Having a Field day with Fluency
Rationale: Allow students to read effortlessly and with automaticity by practicing expression, pace, and comprehension. Help students with effortless word recognition so that students can reflect on what they are reading. Through reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading, students will be able to confidently improve their reading rate and grow into fluent readers. Students will use the strategy of crosschecking after readings of a decodable text and repeated readings to gain fluency and independence in reading.
Materials:
· Pencils
· Timer/stopwatch (one for every two children)
· Class set of Junie B. Jones is Captain Field day
· Peer fluency sheet (one per student)
· Teacher fluency check (one for each student) with attached comprehension questions
Procedures:
- Introduction:
1. Say: Begin the lesson by saying, “Alright class, today we are going to work on becoming fluent readers. We know that our goal is to become fluent readers, but what does that mean? What do you think of when I say a fluent reader? Wait for responses. Fluent readers are able to read quickly, smoothly, and with expression because they recognize words automatically. This also helps us understand what we are reading because we don’t have to stop and think about each word. This makes reading more fun.”
2. Say: Now let's look at a sentence written on the board: “Kelly picked apples all day”. Everyone put your listening ears on. I want you to tell me if I sound like a fluent reader when I read this sentence aloud to you. kkk, /e/-/e/-/e/, l-l-l-l, y Kelly, p-p-p, i-i-, ckeddd, a-a-a-a, p-p, l-l, es, oh apples. a-a-ll, day. Kelly piiiiikedd pick, apples aa-all day, Kelly piked apples all day. Oh, that doesn't make sense. It must be picked. Kelly picked apples all day. Did you notice that when I read the sentence, I got stuck on the second word? To figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried what I thought the word said, piked. That did not make sense, did it? So I went back to reread to figure out what the word should read that would make sense. Raise your hand if you think that I sounded like a fluent reader when I read that sentence. That’s right, I wasn’t reading like a fluent reader because I had to figure out some of the words in the sentence. Here's how a fluent reader would read that sentence: Kelly picked apples all day. I read the sentence with no problems, and it was much easier to understand! Now turn to a partner and practice reading the second sentence on the board. (Field day is the best day of the year.) Read the sentence to your partner until you sound like a fluent reader.
3. Say: “Let’s think back to when I read the first sentence when I got stuck on the word picked. To figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried what I thought the word picked said, piked. That did not make sense, did it? So I went back to the text to reread to figure out what the word should say that would make sense. This strategy is called crosschecking, and in order for us to become fluent readers, we must use crosschecking!”
4. Assign partners for each students and pass out the books. “Now we are going to practice being fluent readers by reading Junie B. Jones is Captain Field Dat. Junie B has been assigned to be this years Field day captain. Her only problem is that room eight keeps winning all the events. How will room nine ever win field day? Let’s be fluency captains and read the book to find out.
5. Students should read the first three pages silently to themselves. Then they should each read a chapter aloud to each other. Tell the students that while they are listening to each other read to not help their partner out.
6. Pass out recording sheets and stopwatches to each group. Say: “Now we are going to play the fluency game. Put your listening ears on so you can hear how to play! Reader 1 is going to start the game off and Reader 2 will be in control of the timer. Reader 2 is going to time Reader 1 reading the first two pages, and then he/she will record the time on the sheet I have handed out to you. After recording the information, Reader 2 will read and Reader 1 will record. Read and record the time three times each. As you listen to your partner read aloud the pages, I want you to be listening for how their reading changes each time. Do they remember more words? Do they read with more expression? Write down the changes that you see on your paper.”
7. After the student pairs have each read through the passage three times, have the students, come one at a time, read a paragraph from the first two pages. Ask them bring their record sheet so you can attach it to the back of the assessment sheet that you have. You will time them on the paragraph read aloud, and use the formula given to record how many words they have read per minute.
Formula: words x 60 seconds /seconds read
Assessment: Use a list of comprehension questions to understand how fluency is affecting their comprehension.
References:
Monkeying Around with Fluency (Jacquelyn Johnson): https://sites.google.com/site/jjreadinglesson/home/monkeying-around-with-fluency
Book: Park, Barbara, Junie B Jones Captain Field Day. Scholastic Inc.
Junie B. Jones Is Field Day Captain
Park, Barbara, and Denise Brunkus. Junie B. Jones Is Captain Field Day. New York: Random House, 2001. Print
Peer Fluency Check
Name of Reader: ____________________
Date: _________________
1st Time: ________
2nd Time: ________
3rd Time: ________
I noticed that my partner…
After which read? 2nd 3rd
Remembered more words
Read faster
Read smoother
Read with expression
Teacher Fluency Check
Name of Reader: _______________
Date: _________________
Time: ________
Words x 60/time in seconds: _______WPM
Comprehension (for the first page):
1. What grade is Junie B Jones in?
2. What is Junie B Jones classroom number?
3. Who are the champions of field day?
