Kate Winsness
Growing independence and fluency design
Flying Fast into Fluency
By: Kate Winsness
Rationale: This lesson will help students gain confidence and fluency as a reader. In order for students to gain this skill and become fluent readers, they will need to be able to read effortlessly and automatically. To get to this point, they will need to practice. Through practice and reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading, students will slowly become more fluent and confident in their reading skills. At the end of this lesson, teachers will have a good idea of how fluent their students are and how confident they are with independent reading.
Materials:
White board marker
Sentences for teachers to write on the board
Fluency sheet for each student
Stopwatch for each student
“Brave” by Stacy McAnulty
Comprehension questions
Assessment questions
Superhero masks
Procedures:
Say- “Today we are going to be superheroes and become super strong readers! (put your hands on your hips like a superhero). In order to be a super reader, you must be fluent. Does anyone know what it means to be a fluent reader? (class replies). Fluency is when you can read fast and automatically. To become super readers, we must be able to begin recognizing words automatically! You can’t become a superhero overnight; this is something you need to work on every day. But if you practice enough, we will all gain our capes and become superhero’s!”
Say- “Is it okay to see a word while reading and not know how to say it?” (let class reply) “absolutely! That is when we can crosscheck and learn it!” I am going to write a sentence on the board, and you are going to repeat it after me! “I am super!” Some might read this sentence and say “I am /s/ /oo/ /p/ /r/. Oh super! I am super!” Now I will try and remember that whenever I see s-u-p-e-r it says super!
Say-“Good job everyone! Now everyone get a partner. Since we know the book we’re about to read is about a super hero, I am going to write some superhero sentences on the board for you to repeat to a partner. If you don’t know a word, that’s okay! Just write it on your paper and try to sound it out. If you still don’t know it I can come and help you!” (write 1. I am brave 2. I have super strength 3. I seem adventures) on the board. “Once you figure out the word you are having trouble with, reread the sentence with your superhero voice!”
Say- “Now everyone stay with your partner. You are going to practice using your superhero voice and take turns reading aloud the book and practicing repeated reading. One partner will have a stopwatch and the other will have a fluency checklist. One partner is going to read aloud using their superhero voice while the other partner times you with the stopwatch. The first partner will read the book “Brave” by Stacy McAnulty 3 times while the second partner follows along. If you are the partner not reading, use the checklist to score when your partner is a superhero and they do something like remembers a word, reads faster, smoother, and/or with more expression! After the first partner finishes, the next partner reads, and the other person records the time and does the checklist.
Assessment: Walk around the room and be supportive and give positive reinforcement. Hand out superhero masks when a student masters the whole checklist (keep going until the whole class has 75% completed the checklist). I will have students come to my desk and have them stand in their superhero stance and wear their masks while having them read me some of the reading. They will each individually answer questions about the book to test their comprehension. 1. What is one thing a brave kid does? 2. What was your favorite part of the book? 3. How are you brave?
I will assess their reading fluency and comprehension.
I will then have the partners fill out a sheet saying, “How super is my partner?” This will have questions that ask;
1. Did your partner read faster by reading #3?
2. Did your partner read smoother by reading #3?
3. Did your partner read with expression by reading #3?
4. Is your partner a SUPER READER?
Resources:
Murchison, Maggie: Fearless Fluency
Brave, McAnulty, Stacy, and Joanne Lew-Vriethoff. 2017. RP Kids