Flying into Fluency

 

Rational. Being a fluent reader helps you better comprehend texts. When you are a fluent reader, you are able to recognize almost all words by sight, leading to the ability to read quicker and with expression. Fluent readers are able to correctly decode, crosscheck, and reread the text. Repeated readings and extra word help is great for students to develop better reading fluency. This lesson is focused to help students develop stronger fluency with denser texts by moving most words into their sight vocabulary, and students will be able to read independently.

 

Materials.

• Whiteboards and markers

• Sample sentences on a whiteboard

• Class set of: Violet the Pilot by Steve Breen

• Reading comprehension worksheet

• Stopwatches for each sets of pairs

• Partner reading recording sheet

• Teacher fluency checklist

 

Procedures.

1. Say: Today we are going talk about fluent reading! Can someone tell me what a fluent reader is? When someone is a fluent reader, they are able to read quickly, smoothly, and can understand everything they are reading. Fluent readers can also read with expression, meaning the reader can change their voice to match a certain text. Today, we are going to practice being fluent readers!

2. Say: First, we are going to look at this sentence on the board. I am going to show you how we crosscheck when we come across a word we don’t know or may have forgotten. [Model] and say: For example, say I read this sentence (show sentence on the board, “I ride my bike to the park”) “I /r/i/d/ my bike…” hmm that sounds a little funny. Let me try reading the rest of the sentence… “to the park”. Oh, now I understand! “I ride my bike to the park.” The word was an i_e word, so that means the letter I says /I/ not /i/. Now I’m going to reread the sentence so that I can know what it says and remember the words for later. “I ride my bike to the park.”

3. Say and model: Now I am going to show you how a fluent reader may read, and how a non-fluent reader may read. Let’s look at this sentence. (Show sentence on the board, “The dog slept on the mat.”) A non-reader may read like this: “The ddogg ssssllleeepptt on the mmaatt.” See how I read really slow and stretched out the words? Reading that way can make it harder to understand what I am reading about. Now let’s try again and see how a fluent reader may read. “The dog slept on the mat.” [Read smoothly, with expression]. See how my words flowed better and we could better understand what the sentence was about? That is how a fluent reader would read! Now let’s read it all together: “The dog slept on the mat.” Great job!

4. Say and model: Now let’s look at how we would read a more difficult word. (Write flake on the board). This word can be harder to read because some of the letters are silent. If I look at this word, I might say /f/l/a/k/, but that isn’t a real word. We need to remember the rule a_e says /A/ not /a/. We can help remember this by using body-coda blending, where we start with the /A/ sound, then add our other letters. So, in this case, we would start with the a_e, then add the /f/ and the /l/ to the beginning and a /k/ at the end. There we go! Flake! (Everyone says flake together).

5. Say: Now everyone, find a partner so we can practice being fluent readers! [Pass out book, Violet the Pilot, to the pairs]. This book is about a girl named Violet who loves to build many kinds of machines, especially flying machines! Kids like to make fun of Violet at school because of her books and hobbies, which makes her very sad. She sees a flyer about an airshow coming up and thinks about making a plane to fly at the show, hoping that if she will win, the kids at school will be nice to her. Will Violet participate in the airshow? Will her plane win a prize? We will have to read to find out!

6. Students will read the whole book silently to themselves and then fill out the reading comprehension worksheet. Then they will read the book aloud to their partner. They must not help their partner, only record their progress.

 

Reading Comprehension Worksheet:

Name: ________

Date: _________

1. What kind of machines did Violet like to make the most?

2. Why did Violet want to participate in the air show?

3. Why did Violet miss the air show?

4. What happened to Violet at the end of the story?

 

1. [Pass out the recording sheets and stopwatches to each group]. Say: Now we are going to play a fluency game! Each of you will take turns to see how fast you can read the first two pages. Reader 1 will start off reading and Reader 2 will control the stopwatch and record how fast it takes Reader 1 to read. Reader 2 will record Reader 1’s time on the time sheet I just handed you. After recording your partner’s time, you will switch, and Reader 2 will read. Reader 1 will record. You will do this three times each. As you listen to your partner, I want you to listen to them carefully to see how their reading changes each time. Do they read smoother? Do they read quicker? Do they remember more of the words or read with expression? Mark the changes you see on your paper.

 

Partner Reading Recording Sheet:

Title of Book: ­­­­_______

Total # of Words: ­­­____

Reader: ____________

Timer: ___________

Date: ________

1. ____ words in ____ seconds

2. ____ words in ____ seconds

3. ____ words in ____ seconds

 

1. After all students have read through the text three times each, have each student come up one at a time and read the first two pages to you. Ask them to bring their record sheet and determine each student’s words per minute (WPM) using the formula, (words x 60) / seconds, and record them on the teacher fluency checklist.

 

References.

​

​Book: Breen, Steve. Violet the Pilot. Puffin Books, Penguin Random House LLC, 2016.

​Available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Violet-Pilot-Steve-Breen/dp/0425288196

​

Mary Gayle Mitchell, “Flying into Fluency”

https://marygayle99.wixsite.com/website/growing-independence-and-fluency