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Hi, Fly Reader!
Growing Independence and Fluency Design
Rationale:
When young readers are developing into strong readers, it is so important that they develop fluency. To be fluent means having the ability to read words accurately and automatically. Understanding the meaning of whole texts becomes much easier when less time and energy are spent on decoding so many individual words. Through this lesson, students will advance their fluency by learning to read words smoothly, quickly and with accuracy. Fluency will be gained through repeated readings, timed readings and one-minute reads. We will see their improvement throughout the repeated readings, and we will watch their skills grow!
Materials:
Board to display passages, white board to calculate fluency in front of class, class set of “Hi! Fly Guy!” by Tedd Allen, fluency chart for each student, stop watches (one per pair), pencils, comprehension worksheet, partner list
Procedures:
1. Say: In order to become great readers, we have to first become fluent readers. Who thinks they know what fluency means? [listen to students responses]. Great! Fluency means that we can read accurately and smoothly. When our fluency improves, we will be able to read faster, more accurately and with more expression! This also means that we don’t have to sound out each word when we come to it. Once we become a fluent reader, we are able to read books and enjoy them much more because we don’t have to focus as much on every single word.
Modeling:
2. Say: I will read this passage twice. I want you to listen to how different my reading sounds each time, and once I’m done, I want you each to vote on which one sounded better. [read “The dog has a ball” slowly]: “Thhhh-eeeee ddd-ooo-ggg hh-aaa-ss aaa bb-aa-llll.” Let me try that again [read same sentence smoothly]: “The dog has a ball”. Okay, now let’s vote. By a show of hands, who liked the first reading better? Okay, and who liked the second reading better? [count votes] Right! The second reading sounded better. Who can tell me why? [listen to student answers] Yes! It sounded better because I didn’t have to stop to figure out each word. That is what fluency is, and today that’s what we will all practice!
3. Say: When we are moving forward with fluency, something that is important to remember is if there is a word that you don’t know or you’re unsure of, read to the end of the sentence! Sometimes there are clues in the sentence that can help us uncover what another word means! Also, if you noticed that you made a mistake, you can go back and fix it! These are two important strategies that all fluent readers use!
4. Say: Today we will practice fluency by starting a chapter book! By a show of hands, who is excited to be getting into chapter books? Wow, so many of you! Me too! This is a book in a series called the Fly Guy series by Tedd Arnold. We are going to read the first two chapters of the first book, called “Hi! Fly Guy!” today. [give booktalk about Hi! Fly Guy!] When a boy named Buzz meets a fly, a beautiful friendship blossoms. Or does it? How can a boy and a fly be friends? This is not like most friendships… Read to find out the adventures that Buzz and Fly share! I am going to read the first chapter of this story so we can start it together but follow along with me. [hand out one copy of Hi! Fly Guy to each student, then read chapter one].
5. I’m going to read chapter one twice, can I have a volunteer to time me each time I read the chapter? [choose student volunteer, read chapter once, making a few obvious errors so students will notice, then record time that student announces, record number of errors, then read again, making one or two less errors and a bit faster]. The second time I read, it I felt more comfortable with the words, what did you notice about my second reading? [listen to student’s responses] Right! I was faster and I made less mistakes. I was also able to read with more expression because I recognized the words more automatically!
6. Say: Now, I want you all to go read the second chapter with a partner, in the same way that I did. One of you will read the chapter, while the other times you. The timer should also try to make note of any errors they recorded for their partner. I have assigned you all a partner, look on the board to see who your partner is. Partner A should come to the front and grab 2 fluency charts, one for each of you, and one stopwatch. Partner B, you can go and find a spot around the room for you and your partner to read at! Once you are together, you should count the total number of words in chapter 2 and write that down at the top of your fluency chart. After that, you can each read the chapter three times, everyone hold up three fingers so I know you understand. [survey room] Good. While your partner reads, time them and do not help them if they struggle with a word. Struggling sometimes is okay, it’s what makes us better readers! If it is not your turn to read, and you have the stopwatch, pay close attention to where your partner might make a mistake and make a tally, like this [model how to make a tally mark]. Once you have finished reading the chapter, write the number of tallies you have for that try, and then write the time that is on the stopwatch, like I did before. When you have each read the chapter three times, come back to your seat and we will work on the chapters 1 & 2 question guide together. Okay, time to read! [students break off into pairs]
7. [all students have returned to seat] Say: Okay, welcome back to your seats! Hold on to your fluency charts for now, we can come back to that later. Now that we have finished the readings, I want to review these questions with you! Who can tell me the two main characters in the story? [listen to student answers]. Right! Buzz and Fly Guy! Why do you think the two main characters become friends? [listen to student responses, few right answers on this question]. Great thoughts! Number three, what was Buzz looking to catch when he went out on a walk? [listen to student response] Right, he was looking for something smart and amazing for the pet show! A fly would be a funny pet! Question 4, what convinced Mom and Dad that Fly Guy really was a pet? [call on student] Yes! When he knew Buzz’s name! Last question, what did Buzz give fly guy to eat? [listen to answers] Yes, a hot dog! That probably took fly guy so long to eat! Okay, the last question on your worksheet will let you be creative! I want you to draw what you think would be the most amazing pet for the pet show! You can create your own brand-new pet, or you can draw the one you have at home! Be creative!
8. Say: While you all do this individually, I want you to come to my desk one by one when I call your name and we will calculate your fluency score together! [students come to desk; teacher calculates fluency with best attempt using the formula: [words x 60)/seconds… word count for chapter 2: 101]
Book and Comprehension questions:
https://www.rif.org/literacy-central/book/hi-fly-guy
Fluency Chart (based off of):
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/Free-Reading-Fluency-Charts-377871
Lesson Design based on:
Anna Grizzard; Fluency with Junie B!
https://alg0058.wixsite.com/mysite-2/growing-fluency
http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/
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