Flying into Fluent Reading with Angry Birds

 Katie Bolander- Growing Independence and Fluency

Rationale: As students become better readers their fluency increases. Fluency consists of reading text quick, smooth and with expression. Research has shown that fluency can be reached through repeated readings and timed readings. The goal of this lesson is to help a student become a fluent reader through repeated and timed readings.

Materials:

·         Student copies of Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel

·         Stopwatch for each pair of students and teacher

·         Fluency checklists for each student

·         Time sheet for each student

·         Angry Birds Fluency chart for each student

·         Cover-up critter for each student

·         Pencils for each student

·         Poster with sentence that says: Today is a beautiful day to go to the park.

Procedure:

1. To begin the lesson the teacher will say: "We have been reading Frog and Toad Together this entire week. Today, we are going to re-read the story to become more fluent readers. Fluent readers read with the memory of an elephant, read as quickly as a cheetah, read as smooth as a swan, and read with as much expression as a monkey. As we re-read Frog and Toad Together our goal will be to read more and more fluent with every reading."

2. Say: "As a review of what we have been working on this week, I want to go over crosschecking and using our cover-up critters. I am going to read the first sentence of Frog and Toad together A List, everyone please turn to this chapter and follow along as I cross-check and use my cover-up critter as I read: 'One mon-ing, Toad sat in bed… or… mor…morn… Oh, morning! One morning, Toad sat in bed.' Notice how I realized my mistake as I was reading, I used my cover-up critter to correct myself and cross-checked by re-reading my sentence."

3. Next, the teacher will model how to build reading fluency with repeated readings of a sentence. "Watch as I build fluency after repeated readings of my sentence. (First reading mistakes and slow reading) To-day i-s a bay-oo-ti-ful d-ay to go to the par-k. (Second reading fewer mistakes faster reading) Today is a bay-oo-ti-ful day to go to the par-k. (Third reading no mistakes and expression) Today is a beautiful day to go to the park! Students, were you able to see how each reading I improved my reading with each time I read the sentence? I remembered words easier, I was able to read faster and smoother, and lastly I was able to read with expression."

4. Say: "To start our repeated reading activity we are going to read The List from Frog and Toad Together. We are going to choral read which means everyone will read together. In this story Toad wakes up and makes a long list of things that he wants to do that day. He visits Frog and asks him to help him with his list of things to do. All of a sudden the list gets blown from Toad's hand and gets caught by the wind. Toad cannot find his list but has to remember what to do for the rest of the day! How will Toad ever remember what needs to be done?" The class will then read the chapter together.

5. Say: "Now that we are done choral reading I need everyone to break into partners. As partners you will be reading to each other and recording the time in seconds and the amount of mistakes that your partner makes on your Partner Reading Time Sheet. Each person will read twice. After the second reading, your partner will rate your fluency with the Fluency Checklist. You are to check off if your partner became more fluent after reading twice.  When both you and your partner have read twice you will turn your sheets into me. I will call you up one by one to read to me, please bring your Angry Birds goal chart with you."

6. As an overall assessment the teacher should evaluate each student's fluency on The List from Frog and Toad Together after they have read with their partners. Each student should have a goal sheet where Angry Birds reach a certain fluency goal. This goal will vary among each student but should be close to 85 words per minute. The teacher should record the time in seconds it took the child to read, and the number of mistakes made. The teacher can then figure out how many words per minute the child read by multiplying the number of words read correctly by 60 and dividing by the total number of seconds read. This will give the students words per minute. The teacher should also calculate the WPM of the previous two readings to demonstrate the student's progress using the Angry Birds chart. The teacher should also ask comprehension questions like: How did toad end the day? Was Toad able to find the list?

Reference:

Magen Campbell- Fluent Readers are Fabulous: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/awakenings/campbellgf.html 

Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/~murraba/fluency.html

Go back to Epiphanies website