Boss of Fluency! by Macy Gann
Growing Independence and Fluency
Junie B. Jones: First Grader: Boss of Lunch
Rationale:
This lesson is designed for childrens to better understand what they are reading and enjoy reading because being able to read fluently is vital for comprehending. Fluent reading is the ability to automatically recognize sight words and to read quickly with understanding and expression. Students must practice expression, pace, and comprehension, in order to read effortlessly and with automaticity. Effortless word recognition allows students to reflect on and comprehend what they are reading. The goal of this lesson is to help students be able to be confident in reading fluently by reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading text. Students will be able to use the strategy of crosschecking after reading a decodable text and the repeated readings in order to gain fluency and independence in reading.
Materials:
Have written on the board: “Cal likes to play games in the pool.” and “Kate the cat jumped and danced in the rain!”
Class set of pencils
Stopwatch for each student
Class set of Junie B Jones: First Grader: Boss of Lunch
Cover-up critter for each student
Repeated Peer Fluency Check (1 per student) See below:
Peer Fluency Check:
Title of Book:____________
Name:______________
Partner’s Name: __________________
Date: ___________________
Time after 1st reading:_______
Time after 2nd reading: _______
Time after 3rd reading: _______
After the 2nd reading... (Put a checkmark if applies)
The reader remembered more words. _____________
The reader read faster. _________________
The reader read smoother. ______________
The reader read with expression. __________
After the 3rd reading... (Put a checkmark if applies)
The reader remembered more words. _____________
The reader read faster. _________________
The reader read smoother. ______________
The reader read with expression. __________
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Teacher fluency checklist see below:
Teacher Fluency Check:
Name of Reader:___________
Date:____________
Time:___________
Words x 60/time in seconds
Comprehension: What was this paragraph about?
Exit quiz of comprehension questions
1. What did Junie B. Jones get to do?
2. Who did Junie B. Jones get to work with?
3. How would you feel if Junie B. Jones was your lunch lady?
Procedures:
Begin teaching the lesson by saying, “Alright class, you all have been doing fantastic at reading and getting better every day! I am so proud of each of you. Today, we are going to work to become even better readers, by working on being fluent readers. I want y’all to think about what it means to be a fluent reader.” Allow students to sit and think. “Who can tell me what it means to be a fluent reader?” Call on a few students to share their ideas. “Good thinking! Fluent readers are able to read text smoothly, quickly, and with expression because they are able to recognize words automatically without having to stop and think about it. This helps us understand and comprehend what we are reading, because we aren’t having to stop, analyze, or decode each word. Reading fluently makes reading more enjoyable!’
Say: “Now, let’s look at the sentence written on the board:” (Have sentence written already): Cal likes to play games in the pool. I want y’all to put your listening ears on, and tell me if I sound like a fluent reader when I read this sentence out loud: C-C-C-, /a/-/a/-/a/, l-l-l, Cal, l-l-l /I/-/I/-/I/, k-k, e-e, s-s-s, t-t-o-o, p-p-p, l-l-l, /A/-/A/-/A/, y-y-y, g-g, /A/-/A/-/A/, m-m, e-e, s-s-s, /i/-/i/,n-n, t-t-h-h.. Oh wait that’s a consonsant team! /th/-/e/, p-p-p, /oo/,l-l. Cal licks to play games in the pool? Hmm. That doesn’t make sense. Ted wouldn’t lick a game in the pool. Ted likes to play games in the pool? Likes! That makes much more sense! Did anyone notice that when I was reading the sentence, I got stuck on the word in the middle? In order to figure out what the word I got stuck on was, I had to reread the sentence from the beginning. I had to try to reread what I thought likes was the word licks. I had to go back and reread the sentence to figure out what the word was, so the sentence would make sense. This strategy is called ‘Crosschecking’.” (Write the word “Crosschecking” on the board). Crosschecking is very important to use when we are learning how to become fluent readers! Being able to figure out these hard words helped me become more fluent. Raise your hand if you think I read that sentence like a fluent reader!” (Wait for responses) Right, I was NOT reading like a fluent reader because I had to decode the words in the sentence to be able to read them. This is how a fluent reader would read that sentence:” (Read the sentence fluently) “Cal likes to play games in the pool.” It was so much easier to understand when it’s read that way! Now, turn to a partner and practice reading the second sentence on the board.” (Point to the next sentence on the board: Kate the cat jumped and danced in the rain!) Read it aloud to one another until you read the sentence fluently.
Teacher says: “Now, I want you to think back to when I read the first sentence out loud to you, and when I got stuck on the word ‘likes’. To figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning, and retried what I thought the word said, ‘licks’. That did not make sense, did it? So, I went back to the text, reread, and figured out what the word should have said to make sense. This strategy is called “Crosschecking”! It is very important to use crosschecking when we are learning to become fluent readers!”
Teacher then assigns partners for each of the students’ and passes out the books. “Now we are going to practice being fluent readers by reading the Junie B. Jones book, Junie B., First Grader: Boss of Lunch”. Something very exciting is happening to Junie B. Jones! She gets to be a professional lunch lady! This means she gets to hangout with Mrs. Gutzman in the lunchroom, and even wears a hair net! Will she get to be in charge of the entire lunchroom? Let’s keep reading to find out!”
Have students read the first three pages to themselves, silently. Then, with their partners, they should each read a chapter out loud to each other. Make sure the students are not stopping to help each other, while they are reading.
Pass out the stopwatches and recording sheets to each set of partners. Teacher then says: “Now, we are going to play a fluency game with our partners! 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 Reader 1, while Reader 1 reads the first 2 pages of the book. They will record the time on the sheet I have given to you. After recording this information, you will both switch roles. Do this procedure 3 times each. As you are listening to your partner read the pages out loud, I want you to listen to how their reading changes each turn. Do they read with more expression? Do they remember more words each time? Mark your changes on the paper! Let’s get started!”
After the students pair up, and each read through the pages 3 times, have the students come up to you one at a time. Have them read a paragraph from the first 2 pages. Ask them to bring their record sheet, so you can attach it to the assessment sheet. Then, time them on the paragraph read out loud. Use this formula given to record how many words they were able to read per minute:
Words x 60 / seconds read
Give students each a list of comprehension questions to assess how their fluency is affecting their comprehension.
Citations:
Caitlyn Brown, First Fluency! https://caitlinbb.weebly.com/growing-independence-and-fluency-design.html
Grace Loggins, Swimming For Fluency!
https://sgloggins17.wixsite.com/mysite-1/growing-independence-fluency
Reading Genie
http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/
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