Madeline Northrop

Rationale:

Practice makes perfect. This is especially true when you’re trying to become a fluent reader. Fluent readers make sight words as they decode, crosscheck and mentally mark unusual spellings of words they haven’t seen before. Fluent readers become familiar with words within a connected text over multiple attempts of decoding. As student’s have a larger number of sight words, they are more fluent readers. We try to become more fluent readers because fluent readers are better equipped to comprehend longer texts. Throughout this lesson students will practice rereading a text to improve their fluency. Students will work with partners and grade each other. This is so they can see first-hand how someone might recognize words more easily after reading a text multiple times.

 

Materials:

• Fancy Nancy Best Reading Buddies

• Stop watch

• Fluency guides

• Reader response forms

 

 Procedure

1. Say: “The more time we practice reading new words the easier it is to recognize them later. When we read a book that has a lot of words we haven’t seen before, it can be hard for us to read it quickly and understand what the story is about. That’s why it’s good for us to practice rereading text. We get to see those new words and learn what they are, so if we see them later we might recognize them more easily.”

2. Say: “I’m going to read this sentence. (write the “I have a reading buddy. On Mondays we read together.” on the board) I’m going to read it two different ways. Let’s see which way you like to listen to the sentence better. First: I ha-hav-have a r-r-rea-read-reading b-u-d buddy. On M-mon-mond-day-Mondays we r-ea-read to-ge-ther-together. Or do you like it better when I read it: I have a reading buddy. On Mondays we read together. The first time I read the sentence I wasn’t as familiar with the words, so I read it slower. The second time I went through the sentence I was able to read it quicker because I was more familiar with the for the words.

3. Say: “You saw me sound out the words like Monday and together. These are both words that can be tricky to read. When I read Monday I was able to break it up into mon and day which helped realize it should be Monday. I did the same thing when I read together. Together can be tricky so split it into chunks that I could pronounce. To-ge-ther. The next time I read the sentence I knew the words and was able to say them quicker without having to sound them out. Today we’re going to do something similar.

4. Say: We’re going to practice our fluency by reading Fancy Nancy: Best Reading Buddies. This book is about Fancy Nancy. Every Monday she meets with a reading partner named Violet. They love being reading buddies. A few Monday’s go by and Nancy hasn’t been able to read with Violet. How do you think that Nancy will be able to keep reading even though her reading buddy isn’t around to help her?

5. Say: “We’re going to partner up and have Best Fluency Buddies. Please have one buddy come up and grab two readers response forms and two fluency guides. The other buddy should grab two Fancy Nancy books and a stop watch.”

6. Say: “Now that you have your materials, one buddy is going to read and the other is going to time them! The reading buddy has to read the story all the way through while the other buddy times them and record it on your fluency guide. You’ll switch back and forth and each of you should read three times. Pay attention to your buddy while they are reading. If they make a mistake, mark it like this.” Show an example of how to mark a miscue “Each time you reread the book try to read it fast and smoother.”

7. After students start to finish reading the book say: “As you and your buddy are finishing reading Fancy Nancy, I’d like for you to fill out the readers response form. It’s a few questions about the story we just read. Once you finish that please turn it in along with your fluency guides.”

8. When students turn in sheets, grade the response forms and calculate the words per minute of each student after every reading attempt. Afterwards, save individual time to meet with each student so you can hear them again and let them know what they can do to read more fluently to reach a goal of 85 wpm if they are not currently making that time.

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