Growing Independence and Fluency

“Bear” Necessities for Fluency & Independence

A Growing Independence and Fluency Lesson by Spenser Phillips

Rationale:

Students must be able to read fluently and independently in order to become a skilled reader. Reading fluently is beneficial to students in many ways: it indicates that nearly all of the words are in their sight vocabulary and places more of their focus on comprehension than decoding words they do not know. This allows students to read more quickly and expressively! In this lesson, students will learn the strategies and skills it takes to become a fluent and independent reader through modeling and practice. Students will use rereading as a strategy to build fluency and help understand the meaning texts.

Materials:

"Corduroy" by Don Freeman, cover-up critters, chart paper, reader response worksheet, paper and pencil, ELMO (overhead camera).

Procedures:

We are going to learn how to become even better readers! Remember how we have been blending the sounds of letters to make up words? We are going to build off of this today! When we can read almost automatically, that means we are becoming fluent and independent in reading. Fluent reading is smooth, effortless, and expressive.

Our book today is called Corduroy. It is about the journey of a teddy bear looking for a very important missing accessory! First, let me model to you how a reader who is not fluent would read the first sentence in Corduroy (read sentence choppily and with no expression): /C//or//d//ur//oy/… Corduroy is a /b//ea//r/ who once /l//i//v//ed/ in the toy /d//e//p//a//r//t//m//e//n//t/ of a big /s//t//o//r//e/… store. It is important that we know how to quickly blend words. But sometimes, words are hard, and we need some help!

This is our cover-up critter! (Show critter on overhead camera.) Let me show you how it works (model on overhead camera): When I get to a word I don’t know, I start by using my critter to uncover one letter or chunk at a time. Let’s try it with this word (show Corduroy). Start by uncovering C, which says /c/. Then uncover O, and we know that says /o/. When we uncover R, we know that or=/or/, so we have /Cor/ so far. Then uncover D, which says /d/. U says /u/. R says /r/, but we know that ur =/ur/. So we have /Cordur/ so far. Then uncover O, which says /o/, and Y, which says /y/; but oy says /oy/. Yay, I can read Corduroy! If you have trouble with a word like I did, you can use your cover-up critter! If you have to use your cover-up critter make sure to reread the entire sentence when you reach the end. So, would read; “Corduroy is a bear who once lived in the toy department of a big store.” And then I’ll read the sentence one more time with expression! "Corduroy is a bear who once lived in the toy department of a big store!" I used expression because I’m a fluent reader and after today you will be too!

Let’s practice with another sentence from Corduroy! (Write sentence on chart paper.) I’m going to read the sentence two times. I want you to show me thumbs up on the one that is read fluently and thumbs down if I did not read fluently. (Read non-fluently and choppily.) “Day after day he waited with all the other animals and dolls for someone to come along and take him home.” (Next, read fluently and smoothly.) “Day after day he waited with all the other animals and dolls for someone to come along and take him home.” Which reading was fluent? Perfect! The second was right! I like seeing all those thumbs up

Assessment:

Students will answer the reader response questions. This will insure comprehension and understanding of the story.
After each person has read and have both answered the reader response questions, they will discuss what they've read!
Students will go back to their own desks and read silently to themselves.
Then, wait for the teacher to call them to her desk.
The teacher will walk around the room and observe students reading, make sure students are on task and are not confused.
When students are finished they will turn in their reader response work sheets. Call students one by one and have them read the selection. The teacher will take a running record calculating their words per minute using wordsx60/seconds.

Resources:

Stone, Mallie. Bear Necessities for Reading. http://mvs0002.wix.com/msstonesstudies#!growing-fluency/c6mc

Rush, Caroline. Monkey Around with Fluency. https://sites.google.com/site/carolineslessondesigns/home/gaining-fluency

Freeman, "Don. Corduroy".Viking Press, 1968.

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