Reading is not Berry Scary!
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Rationale:
For readers to be successful in their reading endeavors, they must have fluency. Fluency comes from practicing reading with expression, comprehension, and steady pace. This practice allows students to read effortlessly, and recognizing words automatically will allow for students to exercise their reading comprehension. Strategies like decoding, crosschecking, mental-marking, and rereading a text will allow readers to establish fluency in their reading. Students can exercise crosschecking while reading decodable stories, and practicing repeated readings to establish fluency, confidence, and independence when reading.
Materials
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Pencils for the class
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Stopwatch for each pair
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Coverup Critters for each student
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Class set of The Little Mouse, The Red Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear
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Sample sentences on white board for teacher to model
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Peer Fluency Sheet (one for each student)
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Reading Rate forms for teacher
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Teacher Fluency Check (one for each student) with attached list of comprehension questions
Procedures:
Introduction:
1. Begin the lesson by saying, “Today we are going to work on our fluency when we read. Everyone has been doing well with their reading so far, and now we are ready to take reading to the next level. Fluent reading means that you can read text easily and with expression because you can recognize words automatically when you read them. It means you do not have to stop reading to think about a word, instead you recognize the word effortlessly. When we practice reading with fluency, it helps us understand what we are reading because we can read whole sentences without stopping to think about individual words. This makes our reading more enjoyable because we can pay more attention to what is happening in our stories/text.”
2. Say: Now let's look at a sentence written on the board: I see an island with sand in the sea. Everyone listen closely when I read this sentence, and tell me if I sound like I am reading fluently, or maybe not. “/I/, s-s-s-/E/-/E/-/E/-/E/, /a/-/a/-n-n, /i/-/i/-/i/-z-z-z-l-l-/a/-/a/-/a/-n-n-d-d, w-w-/i/-/i/-/th/-/th/, s-s-/a/-/a/-/a/-n-n-d-d, /i/-/i/-n-n-, /th/-/th/-/E/-/E/,/s-s-/E/-/E/-/E/. I see an island with sand in the sea. Hmm, that doesn’t sound quite right, I’ve never heard of an izland, that’s not a real word! I see an island with sand in the sea? Island sounds right, and makes a lot more sense! When I read the sentence, I got stuck on a tricky word in the middle, but I did not give up! In order to figure out what that word was, I continued reading the sentence to see if any other clues helped me figure out what that tricky word might be. This strategy is called crosschecking, and it is important to know how to use when we are learning to read fluently! Figuring out a tricky word like “island” through crosschecking is helping me become more fluent with my reading. Now, raise your hand if you thought I sounded like a fluent reader when I read that sentence the first time. I don’t see any hands up, and you’re exactly right! I was NOT reading fluently because I spent all my time decoding the words in the sentence so I could read them. Now listen again, this time I will show you what it sounds like to read fluently. I see an island with sand in the sea. That was effortless, and much easier to understand! Now it’s your turn to practice. Turn to a partner and practice reading the second sentence on the board. My mother drives me to swim practice every day. Read this sentence to each other until you think you both are reading fluently.”
3. Say: “Now we will see the difference between someone who reads fluently, and someone who does not. I will read a new sentence from the board, and I want you to listen closely. I am going to read this sentence how I might when I read it for the first time:” (Sentence: I have never been to the airport.) “ ‘I h-h-/a/-/a/-/a/-v-v-v-e n-n-n-/e/-/e/-/e/-v-v-v-/er/-/er/ b-b-/e/-/e/-/e/-/e/-/e/-/e/-n-n t-t-/oo/ /th/-/E/-/E/ /ai/-/ai/-/ai/-r-r-r-p-p-p-/or/-/or/-t-t-t.’ When I read the sentence very slowly and try to decode every word, it made it hard to understand what I just read. I am going to try reading this sentence again but more quickly and smoothly this time: ‘I, h-a-v-e, n-e-v-e-r, b-e-e-n, t-o, t-h-e, a-i-r-p-o-r-t.’ Wow, that was much easier! Let me try one more time, and this time I will try to read with more expression: ‘I have never been to the airport!’ When I read the sentence that time, I could easily understand what I was reading, but you can also see how I am feeling when I read with expression. This is what is sounds like when fluent readers read text. Now it’s your turn, and I want you to practice reading fluently with the same sentence from the board.
4. Assign partners for each student and pass out books for the class. Say: “Now we are going to practice reading fluently by reading The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear. One day, a curious little mouse walks through the woods and finds a big, red, ripe strawberry. Oh how juicy and delicious this strawberry looked to the little mouse! But then, the mouse hears about a big, hungry, thundering bear that LOVES strawberries and wants to eat them all! Will the little mouse take the red ripe strawberry and sneak past the big bear? Will the hungry bear catch the mouse and keep the delicious berry all to himself? You’ll have to read this story to find out.”
5. Students should read the first three pages silently at their desks. Then, students should find the partner they had previously and take turns reading aloud pages from the story. Explain to students that while they are reading, they should continue reading through the story and avoid stopping to help their classmates.
6. Pass out the recording sheets and stopwatches to each pair of students. Say: “Now we are going to play a fluency game. Listen closely so you can learn how to play. Partner 1 is going to start the game by reading first, while partner 2 controls of the stopwatch. Partner 2 will time partner 1 while they read the first two pages of our book, and partner 2 will record the time it took for partner 1 to read on the sheet I have given to you. After writing down how long it took partner 1 to read, partners will swap places. This time, partner 2 reads two pages of the story, and partner 1 times them using the stopwatch and writes down their time. Repeat this procedure two times each. As you are listening to your partner reading each page, listen to how their reading changes each time. Does your partner recognize more words? Do they read with more expression? Write any changes you notice on your paper. Now we are ready to start the game!”
7. After the partner groups have each read through the two page groups a total of three times each, have individual students come to the teacher’s desk and read the first four pages. Ask them to bring their record sheet so I can attach it to the back of my assessment sheet. Then, time their reading during the four page read-aloud section, and use the given formula to determine how many words each student can read per minute.
Equation: words x 60/ seconds read
Use a list of comprehension questions to assess how their fluency affects their overall comprehension.
8. Comprehension Questions:
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When can the big hungry bear smell strawberries the most?
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Can you hide a strawberry from the big hungry bear by disguising it?
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How can you hide a strawberry from the big hungry bear?
References:
Taylor Hoff, Reading is not unBEARable!
https://taylordhoff.wixsite.com/lesson-designs/growing-independence-and-fluency-gf
Sherell Brown, Flying into Fluency
https://sites.google.com/view/readingwithmsbrown/growing-independence-fluency
Wood, Audrey, John. The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Hungry Bear. (1984).