A Fluent Fish
Growing Independence and Fluency Design
Rationale: This lesson is designed to help students read fluently, which is important for their development in reading comprehension skills. Being a fluent reader means that a student has the ability to read effortlessly and automatically while retaining the idea behind the text. Fluency helps make reading more enjoyable for students because they can smoothly read through the story and express the words. Before this goal can be accomplished, the students must be able to decode words in the text. If students employ techniques of decoding, cross-checking, mental marking, and rereading, then they will possess all the tools that are necessary for fluency and independent reading. As a result, students will be more confident in their reading abilities and their reading rate will improve. In this particular lesson, students will learn the helpful strategies that will aid their development as fluent readers (decoding, cross-checking, mental marking, and rereading) through the repeated readings of The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.
Materials:
The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
Stopwatches
Pencils
Cover-up critters
Fluency checklists for each student
Chart to record the students’ reading rates
Assessment/comprehension questions
Whiteboard
Dry erase markers
Procedures:
The lesson begins with the teacher explaining the definition of fluency and its value in reading to the students. Say, “Today we are going to be working on how to improve and maintain your fluency while reading a piece of text. Can anyone tell me what it means to be a fluent reader?” *Wait for responses from students, and address their responses accordingly* “A fluent reader is able to read text automatically and effortlessly while still understanding the message encoded in the text! Being a fluent reader means that you are able to read at a smooth, steady pace without pausing or making miscues. The more fluent you are as you read, the better you’ll be able to understand the story itself. Who wouldn’t want to be a fluent reader? In order to read words automatically and effortlessly, we must add words to our sight vocabulary! Today I will be teaching you 4 different strategies to employ in order to build your sight vocabulary and improve your fluency.”
Say, “The first step in building your sight vocabulary and improving your fluency is decoding, which is a strategy in which we break an unfamiliar word apart by its phonemes in order to identify the entire word. A special tool we can use is a cover-up critter, which helps us to uncover and isolate one phoneme at a time in order to blend the phonemes and make a word. Watch me as I model how I would decode a word that I might not know, using a cover-up critter. Let's try this word as an example”. *Put the word rainbow on the board* “Let's begin! Use the cover-up critter to slowly unveil each phoneme: /r/../A/. I know that when a and i are together they make an /A/ sound, like when you greet someone, /A-A-A/.../n/...when I blend the /r//A/ with the /n/, it sounds like the word rain! Let’s keep going../b/../o/../w/...I know that when o and w are together, it makes an /O/ sound, kind of like when you’re surprised ‘Oh!’. So if I blend /b/ with /O/, I get the word bow. So all together, that makes a compound word, rainbow. Oh, rainbow! This is the word rainbow, as in A rainbow formed in the sky!”.
Demonstrate how to develop fluency using all 4 strategies of decoding, cross-checking, mental marking, and rereading. Write the sentence, The fish had scales that were colorful and shiny. Say, “I’m going to pretend like I’m reading a book, and I encounter this sentence for the first time. The fish had…” *pause for a few seconds before the word scales* “I’m confused. I’m going to get out my cover-up critter to decode this unfamiliar word. /s//c//a//l//s/. Scals? I’m going to cross-check by reading the rest of the sentence to see if this word makes sense. The fish had scals that were colorful and shin. Oh! This is the word scales. That a must be a long a, since there is a silent e following the l. Okay, now this sentence makes sense. I’m going to reread the sentence that way it sticks in my brain and I can return to the events in the story”. *Once you reread it, have a noticeable dose of expression and a more smooth pace* “Did you see how I used decoding, cross-checking, mental marking, and rereading to comprehend an unfamiliar sentence? Did you see how the second time I read the sentence, I was a lot faster, smoother, and my voice had a lot more expression in it? That’s because I made my sight vocabulary bigger with the word scales, and the second time I read the sentence was more automatic and effortless! What I just modeled for you is how readers become fluent!”.
Say, “I want you to read the book The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister at your seat”. *Give the following booktalk* “The story is about a fish, referred to as a rainbow fish, who has countless beautiful scales! The rainbow fish loves his scales, and finds them to be the most beautiful thing in the ocean. One day, another fish in the ocean asks the rainbow fish to share his scales so that other fish can be beautiful, as well. The rainbow fish has to make a big decision to either share his scales or keep them all to himself. What will he decide? Will he still be a rainbow fish if he doesn’t have all of his scales? Will the other fish be upset if the rainbow fish doesn’t share his scales? You will read the story silently to yourself in your head to find out what the rainbow fish decides!”.
Students will read the whole book to themselves at their desks. Then each student should read the book aloud to a partner. They are not allowed to help their partner read the book while they are listening to them.
Pass out the recording sheets and stopwatches to each group. Say, “Now we are going to play the fluency game! Reader 1 is going to start the game and Reader 2 will be in control of the stopwatch. Reader 2 is going to time how fast Reader 1 reads the book. Reader 2 will then write down how long it took Reader 1 to read the book on the sheet that I have given you. After recording the information you will switch and Reader 1 will do Reader 2’s job and record their time, as well. I want you guys to do this three times for each reader and make sure to listen for how your partner’s reading changes each time they read the book. Do they remember more words? Do they read faster? Do they read smoother? Do they read with more expression? Make sure you write these changes down on your paper”.
After the student pairs have each read the book three times, have the students come up one at a time to read the book to you. Ask them to bring their fluency checklist with them so you can attach it to the back of the assessment sheet. You will then time them on their read aloud, and use the formula from the assessment sheet to record how many words per minute they read.
Assessment: After students have all read the passage for you, each reader will individually answer 3-5 reading comprehension questions as an assessment.
Fluency checklist will be filled out for each student:
Title of Book:
Student’s Name:
Partner's Name:
Make a check if the following statements are true after the 2nd and 3rd readings:
1. Read more words by sight:
2. Read faster:
3. Read smoother:
4. Read with expression:
Reading Tracker:
0 - - - - 10 - - - - 20 - - - - 30 - - - - 40 - - - - 50 - - - - 60 - - - - 70 - - - - 80 - - - - 90 - - - - 100
[Words x 60 seconds= WPM]
Comprehension Questions:
1. Which other fish in the ocean did the rainbow fish give one of his scales too?
2. Who did the rainbow fish go to for advice about sharing his scales?
3. How many shiny scales does the rainbow fish have left at the end of the story?
References:
Angel Fuentes, “Getting Fishy for Fluency”. https://angelfuentes1721.wixsite.com/mysite-1/getting-fishy-for-fluency
Pfister, Marcus, and J A. James. The Rainbow Fish. , 1992. Print.