Lesson 2: Oral Reading Fluency
Lesson Objective for fluency building lesson:Given one repeated passage, students will independently and orally read the 1st grade reading level passage with 90% accuracy and 50wcpm.
1. Advance Organizer: Obtain commitment to the Goal Review and Prepare Students for the Lesson.
- State the purpose and goal, and describe the reading/writing/skills that students are expected to learn…
- “Good morning! Today, we are learning about fluency. Fluency is when we read a story with accuracy, automaticity, and prosody. Now, I know those are difficult words. All that means is that when we read fluently, we are able to read the words quickly and correctly and with the right kind of sound in our voice. Remember how we have been practicing our phonics skills with letter sounds inside of words and how we have been practicing different types of words like the CVC pattern word we learned earlier? Well, learning all of those sounds and types of words will help us to be able to read new words we have never seen before, so we can read with more fluency. So, during this fluency lesson, we will learn how to figure out the sounds and words that are harder for us so we can move on and read our story more quickly and more closely. We will also learn how to quickly remember some words that we don’t sound out and we just have to memorize. These are our sight words. We will try to read these words quickly and just like we would sound if we were talking. There are a few things for us to remember while we are trying to read fluently, or trying to read at all. When we come to a word we don’t know, we can break that word up into its parts and into its sounds to help us figure out the whole word. We can cover parts of the word to help us figure out the left over parts and put them together later. We can also look at the words around our word to help us figure out what that word is. Today, we are going to practice with a story called “The New Baby”. Now, some of the sounds and words in this story are kind of hard so let’s go over them before we start.
Review Difficult Words:I also have a list of words here that we can practice with to help us get through our story more easily. These words are kind of tricky. First I will practice the word to show you what it sounds like. Then we will practice it together and then you may try it on your own. Ready? My turn. Finger to the left of the first letter. “This word is”. Slide-slash while saying “woke”.Loop back to starting point. What word? Side-slash answer “woke”. “W-O-K-E” “said”.Together. Finger to the left of the first letter. “Together, what word?”. Answer. “Spell the word” point to each letter as the students answer. “Woke”. Loop to starting point. “Yes, woke”. Your turn! Finger to the left of the first letter “Your saying this word”. Slide-slash signal. Answer. Loop back to starting point. “What word?” side slash signal. Answer. Loop to starting point. “Yes, woke”. Spell the word. “Woke”. ***Repeat for all words: robin, woke, freezing, nest, our, her, street, there
Activate Background Knowledge:
Do you remember reading the DIBELS passage when I timed you with the stopwatch? We measured how many words you could read in 1 minute? Well, today we are going to measure how many words from “The New Baby” that you you can read in one minute. I bet you will find it easier to read the words when they are in a narrative story like this one because they appear together and because we are going to practice how to read the words accurately and fluently, and we’ll read the words in the passage in phrases rather than all by themselves.
Connect to Pre-test
When I collected your pretest fluency rate on this passage (which was your cold timing data), you read this first grade passage with 2 wcmp out of 8 total words. You were frustrated during the reading.
Obtain Commitment to learn the skill/strategy
”After practice and repeated reading, your hot timing goal for reading this passage will be 50 wcpm.” We are going to chorally read, echo read, and partner read this passage until we reach this goal.
Now, let’s talk about the story a little before we start to read it. This story is a narrative. Does anyone know what a narrative is? Answer.Yes, a narrative is a story that involves characters interacting and talking to each other. Very good! A narrative is also a story about events or experiences. The title of this story is called “The New Baby”. Does anyone have an idea of what this narrative may be about? ANSWER. Very good, that is a wonderful prediction! Well, let’s read soon to find out!
