Growing Independence & Fluency

Grow in Fluency With The Giving Tree

Growing Independent and Fluency Design

Jessica Perry

Growing Independent and Fluency

Rationale: Students will be able to read fluently, accurately, and effortlessly, making reading more enjoyable for students. Fluency is reading where nearly all the words are sight vocabulary; speed and expression are results. When students are able to read with fluency, they can add expression and emphasis to more fully understand the book they are reading. By completing repeated readings and one minute timed readings, students will be able to improve their fluency and reading rates.

Materials:

Book: The Giving Tree
Cover up critter
Model sentences for practice
Peer fluency sheets for each student/teacher
Timers

Procedures:

1. Say: “Today we are going to see different ways we can grow in our fluency skills. Who can tell me what fluency means? [Listen and respond to student responses] That’s right, fluency is being able to read effortlessly and with automaticity. Fluency also means that you are able to read pretty quickly, too. I know those are a lot of big words, but I promise these activities will make fluency easy. I’m going to say a sentence and I want you to tell me if I am reading fluently or not. “The d-o-g,..do-g…dog b-ar-k-ed…bark-ed…barked at the c-a-t…cat every day.” Did I read that fluently? You’re right; I read that very slowly and without much fluency. I’m going to read it again to see if it is more fluent. “The dog barked at the cat every day.” I read it with more fluency the second time. Now I am going to add some expression. “The dog barked at the cat every day!!!”

2. The teacher will review the decoding procedure using the cover-up critter. “What do I do if I get to a word and do not know what it is? That’s right! I use the cover-up method. Show that you remember how to use the cover-up method by trying it with me now.” Write a word on the board to model. “Let’s try it with the word dog since that was in the sentence I just said. First we find the vowel. Which one is the vowel? That’s right, it’s o. The letter o makes the /o/ sounds. Then we uncover the letters before the vowel, which is the letter d that makes the /d/ sound. Then we uncover the letters after the vowel, letter g, which makes the /g/ sound. Finally, we blend all the sounds together to say dog. The very last step is to reread our sentence to make sure we blended correctly and got a word that makes sense in the sentence.”

3. Give each student a partner. Pass out the book (The Giving Tree) to each child. Say: “Today we are going to read The Giving Tree. In this story, there is a tree that loves a little boy. Every day the little boy plays with the tree by swinging from her branches, eating her apples, climbing her, and sliding down her trunk. This made the little boy and the tree very happy. As each year passed, the little boy and the tree both grew older. We must read the rest of the story to find out just what happens with the boy and the tree. What will the boy ask of the tree? And what will the tree give him? Lets read to find out! Follow along in your book while I read the first two pages. I am going to read them three times to practice reading fluently. When I finish, you will do the same thing with your partner.” Read the first two pages aloud to the students. The first time you read, read slowly and sound out each word. The second time, improve your reading by reading more smoothly, quicker, and with some emotion. Say: “Now it is your turn. You and your partner will read the whole story out loud together once. Then, you will reread it again, reading more fluently and with more expression. While you read, I would like partner one to read the even pages and partner two to read the odd pages; meaning you are going to read every other page.”

4. As students are working, walk around make sure students are working together and staying on task.

5. Once every group has read the story twice, pass out a stopwatch and the word per minute charts to each group. Say: “We are going to play the Fluency Game! Listen closely so you will know what to do. One person will be the timer and one will be the reader, then you will swap. I want partner one to start as the timer and partner two to start as the reader. The timer will set the stopwatch to 1 minute. The reader will read The Giving Tree until the timer goes off. The timer will count the number of words the reader read in 1 minute. Then, you will graph it on the chart I have passed out. After you have graphed the reader’s number, I want you to swap jobs.” As you are explaining the graph, show the students what you mean. Use an extra graph to visually demonstrate the oral instructions. “Do this three times. Use the different ‘trackers’ to mark each one-minute read, so each partner should have three ‘trackers’ on the chart marking their words per minute for each round.” Tell students that the goal of this activity is to reach 85 words per minute by the third round.

6. After they have completed their three one-minute readers, collect their graphs. Use these graphs for your assessment. This will allow the teacher to teach the students according to the level they are on and know which students need additional help. To assess comprehension, the teacher will ask the following comprehension questions:

a. What happened to the little boy throughout the story?

b. What happened to the tree throughout the story?

Assessment: After the text has been read, I will have the students write in their reading journals about what they have read. This will show what they have learned. I will then call each of my students up one by one and ask them comprehension questions.

Reading Progress Chart:

Name: _________________ Date: __________

1st reading: ______

2nd reading: ______

3rd reading: _______

Fluency Rubric

Name: _________________ Evaluator: ___________

Date: _________

I spotted that my partner: (put x in the blank)

After 2nd After 3rd

Read Faster _______ _______

Read Smoother _______ _______