Monkeying Around With Fluency
By: LeighEllen Morrison
Rationale: In order for a student to become fluent in reading, they should focus on reading accurately, automatically, and faster. As a student becomes more fluent with their reading, they are able to understand a text much better. This will make students enjoy reading much more, because they can do it effortlessly and can comprehend what they are reading. The more practice a student has, the faster they will be able to read. It is key to increase rate while also increasing their comprehension skills. This lesson will help student’s grow in the ability to read quickly and effortlessly so that can comprehend the text better. The most effective way to become a fluent reader is to increase the amount of sight words a student knows. As their sight words grow, then expression and speed will follow this. The students will also work with a partner to chart their reading rates.
Materials:
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Stopwatches for each set of student partners
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Fluency graphs for each child (monkey climbing tree)
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Class set for Junie B. Jones and a little Monkey Business by Barbara Park
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Partner Fluency checklists for each student
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Reader Response Form (see attached)
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Pen and pencil
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Reading rate forms for teacher
Procedures:
1. Explaining the Lesson/Activity:
Say: “Good morning class! Today we are going to work on developing our fluency when we read. What does it mean to be fluent when we read? Wait for responses. We are going to learn to be speedy while reading and learn how to comprehend better what we are reading. Think about it like a bowl of soup and we need all the ingredients to make the soup taste perfect. Our ingredients for our fluency soup are: rate, accuracy, automaticity, and expression. After we learn how to put all our ingredients together, we will all be able to read quickly and easily!
2. Now, I am going to read a story aloud twice. After I read the story twice, we will vote on which way sounds better. Make sure to pay careful attention to how I read each passage. Keep an eye out for our fluency ingredients as I read.
1: Try reading it once: “Then Mrs. confiscated my shiny glitter jar. Confiscate is the school word for yanked it right out of my hand.”
2: Read the sentence the second time not very well.
“Th-en Mrs. (pause)con-fix-a-ted my sh-iny glitter j-ar. Con-fis-cate (pause) is the sch-oo-l word for y-anked (pause) it right out of my h-ad.” Say: That doesn’t make sense. OH a hand! She yanked it out of my hand!”
3: Alright class, now it is time for you to vote! Raise your hand if the first way I read the sentence sounded the best? (most of the class raises hand). Alright, hands down. Now raise your hand if the second way I read it sounded better? (no one raises hand). Great work everyone! I sounded much better when I read the sentence the first time. I read using all of our ingredients in our fluency soup. I read faster, smoothly, and accurately. The second time I had to stop and figure out all of the words. So now we know how to listen for fluency, but now we need to learn how to actually read fluently. This means we need to use our skills of cross-checking and increasing our sight word vocabulary.
3. For the book talk hold up the book: Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business. Make sure to hold it so that all the students can see the front cover. Junie B Jones is so happy because she just got a new baby brother! Before Junie B gets to meet him, she hears her grandmother talking about him and calls him “the cutest little monkey”. The next day at school, Junie B tells all her friends that her new baby brother is a monkey! Do you think her brother really is a monkey? What do you think her friends will say? We’re going to have to read to find out!” Then pass out a copy of the book and a monkey climbing the tree chart to each student and give them a few minutes for students to read the book silently.
4. After this, have the students get with a partner. Pass out a stopwatch to each pair of students. Explain to them that the students will both take turns reading and timing reads. Say, when we move the Velcro monkey up the tree after timing each read we get to see how much better we are getting at reading!
5. Have each student take out paper and pencil to record how many seconds it takes to read each section. Have each student do four timed reads.
6. Walk around the room as students begin. Make sure that everyone understands the process. Continue monitoring students as they engage in the fluency activity. Then have students fill out the “noticing form” during the third and fourth read. This will help the students assess each other on their progress.
7. For assessment, have each student write their name on the paper with their timed recordings and noticing form and take them up. Compare the timing of the first read to the last read to measure progress. Use the formula: wordsx60/seconds read. This will help you record how many words are read per minute. Use a list of comprehension questions to assess how the students understand the message they just read.
8. Encourage your students to choose a book from the class library to read and practice their fluency home, and then they can show their family how well they can read. Mention that the next day you’ll be eager to have a few volunteers read their book to the class. Send home the time form and necessary form to be used by their parents.
References:
Barbara Park, Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business. Random House Books. 1993.
Mary Cameron Faison, Monkeying around with fluency: http://marycameronf.wix.com/msfaisonsreadingtips#!monkeying-around-with-fluency/c1kx1
Murray, Bruce. Reading Genie Website. “Developing Reading Fluency.” http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/fluency.html
Jacquelyn Johnson, Monkeying around with Fluency https://sites.google.com/site/jjreadinglesson/home/monkeying-around-with-fluency
Partner reading checklist: https://www.google.com/search?q=graph+monkey+climbing+up+tree&espv=2&biw=854&bih=503&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIrNed6tfXyAIVQsImCh075wIy#tbm=isch&q=fluency+reading+graph+monkey&imgrc=Eg1dy-znM8SR5M%3A
Teacher Fluency Check
Name of Reader: _______________
Date: _________________
Time: ________
Words x 60/time in seconds: _______WPM
Comprehension:
1. Why does Junie B believe she is getting a present?
2. What did Junie B hear her Grandmother talking about in the kitchen?
3. How would you feel if you got a new sibling?
4. What did her friends think about her saying she her baby brother was a monkey?