2. Describe the Skill Strategy
•I will be focusing on accuracy, automaticity, and prosody today. I would like to see you reading the words in the passage correctly and quickly with expression just like you were talking to a friend. Try to make this automatic. When you read one word, move immediately onto the next word. I would like to see how many words you can read in one minute and I am hoping this amount increases from your pretest. I am looking for you to be pausing less and for words to be stopping your fluency less. They way to do this is to start breaking up the word into parts in your mind and saying those parts out loud to eventually verbalize the whole word out loud instead of just breaking words into different letters because sometimes more than one letter is involved in making just one sound like we practiced earlier. Fluency is showing and doing these things while reading:
•ACCURACY: Represents ability to read words as wholes (automatic word recognition) with accuracy
•PROSODY -- Use of context & text structure strategies -- grouping words into phrases – using appropriate intonation, expression, or prosody
•RATE -- Speed &Automaticity -- Instant identification of words
•Characterized by rate, “effortlessness”
•Important skill for older students to possess because of quantities of text students must read
•Skilled readers vary reading rate according to reading purpose and text difficulty
•Expression (explain)
•Pausing
•Phrasing
•Stress
•Intonation
•Rate
2. Describe the Skill Strategy
- First, I want to start the lesson by reviewing some of the sight words and patterns from the new story that we are reading today. The sight words from the story are: where, was, and said. Let’s read these sight words together. Tell me the word when I signal.My turn. Finger to the left of the first letter. “This word is”. Slide-slash while saying “where”.Loop back to starting point. What word? Side-slash answer “where”. “W-H-E-R-E” “where”.Together. Finger to the left of the first letter. “Together, what word?”. Answer. “Spell the word” point to each letter as the students answer. “Where”. Loop to starting point. “Yes, where”. Your turn! Finger to the left of the first letter “Your saying this word”. Slide-slash signal. Answer. Loop back to starting point. “What word?” side slash signal. Answer. Loop to starting point. “Yes, where”. Spell the word. “Where”. ***Repeat for all words: where, was, woke.
Here is a poster that shows how we will read with fluency and expression.
FLUENCY TIPS:
1.) Read accurately. Read what’s on the page (Try not to skip words if I can Figure them out. Try to do my best with each word).
*TAKE YOUR TIME!!!! READ THE WORD!!!!
2.) Read with good speed. Don’t read like a cheetah and don’t read like a snail
3.) Chunk my words and my phrases. Don’t just read every word by itself.
Ex.
Sally likes / tea and bread. NOT Sally/likes/tea/and/bread.
4.) Look at the punctuation symbols on the page.
-Pausing commas. Stopping periods. Excited Exclamation marks. Wondering question marks (raise voice like in normal speech).
. ,!?
5.) Read with expression like your favorite actor. Convince people that they are part of the story by how you read it.
Showing my Students how to Read Fluently and Why:
- Did you see how I raised my voice when I read “little”? That’s because it made my listeners know that the baby is a cute little girl instead of just a small human.
- Did you see how I paused when I read, “She doesn’t now her days are for eating growing, and playing”? That’s because I saw two commas and it looked like a list of words to me so I separated those words with pauses right where the commas were so everyone could hear all parts of the list of words.
- Did you see how I slowed down when I read, “Nobody else on our street has a baby”? That’s because I wanted my listeners to remember this statement and hear it very clearly because it is important to the story.
- Did you see how I figured out the word “sleeps” quickly by using the words around it? That is because those words helped me to figure out what the words was because it made sense with the words around it and I’ve seen that word before.
- Did you see how I said “nobody” more loudly and longer? That is because I know it was something very important in the sentence and that if I said it loudly and longer, the people around me would also know that that word was important too. That is why I stressed that word so much with my voice.
“Here is a poster that shows what fluency is. Fluent readers:
1) Do not read too fast or too slow; This means that we read just like we would talk to our teacher or our parents and friends. We do not want to talk to fast, or they will not be able to hear and understand us. We also can’t talk to them too slowly because they will get bored and forget what we are actually saying. We practice reading at the right pace by trying to sound like we do when we talk out loud to other people. We use this strategy every time we read because it is important to read just the way you speak in order to understand the words on a p age just as well as you understand someone talking. If we read just like we speak, people will understand us and we will understand that story because our brains can process that speed or reading and talking.
