Growing Independence and Fluency Design

Growing Independence and Fluency Design: Frog and Toad have Fun with Fluency

Rationale: The purpose of this lesson is for students to improve their reading fluency. When students read fluently, he or she is able to read quickly, automatically, consistently, and with expression. Because students are not exhausted from trying to decode words, they are better able to comprehend what they are reading. Also, fluent readers will start to read with confidence, which will lead to independent reading. The cycle will continue with the student building their sight word vocabulary, which will strengthen fluency also. Through practicing reading, decoding, cross-checking, mental marking, and rereading, students will build confidence in fluent reading and become excellent readers. In this lesson, students will learn the skills they need to help them to practice reading fluently by rereading "Frog and Toad are Friends: Chapter One: Spring”.

Materials:

1. Timers or stopwatches for each student

2. A class set of “Frog and Toad are Friends” by Arnold Lobel

3. Whiteboard

4. Dry erase markers

5. Fluency Checklist (one for each student)

6. Reading comprehension questions

7. Coverup critters for each student

8. Reading record timesheet to record words per minute

9. Pencils

Procedures:

1. Say: “Good morning class! Today we are going to be working on improving our fluency while reading. Does anyone know what it means to be a fluent reader? (Allow students to answer and listen and respond). A fluent reader can read smoothly, effortlessly, and with expression while also understanding what they are reading. Fluent readers can also read quickly without making errors or stopping. So, the more fluent we are, the easier reading becomes! We are going to work on this with a couple of strategies that will help you to read more fluently!

2. Say: [Model the decoding strategy with coverup critter]. When we read a story, it is important not to skip any words if we want to read fluently. Sometimes when we read, we run into a word that we do not know. This is a coverup critter and it is going to help us read some of those unfamiliar words. I am going to show you how! Let me try this word. [Write the word ‘spring’ on the whiteboard] and say: First, I am going to put the cover-up critter over all the letters except the first one and sound out each letter as I go. /s/.../s/.../s/... Now I am going to uncover the p. /p/.../p/.../s/+/p/… /sp/. [Continue uncovering each letter and blend the phonemes together.] I see a growling ‘r’. /sp/+/r/=/spr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /i/ = /spri/. I just need the end, /n/ +/g/ = /ng/ = /spri/ +/ng/ = spring. that“S-s-s-p-p-p-r-r-r-i-i-i-n-n-n-g-g-g” The word we uncovered is ‘spring’! Let’s use the word in a sentence! ‘My favorite season is Spring.’

3. Say: [Now I will show students the difference between reading fluently and not reading fluently]. Let’s now try reading a whole sentence!! We can read it fluently if we practice and use our new strategies!! [Write the sentence “The snow was melting.” on the whiteboard and read the sentence aloud to class] I will read the sentence again and I want you to tell them if I sound like a fluent reader. The sss-nnn-ooo-www was mmm-eeee-lll-ttt-ii-nn-ggg. Does that sound like I am reading fluently? No, it does not! Let me try reading again! [Read again fluently, using speed and expression] ‘The snow was melting.’ Could you see the difference? Could you tell which one was smoother and quicker? (Allow students to answer and listen and respond) Reading the sentence fluently sounded so much better!! By learning sight words, your reading will become more fluent and you will improve your understanding of the book!

4. Now pass out “Frog and Toad Are Friends” by Arnold Lobel and coverup critter to each student. Say: “Now it is your turn to read!! We are going to practice being fluent readers by reading the first chapter, “Spring”. BOOK TALK: “It's April, and Frog wants his best friend Toad to wake up from his winter sleep so that they can have fun together! If only Toad would agree to wake up from his long winter nap! Oh no! Let’s read to see if Frog can get Toad to wake up and go outside!”

5. Students will read the first chapter, “Spring” silently to themselves. Before students begin their independent reading, remind them to use their coverup critter to help with unfamiliar words.

Then they will read the book to their partner without helping them or without getting frustrated. And make sure each pair has a timer, a fluency checklist, and a reading rate chart. Say: You and your partner are going to play a game. You both will read the chapter, “Spring” from “Frog and Toad are Friends” three times. Please take turns being the reader while the other partner uses the timer. The reader will practice reading fluently, remembering to read smoother and faster each time while focusing on the story. Each time your partner has finished reading, fill out the fluency reading checklist and the reading rate chart. This is important because this will allow seeing if fluency is improving or not. After reading, please give your partner a compliment on something that they have improved on! [Before the students start, model how to use the stopwatch and fill out the chart] To keep students on task the teacher will walk around the classroom during this reading time, making sure they are staying on task and filling out the time and chart correctly.

6. When they are finished with their partner work, have one student at a time come to your desk to read the first three pages 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.

7. Finally, the students will answer reading comprehension questions about the book to measure their comprehension of the reading.

Reading Comprehension Questions: