Miss McMichael's
Lesson Designs
Growing Independence and Fluency
Fluency With George
Rationale: Reading fluency is automatic word recognition. Students have learned to decode and their new goal is to become fluent. Students must have reading fluency to become skilled readers. Fluency also signifies a student has build sight vocabulary. As fluency is gained reading becomes easier and more interesting. Students are able to focus on comprehension rather than pronouncing the words in the books. In this lesson, student will learn strategies with repeated reading to help them become reading fluency.
Materials: Class set of Curious George by Margaret and H. A. Rey, stopwatch for each pair of students
Procedures:
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Say: Today, we are going to begin becoming fluent readers! Does anyone know what fluency is? [Wait for replies}. Very good, fluency is reading words effortlessly and smoothly. Fluency lets us focus on understanding the stories rather than decoding words. Another thing fluency helps us do is to read text with expression. Who wants to become a skilled reader? [Wait for hand raising]. Then we must learn to become fluent readers.
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Say: [write sentence on board "Today, I went to see the monkeys at the zoo."] Class lets look at the sentence written on the board. I am going to read it and I want you to listen. T-t-o-o-d-a-a-y-y I-I w-w-w-e-e-e-n-n-t-t t-t-o s-s-e-e-e t-h-h-e-e m-m-o-n-n-k-k-k-e-e-y-y-s a-t-t t-h-h-e-e z-z-o-o. That was pretty hard to understand. Let me read it again [read a bit faster]. That was a better but it was still a little difficult to understand. Let me read it one more time [read at normal speed, smoothly, and with expression]. Oh! Today I went to see the monkeys at the zoo. I get it now! Which reading that I read what the most difficult to understand? [Wait for replies]. Very good the first one! The first time I read the sentence I was reading without fluency, but the more I read the sentence the more smoother it became. By the third time reading the sentence I was able to read it smoothly and with expression making it much easier to understand. This is why become fluent readers is so important. So today we are going to work on all of you becoming fluent readers!
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Say: Even when you are a fluent reader, you might come to a word that you don't know. I am going to show you how to read a word that is unfamiliar. Crosschecking is what we use if we come to a word that we are having trouble pronouncing. Crosschecking is when you read a word but it sounds funny, so you keep reading and see if you can figure it out. Let me show you. “Today, I went to the /m//a/r/ /k//e//t/ to buy apples. Oh market! That makes more sense! Today, I went to the market to buy apples.” Did you see how I reread the sentence after I corrected myself? We do that so we make sure that we understand the sentence before moving on.
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Say: I am going to read the sentence written on the board and I want you to tell me if I am a fluent reader. (using expression) “It is such a lovely day to play outside!” Am I fluent reader? [wait for response]. Very good!
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Say: We are going to read Curious George. George is a brown monkey from the jungle. A man wearing a yellow hat took George from the jungle to bring him back to the big city. George is a very curious monkey and is constantly getting in trouble. Do you think George is going to stay safe or get himself into some trouble? Lets start reading to find out!
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Say: First, I want you to read Curious George by yourself. If you finish the book before everyone else, start reading it again.
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Say: Now that everyone has read through Curious George once, I am going to assign you a partner. Partner 1 is going to read the even pages and partner 2 is going to read the odd pages. After reading the book one, you will read it another time. This time partner 1 will read the odd pages and partner 2 will read the even pages. The first time you read try and read the words correctly and each time you read try to increase your fluently by reading smoothly and with more expression.
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Say: [pass out stopwatches and checklist] Now that each group has a stopwatch. Partner 1 is going read Curious George first and partner 2 is going to use the stopwatch to time how long it takes to finish the book. Partner 2 is also going to fill out a checklist as partner 1 reads. After partner 1 finishes reading the book each partner will swap which job they are doing. While your partner is reading you will look at the questions and decide if your partner is doing all of the items on the checklist. At the top of the checklist sheet write down the time you recorded for your partner. For example, if my partner is reading smoothly I will make a checkmark in the reading smoothly box. If they aren’t reading smoothly you would leave it blank
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Students will use this checklist to assess their partner.
9. After all checklists are turned it students will work individually and write a paragraph a few sentences about Curious George, so I am able to determine if their comprehending the book.
Resources:
Murrary, Bruce. The Reading Genie, “Growing Independence and Fluency”
Thomas, Haley: You’re a Bear-y Good Reader!
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/awakenings/thomasrl.htm
