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Dance with Fluency

Growing Independence and Fluency

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Rationale:

This lesson is designed to help students become fluent readers. Being able to read fluently is being able to comprehend the readings. Students have to practice, expression, pace, and comprehension to acquire the skills that are needed to read automatically and effortlessly. Effortless word recognition allows students to reflect and remember what they have read. Through the process of reading, decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading, the students become more confident and continue to improve their reading rates. This will soon allow the students to become fluent readers. Students will use the strategy of crosschecking after reading a decodable book and repeated readings to gain fluency and independence in reading.

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 the teacher

  • Teacher Fluency Checklist (one for each student) with attached comprehension questions

  • Pencil for each student

  • Class set of Begin to Dance by Jamey Ryndak

 

Procedures:

  1. Say: “Today we are going to accomplish one of our goals on becoming fluent readers. What does becoming a fluent reader mean? A fluent reader is someone who is able to read quickly and smoothly because they are able to recognize and understand the words in a sentence. Being able to recognize the words helps us to understand what we are reading because we automatically understand each word. This makes reading much more fun!”

  2. Say, “Fluency is being able to read smoothly and quickly words without having to sound them out. One way to become fluent readers is to practice reading lots of times. Dancers can do fast turns and they have to practice many times to spin fast, but correctly. Today we are going to think of ourselves as dancers but still developing fluency by rereading. Have you ever started reading a book, and all of a sudden you come to a word and get stuck? When this happens, you have to stop and sound the word out. If you still don’t figure the word out, you go ahead and finish the sentence then go back and try to figure out that word. After you figure out the word you didn't recognize, reread the word several times, so that it gets easier to recognize while you keep reading. Today, we are going to be reading several times, so that you can recognize words and so that they become easier for us.”

  3. I will write an example sentence on the board. An example sentence could be “She wore her pink tutu to dance.” Say, “What do I do if I do don’t know a word?” You should use your cover-up critter to help you decode. Let’s practice on the word pink. Let’s all look at the word red on the board.” First, we begin by finding the vowel. The rest of the word is covered up. There is a short vowel in pink, i. So, this letter must make the /i/ sound that we learned about. I can look at the beginning of the word now, and there I see the letter p, /p/. I add it to my /i/ sound to get /pi/ then blend /pi/ with the /n/ and then add the /k/ sound. We then get, “ppppiiiinnnkkk”.  “Now let’s check and see that I blended correctly. Let’s reread the sentence on the board to make sure pink makes sense. “She wore her pink tutu to dance.”

  4. Say: “The first time you pick up a book you may not recognize some of the words. I am going to read the first sentence in the book A Crash in the Shed, “The sss-uuu-nnn i-sss hhh-ooooo-ttt?”  I had to stop a few times while reading this sentence. Let’s try it again. “The ss-uuu-n is hh-ooo-tt?”  That was much better. Let me try again. “The sun is hot?”  Much better! I remembered the words after decoding them a few times. Now, I am going to try and read it fast and smoothly). Raise your hand if you understood the story better when I read it smoothly. That's why it is important to read with fluency. I read the sentence over and over again which led me to reading it faster, correctly, and with expression. Now I want you to try to do repeated readings to see if you can become a more fluent reader.

  5. Say: “Now let’s pair up with a partner. You will be reading Begin to Dance.”  (hands a book to every pair) The groups will need two record sheets, two checklists, and a stopwatch. Explain to the class that each time you read a passage you become familiar with it and become better at reading it. (Pass out one stopwatch to each pair and one check sheet per student)

  6. Say, "For this activity, each of you will have the job of being the reader and the listener. We will read Begin to Dance. Pam starts dance class but is afraid she will be left out. Will Pam have a good time dancing? The first partner will read while the other users the stopwatch to see how long it takes you to read the book. If you are the one using the stopwatch, press the button when your partner begins reading. As soon as they finish, press the button again to stop the counting and write down the number on the timer. Now the second time they read it will be a little different. You will start and stop the timer just like you did the first time, you will also let them write down their time, but this time you will fill out your check sheet after they finish. If they remember more words you put a check; if they read faster, you put a check. You will record on your partner’s check sheet after the second and third time reading. After the third read, you swap. If you were reading first, you are now in charge of the stopwatch, and if you used the stopwatch first, you are now reading. After you have both read the book, discuss what happened and what the best part to you was!”

 

Assessment

  • After the students finished their readings, I will then pick up the fluency charts. I will use the fluency formula: words*60/seconds to assess their fluency. I will have the kids come up one by one and read the book aloud. I will use the charts and graphs for assessment to see whose fluency has improved and whose hasn’t. While the child is up, I will then ask each student 3-5 comprehension questions. The other students will independently read during that time.

 

 

 

Fluency Checklist:

Title of Book: __________________________________

Student’s Name: ____________   Date___________

Partner's Name: ______________________________

 

After 2nd Reading       After 3rd Reading

_________                    _________                   Remembered more words

_________                    _________                   Read faster

_________                    _________                   Read smoother

_________                    _________                   Read with expression

Reading Tracker: 

0 - - - 10 - - -20 - - -30 - - - 40 - - - 50 - - - 60 - - - 70 - - - 80- - - 90 - - - 100

Correct Words Per Minute

References:

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