2) Read with expression; This means that fluent readers read the passage according to the punctuation marks in the story. They don’t just read the story without any change in their voice; they read the story and make their voice go up and down as well as louder and quieter to match how the story goes. Someone who reads with expression sounds like an actor or a teacher. They sound like they are trying to get the point of the story across through emphasizing important things and changing their voice to notify the reader of information as well. This is very helpful in trying to read to other people or to even read to yourself because if you practice this expression, you will begin to understand what you are reading more. It will sound like someone is talking to you and explaining things to you. And that someone is you!
3) Pause at commas and stop at periods; Fluent readers pause at commas and stop at periods for one big reason and many smaller reasons. The big reason is that humans need to take a breath sometimes! They can’t go an entire reading without breathing. Another big reason is that a period shows the end of a thought or idea, so if we stop reading for a second when the idea stops, then we will be able to soak in that idea and think about it more so that we understand it. A reason to pause at commas is so that readers can take the information in chunks and think about it without thinking about it all at once! That would be very overwhelming! One way to do this is to say, “Paul liked me, (pause) Julie, and (pause) Michelle. Who is he going to pick? If readers did not pause at the commas and stop at the period, they would not soak in this important information that Paul likes three different people and does not know whom to pick. So, when you come to commas and periods, try very hard to follow what actions go with them! Pause and stop!
4) Read what is there. This is very very important because when readers add in words or take away words, it can change the whole meaning of the sentence, which only confuses them. Adding words that aren’t there means you are changing or putting more information in that is not really there. This mixes up the story! Leaving words out and skipping them means you are deleting parts of the story and those chunks are gone forever. The reader will miss all of that information. It is important to read what is exactly on the page in order to get the most out of the information in the reading! So, when you come to a word that you don’t know, don’t skip it or add a different one in, try very hard to decode and figure out that word.
Activate Background Knowledge for the skill/strategy/content/sight words:
Do you remember listening to “Amelia Bedelia”on tape? The narrator used different voices for different characters. He read with expression. He laughed when the characters laughed, and yelled when the characters in the story yelled. He didn’t read too fast or too slow. He paused at commas so that you could understand him. He was a good reader, and we want to sound like him when we read. We want to be like the book narrators that we listen to on our tapes.
“Let me show you what it sounds like when the reader doesn’t follow these fluency rules. Listen to me. Think which of these rules that the reader (me) didn’t follow”(Demonstrate a reader reading so quickly that no breaths are taken between sentences or commas.) “What did you notice?Did I read too quickly or slowly? (Allow students to answer). Did I pause at commas and periods? (Allow students to answer). “Did read with expression? (Students answer). “Was it interesting to listen to?” Students answer. When readers read fluently, they make it interesting to listen to. They read with accuracy, speed, and expression.
3. Model Fluency. Include your Teaching Script [I Do It]:
Now I’m going to read the passage the right way. I’m going to read with accuracy. I’m going to read what is on the page. I’m going to read with the right speed – not too fast or too slow. I’m going to read with expression. I’m going to pause at commas, and take longer breaths at periods. I’m going to read the dialogue in quotation marks as though I’m that character speaking. I’ll read with expression, and use good intonation. I’ll raise my voice at question marks as though I’m asking a question, and I’ll stress the sentences that end with exclamation marks. I’ll look for clues in the text where the author tells me how to read it.”
Teacher reads passage from story out loud using different voices for characters, accuracy in reading, prosody and not reading too fast or too slow, and using expression to emphasize important/different parts of the story. Teacher models reading the passage with great fluency. Then teacher asks students:
Tell me what you noticed about my reading. Answer. Did I read with accuracy? Answer.What is reading with accuracy?Answer. Can you show me one example of how I read with accuracy? Answer.
Tell me what you noticed about my reading.Answer. Did I read with Prosody? Answer.What is reading with prosody?Answer. Can you tell me one example in the story where I read with prosody?Answer.
Tell me what you noticed about my reading. Answer.Did I read words automatically? Answer.How was my pace/rate?Answer. Show me parts in the book where I went to fast or too slow. Answer.Where did I read the words just right? Answer.