Rationale:

This lesson’s goal is to help students develop fluency in longer and more advanced texts. Fluent reading is the ability to recognize sight words immediately and read quickly with understanding and expression. Repeated readings with a comprehension focus and word help between readings will lead to fluency by moving nearly all the words into sight vocabulary. Readers should be encouraged and motivated to read and reread decodable words and texts. Throughout this lesson, students will be taught how to become fluent readers themselves, how to decode, crosscheck, reread, and understand. At the end of the lesson, you will have a better idea of the student’s ability to read texts fluently and independently. 

 

Materials:  

• Stopwatch (one for each pair of children) 

• Cover-up critter 

• Pencils 

• Fluency chart to record student’s words per minute (one for each child) 

• Fluency checklist  

• Sample sentences 

• Reading tracker 

• Reader response form for comprehension 

• Class set of printable story “A Cold Winter Day” 

 

Procedures:  

1. Explain & say: “Good morning, class! We are going to talk about fluent reading today. Fluency requires learning new words as sight words. Whenever we read fluently, we fully understand what we read, and what happened in the story. When we learn to read fluently all the time, we will become better readers and know all the details of the story! Not only will we become better at understanding, but we will also be able to read with expression. This means that we can change our tone of voice to express different moods and emotions in the book. We can use a loud voice when a character is whispering (whisper here). Today, we are going to practice being a fluent reader!” 

 

2. Say: “Before we start, I am going to show you all how to crosscheck when we see a word that we may not remember. (Model) and say: “Here we see a sentence (show A Cold Winter Day’s sentence- ‘It can be so cold when it snows.” I may read this as ‘It /c / a / n /’ and think hmm.... that is not right! Let me read the last part of the sentence and see if I can figure it out. ‘Be so cold when it snows.’ Oh! ‘It can be so cold when it snows.’ I said a long A, but it is a short a so we must say /a/. Let’s read the full sentence now - ‘It can be so cold when it snows.’ 

 

3. Model & Say: “Now let’s talk about how a fluent reader reads, but also how a non-fluent reader reads. Our second sentence is ‘My friends come outside to play with me.’ A non-fluent reader would probably read this as ‘My friends cume, oh come outside to play www-iii-th me.’ See how I stretched the words out slowly? I made a mistake and had to correct the word myself. It is difficult to understand what we are reading when we do not read each word correctly. Let’s try to read it again and see if I can read a little smoother and quicker. ‘My f-r-i-e-n-d-s c-o-m-e o-u-t-s-i-d-e to p-l-a-y w-i-th me.’ That was better, but I am still not reading like a fluent reader. Let’s try to read this one more time, (read smoothly and add expression): ‘My friends come outside to play with me.’ Great job! That is how a fluent reader would read this sentence. Now let’s all read it together (have each child read with you): ‘My friends come outside to play with me.’ 

 

4. Say: “To become a fluent reader, we have to practice a lot. When I read our first sentence the first time it was very difficult for me to read it quickly and smoothly. I had to take some time to decode the words that I was not familiar with. When I read the sentence the second time, it was a little bit smoother because I had read it one time before. The last time I read it, it was quick and smooth like a fluent reader because I knew each word and added expression when I read. Now that you saw me become a fluent reader, you can too!” 

 

5. Passage Talk- Say: “This story is about a cold winter day. It is snowing outside. The narrator loves to make a snowman and have a snowball fight. It can be so cold when it snows. The narrator’s friends come outside to play. What will they do outside in the snow? Will it be cold? Let’s read to find out!” 

 

6. Partner Practice- Say: “Now we are going to practice our fluency by working in pairs. Find a partner to read with and then come and get a Partner Progress Checklist, Reader Response Form, a stopwatch, and 2 copies of “A Cold Winter Day.” The number of words in the passage is in the top right corner of your copy of the story. There are 108 words. After you and your partner settle in a reading spot, each partner is going to read the passage aloud three times. When your partner is reading, you are going to time them with your stopwatch. Also mark how many mistakes your partner makes. If they make a mistake, mark it down on your sheet of paper. Always remember that mistakes are not bad! All of us are going to make mistakes when we are building fluency and that is the only way we will get better! When your partner is done reading, subtract the number of words missed from the total word count. Record that number and the amount of time that it took them to read from the stopwatch. After you and your partner have both read the book three times, I want you to talk about the passage. Answer the questions on the Reader Response Form and write your answers down on separate sheets.” 

 

7. Assess the students’ progress from evaluating answers on the Reader Response Form and determining each students’ words per minute using the (word x 60 / seconds) formula. Make each individual student’s progress with a sticker on the fluency chart. Update these charts so that the students can watch their progress and see a visual goal. 

 

Partner Reading Progress Checklist: 

Total # of words in chapter: _______  

Reader: ________________________ 

Partner: _____________________ 

1: ____ words in ____ seconds 

2: ____ words in ____ seconds 

3: ____ words in ____ seconds 

Which turn (1, 2, or 3) sounded the smoothest? ____ 

Which turn (1, 2, or 3) had the least number of errors? ____ 

 

Reader Response Form: 

Name ________________ 

Directions: On your own piece of paper answer these questions with at least one complete sentence. 

1. What keeps the narrator’s feet warm? 

1. What all must the narrator wear before he goes outside in the snow? 

1. What all do they play in the snow? 

 

References:  

A Cold Winter Day story from Think Fluency: https://thinkfluency.com/wp-content/passages/ThinkFluency%20-%20Level%20One%20-%20A%20Cold%20Winter%20Day.pdf.

 

Additional Resources: 

Caroline Goodson, “Making Friends with Fluency” https://callieanng.wixsite.com/my-site/growing-independence-fluency 

 

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