Rationale: Fluency, or the ability to read words effortlessly and automatically, is a very important factor in reading comprehension. Improvements in fluency facilitate improvements in reading comprehension as the students do not have to spend their energy deciphering words, and can instead focus on the meaning of the text. It also allows the student to read more words at a faster pace, so the meaning of the whole is emphasized instead of each individual word. This lesson will build confidence in fluently reading texts through the practice of decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading.

 

Materials:

- Copy of Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamillo for each student

- stopwatches for each pair of students

- sentences on the board “My dog ran after the ball.” and “The warm sun shines bright.”

- peer assessment sheet for each student

- teacher assessment sheet for each student

 

Procedures

1. Say to the class, “We have been working so hard on our reading skills so far this year. We are all going to become expert readers! Does anyone know how we are going to do this? In order to be true reading experts, we need to be able to read fluently. Reading fluently means that we read words automatically and effortlessly, recognizing them immediately. We need to have a large vocabulary of sight words in order to have this automatic word recognition. We want to be able to know almost all the words we see in our books. Having all these words in our sight vocabulary helps us better understand what we are reading, so we are able to read books of all sizes and difficulties. How are we going to build this large sight vocabulary? We are going to use the strategies of decoding, crosschecking, mental marking, and rereading.”

 

2. Model: I am going to show you what we should do when we come across a hard word in a sentence. For example, when I look at this sentence (Point to the sentence “My dog ran after the ball.” written on the board), I might read “My dog ran after the /b//a//l//l/…hmm /b//a//l//l/?? That doesn’t sound right. It kind of sounds like “ball”, oh, that would make sense because dogs chase balls. That word must be ball.” I would reread the sentence correctly this time so that I can understand it, mentally marking how the a in ball is pronounced.

 

3. Model: Now that we have gone over how to decode and crosscheck, we are ready to practice fluency. Remember, a fluent reader uses automatic word recognition. (Point to the second sentence on the board “The warm sun shines bright.”) When I first read this sentence, I am not fluent yet. It would sound something like this “The /w//a//r//m/ sun /s//h//i//n//s/ bright.” This makes it hard to understand what I am reading because each word was read slowly and I had to sound them out. Let me try again. “The…warm…sun sh..shines bright.” That time I was able to read all the words, but it was still slow and choppy. I’m going to read it one more time (read it faster and with expression). “The warm sun shines bright.” This time I was reading fluently, recognizing the words automatically. I was able to read faster and use expression this time.

 

4. Say “Now we are all going to practice fluency by reading Mercy Watson to the Rescue. This book is about a young pig named Mercy who lives with the Watson family. Mercy runs from the bed with her owners in pursuit of hot buttered toast. This causes her to experience all sorts of adventures and excitement. Will Mercy get help for the Watsons? Will she ever fulfill her late night craving for toast?”

 

5. Pair the students together (reader 1 and reader 2) and give each pair a copy of Mercy Watson to the Rescue along with two copies of the reading assessments, and one stopwatch. Each partner is going to have the chance to read chapter 1 multiple times so we all can become fluent for this chapter. Reader 1 will start first and read the entire chapter while reader 2 times them using the stopwatch provided. Then, the readers will switch roles, with Reader 1 timing and Reader 2 reading the chapter aloud. Then start over with Reader 1 reading the chapter out loud. While their partner is reading the book for the second time, Reader 2 will time them and also mark on the checklist if their partner remembered more words, read faster, read smoother, or read with more expression. Reader 1 will fill out this checklist for Reader 2 after their second reading. Reader 1 and 2 will read chapter 1 a third time, making sure to time their partner and mark on the checklist.

 

 

6. Assessment: Once the students have finished three rounds of repeated reading, have each student turn in his or her checklist. I would then call students up one at a time and have them perform repeated readings for me, marking their progress and moving the pig closer to the hot buttered toast. Go over any miscues and give praise or suggestions when needed. After the three rounds have been completed, ask a few comprehension questions: What happens every night before Mercy goes to bed? How does Mercy like her toast? Why does Mercy leave her bed?

 

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Teacher Fluency Checklist Worksheet

Student Name:

Book: Mercy Watson to the Rescue

Total number of words: 

 

 

 

References:

Dyess, Layton. “Running to Fluency.” http://laytondyess.wixsite.com/lessondesign/growing-fluency

DiCamillo, Kate. Mercy Watson to the Rescue. Candlewick: Massachusetts. 2009. Print.