Growing Independence and Fluency
Marching for Fluency
Rationale: This lesson is to help students develop fluency in longer, more developed texts. Fluent readers can read quickly blending, and automatically. We want readers to be able to read and reread decodable words in text. In this lesson students will practice their fluency and gain experience with reading text silently as well as reading to a partner. They will read for fluency with the teacher as well. At the end of the lesson, the teacher will have a better idea of the student’s ability to fluently and independently read texts.
Materials:

- Pencils
- Stopwatch/timer
- Copy of Hi! Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold for each student
- Sample sentences on white board for modeling
Procedure:
1. Say: Today we are going to become fluent readers! A fluent reader is someone who can read quickly and easily. They automatically recognize each word, which helps them understand what is going on in the story! When you get to this point in reading it is a lot more enjoyable because we can find out quickly what is going to happen next in stories!!
2. Say: Now let’s read the sentence I’ve written on the board. [Katie went to the park.] I’m going to read it and I want you to tell me if I sound like a fluent reader. K-k-k, /A/-/A/-/A/, t-t-t, i-i-i, e-e-e, Katie, w-w-w, /e/-/e/-/e/, t-t-t, Emily wet to the, p-p-p, /a/-/a/-/a/, r-r-r, k-k-k, Katie wet to the park. Wait, that doesn’t make sense. It must be went. Katie went to the park. Did you notice that when I got stuck on the second word? To figure out what that word was, I reread the sentence from the beginning and tried what I thought the word went said, wet. But that didn’t make sense, did it? So I went back and reread the sentence to figure out what the word should read that would make sense. This strategy is called crosschecking and it is super important to use when we are learning to become fluent readers!
3. Say: Did I sound like a fluent reader when I read that sentence? No, I didn’t! It took me a while to read the sentence. Here’s how a fluent reader would read that sentence: Katie went to the park. Quick, effortless, and easy to understand.
4. Say: Today we are going to read The Pigs went Marching Out to practice our fluency. This story is about A dissatisfied pig who encourages all the pigs to leave the safety of their pigsty at Farmer Joe's to seek fun and thrills elsewhere, only to return when they experience danger as well. Do you want to find out the danger they encounter? Read the book and lets figure out what it is!
5. Say: Okay, now we are going to get into pairs with our partners and show each other our great fluency skills! [Give each student a peer fluency sheet and give each pair of students a stopwatch or timer.] One partner will be reading first and the other partner will be tracking the time. The first partner is going to read the story three times. The reader will read the first 10 pages of The Pigs Went Marching Out. The first read through will not be timed. The second and third time I want the second partner to keep track of the time it takes their partner to read it and also notice if your partner reads with fluency and if they are reading with expression. Also note if they change how they read after they have read each text a few times through. You should be able to see changes in fluency and expression. Now I want everyone to be a good partner and participate.
Remind students*** Be encouraging to your partner and I will be walking around if you need any help. Remember to keep track of the time it takes your partner to read and what changes that they make. These will be turned into me at the end. Everyone start now!
6. [Teacher collects peer fluency sheets after repeated readings are complete; assess each student’s fluency by using the following formula]:

words x 60

seconds
-After using the formula to assess each student’s fluency, call each student up individually to read a few pages while the class is working on their writing assignment. The teacher will take note of words per minute and how the students’ fluency has improved.
Reference: Rigamonti, Justin. "Books." EBay. Landmark Editions, 1 Aug. 1998. Web. 18 July 2017.
Long, Erin. Fishing for fluency. http://erinannlong.wixsite.com/mylessonplans/growing-in-fluency
