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Rationale: A student must be able read fluently in order to become a skilled reader. Becoming a fluent reader is not an easy task but is a huge milestone. Once a student is a fluent reader, they can focus on reading comprehension and enjoy reading. Fluency also indicates that nearly all of the words are in the reader’s sight vocabulary. As a fluent reader, students can read more quickly, with expression, and with ease. When students become fluent readers, books become much more interesting, and they can read a wide variety of texts. In this lesson, students will learn strategies and skills through modeling and practice to help them become fluent readers. 

 

Materials:

• Stopwatch

• Fluency frog graphs

• Frog Stickers

• Class set of Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel

• Sentence written on the board: “Frog ran up the path to Toad’s house and knocked on the door.” And on a separate line, “Toad shouted, ‘Frog, wake up! It’s spring!”

• Reader Response Form

• Grading Rubrics 

• Partner Reading Progress Checklist

 

Procedures:

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1. Explain the Activity. Say: “Today we are going to talk about reading fluently. When we read fluently, we are able to understand what we are reading and what is happening in the story. The more fluently we can read, the more we will be able to comprehend what we are reading. For example, fluent readers are able to read with expression. We can change our voices to match certain text, like getting louder if a character screams or by using a quiet voice if another whispers. To become a fluent reader, we need to practice our skills so that’s what we will do today. Practice.”

2. Model Fluent and Non-Fluent Reading. Say: “I am going to read this sentence on the board two times. I want you to listen to how I read it and tell me which time sounds more fluent, or which one sounds better.

• F-r-ooo-g, frog ran up the paaaa-th, path, to T-ow-d’s, Toad’s? h-ou-se and /k/nocked, knocked on the d-oo-rrr.

• Frog ran up the path to Toad’s house and knocked on the door.

     Which sounds better? [Give time for students to answer] That’s right!! The second sentence I read sounded much better. Why does it sound better? [Allow students to answer] Correct, it sounds better because I read the words easily with less mistakes, and I also read with expression. Also, I understood what the sentence is saying when I read it the second time. When I read the sentence the first time, I was focused on decoding the words that I didn’t pick up what the sentence is saying. Fluent reading is important, because it’s how you know what’s going on in the story.

1. Review a Strategy. Say: “Did you notice that the first time I read the sentence I read knocked as k-nocked? But then I went back and realized that the correct word was knocked because k-nocked did not make sense and isn’t even a word. This is called cross-checking. You use cross-checking when you come to a word in the sentence that you’re not sure about. When cross checking we look at the rest of the sentence to try and understand the context. When we finish with our skills decoding, and cross checking we must reread the sentence to understand the text.

2. Practice Together. Say: “Let’s read this next line together, “Toad shouted ‘Frog, wake up! It’s spring!’” I heard some of you didn’t immediately get the word “shouted”. If you were reading this by yourself and you didn’t know the word you could look at these beginning sounds, /sh/ /o/ and then look at the rest of the sentence to figure out that it says “shouted.”

3. Booktalk/Motivation to Read: “Now before we get too far into the story, let me tell you a little bit about it! Frog just woke up for spring after the long months of winter. He is excited for spring. He wants to share his excitement for spring with his friend Toad. Toad is not excited for spring. Frog tries to wake up Toad. Will he be able to wake Toad up from his nap? We will have to read to find out!!”

4. Partner Practice Say: “Now we’re going to do some practice building our fluency with partners. Pair up with your reading partner and come get a Partner Progress Checklist, Reader Response Form, a stopwatch, and 2 copies of Frog and Toad are Friends.  I will tell you the number of words in the book when you get back to your reading spots so you can write that at the top of the page. You’re going to take 3 turns reading the book. While your partner is reading you are going to use the stopwatch to time them. You are also going to pay close attention to how many mistakes your partner makes, make a checkmark on your sheet of paper when you hear a mistake. Remember that it’s okay to make mistakes while we’re building fluency. You’re going to have mistakes the first couple times you read it and that’s how we get better. Once your partner is done reading you’re going to subtract the number of words missed from the total number of words, you’re also going to record the time it took for them to read it and record it on your sheet. You’re also going to record which time was the smoothest and which time had least number of errors. After you and your partner have each read 3 times, I want you to discuss the answers to the questions on the Reader Response Form and individually write your answers down. When you have finished come see me and I’ll give you fluency graphs and show you how to put your frog sticker in the right spot on your fluency graphs so you can monitor your progress!”

5. Assessment: I will collect the partner reading response forms after repeated readings are complete and assess each student’s fluency by using words x 60/seconds. After using the formula to assess each student’s fluency, I will call each student up to read a few pages while the class is working on their writing assignment. I will take note of words per minute and how the student’s fluency has improved.  I will mark their progress with the frog stickers on their fluency charts.

 

Comprehension Questions:

1. What happens in the beginning of the story?

2. Why does Frog want Toad to wake up?

3. How does Frog try to wake up Toad?

4: How would you have woken up Toad?

References: 

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Dease, Kate. Leaping into Spring with Fluency. https://kdd0023.wixsite.com/mysite/growing-fluency

 

Hicks, Elyssa. Flying into Fluency. http://erh0014.wixsite.com/elyssahicks/growing-fluency-and-independence

 

Book:

Lobel, Arnold. (1970). Frog and Toad Are Friends. New York: Harper Collins.

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Link back to Engagements: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/engagements/

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