content of what they read, rather than decoding each individual word. By practicing reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and re-reading, the reader can become truly fluent allowing us to read faster and easier.

 

Materials:

 

-sentences written on board: “The Lorax speaks for the trees.” “The brown barbaloots live in the truffala trees.”

-class set of stopwatches

-copy of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss for every student

-peer evaluation sheet

-individual reading progress tree and barbaloot marker

 

Procedures:

 

  1. Say “Do you want to be fantastic readers? Well let me tell you a secret, to be the very best readers you have to be able to read anything fluently and without hesitation. In order to do that, we have to practice reading a bunch of times to develop a big sight vocabulary. How do we build that sight vocabulary you ask? It is simple; we practice rereading a story multiple times, decoding unfamiliar words in it, crosschecking them to make sure they make sense, and then mentally noting any weird spellings.

  2. Model “First I am going to show you how to check to make sure a word makes sense in the sentence “The Lorax /s//p//e//k//s/ for the trees.” That’s weird, the Lorax specks for the trees? Oh wait! The Lorax speaks for the trees!”

  3. “Now I am going to show you the difference between a fluent reader and a non-fluent reader ‘The brown bbbb-ar-bbbb-aaa-llll-oooo-t-ssss live in the t-rrrr-uuu-fff-aaa-llll-aaa trees.’ See how long and drawn out each word was? A fluent reader would read it like this ‘The brown barbaloots live in the truffala trees.’ See the difference? When we can read things smoothly, we can focus more on what is going on in the story rather than trying to figure out what each word is.

  4. “In order to practice our fluency, we are going to read the story The Lorax. This story is about a special little guy called the Lorax, who takes care of the truffala trees. He speaks for the trees because they cannot speak for themselves. Then one day, someone comes along who is too greedy to listen to the Lorax. Do you know what happens then? No? Well you will have to read the book to find out.”

  5. Each student will get a copy of the Lorax and a cover-up critter. Each of them will practice reading the book on their own for 15-20 minutes. After time is up, get the classes attention to discuss what comprehension is with the class.

  6.  Say, “Now we’re going to split up into partners! First, partner 1 will read aloud while partner 2 times them. Then, we will switch partners. After reading aloud, talk about what you read with your partner. Then we’re going to read aloud again, while our partner is looking at our checklist and seeing if we read faster, with more expression, or if we understood more. Then, we’ll switch partners again. We’ll do this 3 times.” Model with student if it is necessary for students to understand better.

  7. Assessment: Once the students have finished three rounds of repeated reading, have each student turn in his or her checklist. Teacher should now call up students one by one and perform repeated readings with each student, graphing his or her progress on the fluency chart as he or she hopefully improves. In between each round of repeated reading, make sure to praise or encourage students on aspects of fluency that they have improved and make suggestions when needed. After the three rounds have been completed, ask a few comprehension questions: How did the truffala trees come back? What happened to the brown barbaloots after the trees were cut down?

 

 

Teacher Fluency Checklist

 

Student Name:

Words x 60/seconds

Reading #1

WPM:

Miscues:

Did the student read with more expression? Yes or No

Did the student read smoother? Yes or No

Did the student read faster? Yes or No

Reading #2

WPM:

Miscues:

Did the student read with more expression? Yes or No

Did the student read smoother? Yes or No

Did the student read faster? Yes or No

Reading #3

WPM:

Miscues:

Did the student read with more expression? Yes or No

Did the student read smoother? Yes or No

Did the student read faster? Yes or No

 

Partner Evaluation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fluency Chart:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resources:

 

Dunn, M. 2015. Growing in Fluency. http://lmd0015.wix.com/literacy-designs#!projects/cm8a

Geisel, T. The Lorax. Random House. 1971. print

Climbing Up the Fluency Tree

Growing Independence and Fluency

Garrett McCoy

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