Growing Independence and Fluency | secondgrade-sbrissa

Growing Independence and fluency Reading Lesson

Julia Sbrissa

"Snacking for fluency"

Rationale: In order to comprehend reading, you have to be a fluent reader. Students must practice expression, pace, and comprehension if they want to read effortlessly and automatically. Effortless word recognition allows students to 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 gain fluency and independence in reading by crosschecking after reading decodable texts and repeat readings.

Materials:

Timer/stopwatch for each pair
Sample sentences on white board for teacher to model
Peer fluency sheet (one for each student)
Reading rate forms for teacher
Teacher Fluency Checklist (one for each student) with attached comprehension questions
Pencil for each student
Class set of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff

Procedures:

Say “We are going to achieve one of our goals in becoming a fluent reader in class today. Does anyone know what a fluent reader is? (Calls on students to answer.) A fluent reader is someone who is able to read very quickly and smoothly because they are able to recognize the words. If we can recognize the word, then we can better understand what we are reading because we instantly know each word’s meaning. It makes reading much more enjoyable!”
Say: “Now let’s look at a sentence written on the board: I gave him a cookie. 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. I, g-g-g-a-a-a-v-v-v-e-e-e, g-av-e, oh gave. I have him a cook. Oh, that doesn’t make sense. It must be cookie. I gave him a cookie. Did you notice that I got stuck on the last word when I read the sentence? To figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried what I thought the word cookie said, cook. That did not make sense, did it? To fix myself, I went back and reread the sentence to figure out which word made the most sense. This strategy of rereading is called crosschecking, and it is super important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers! Since I figured out these hard words while reading it helped me become fluent. Here's how a fluent reader would have read that sentence: I gave him a cookie. I read the sentence effortlessly which meant it was much easier to understand. I want you to turn to your partner and practice reading the second sentence on the board. Marshall the mouse will want milk. Read it aloud to one another until you read the sentence fluently.”
Say: “Now class let’s think back to when I read the first sentence when I got stuck on the word cookie. In order to figure out what the word was, I had to reread the sentence from the beginning and tried to figure out what the word cookie said; I pronounced it just to say cook. The sentence was very confusing, so I reread the sentence to figure out what the word should say to make the sentence sound correct. This is called crosschecking, and it is very important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers!”

Now pass out the book to each pair that you have assigned. Say: “We are going to practice being fluent readers by reading If you Give a Mouse a Cookie! One day, the mouse asks the little boy for a cookie. He gives the cookie to the mouse and it triggers multiple events of the mouse asking for things. Once the mouse is given a cookie, he asks for a glass of milk. The glass of milk ends up leading to a series of additional requests. Each thing the mouse asks for makes him want something else. What are some of the things that you think the mouse will ask for? Do you think the boy will give the mouse everything he asks for? Will the mouse ever stop asking for things?

Students will read the whole book silently to themselves. Then they will read the book to their partner without helping them or getting frustrated.
Pass out the recording sheets and stopwatches to each group. Say: “We are going to play a game to test everyone’s fluency. Put your listening ears back on to understand 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 how fast Reader 1 reads the first two pages. Reader 2 will then record the time on the sheet that I have handed out. You and your partner will switch places after Reader 1 is done. You will each do these three times. 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, meaning more facial movement and change in their voice? Please mark these changes you notice on your paper.”
When they are finished with their partner work, have one student at a time come to your desk to read the first two passages to you. They will bring their record sheet, so you can attach it to the back of their assessment sheet. As they read you will time them on the paragraph read aloud and use the formula given to record how many words per minute they read.

Reading Comprehension Worksheet: