If You Teach a Mouse Fluency
Rationale:
In order to have a meaningful reading experience through understanding literature, students must be fluent readers. Fluent reading is reading to the point of recognizing words automatically and effortlessly. When students reach this point, they will be able to understand the meaning behind a text, which will help lead them to reading comprehension. This particular lesson is designed to teach fluency by having students repeat reading and reading within a time limit. After this lesson, students should be able to read texts quickly, effortlessly, and with expression that brings the texts to life, which will ultimately improve fluency.
Materials:
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Sentence strip that states, “I love to eat cookies.”
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If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
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Stopwatch for each pair of students
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Timesheet
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Pencils and paper
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Coverup critter
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Fluency checklist
Procedures:
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Begin the lesson by saying, “Okay class, today we are going to work on becoming fluent readers. We know that our goal is to become fluent readers, but what does that mean? What do you think of when I say a fluent reader? Wait for student’s responses. Fluent readers are able to read quickly, smoothly, and with expression because they recognize words automatically. This also helps us understand what we are reading because we don’t have to stop and make sense of each word. This make reading so much more fun!”
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Display the sentence strip reading, “I love to eat cookies” on the board for the students to see. Say: “Alright, everyone! Listen to how I read this sentence you see on the board. (Read by separating each sound). “I l-l-o-o-v-v-(e) to eat c-c-o-o-k-i-e-s-s. Was that easy or difficult to understand? Wait for the student’s responses. That’s right, it was not easy to understand what I was saying. Let me try reading this sentence again. Read the sentence slightly faster and slightly more fluent. That was a little better, right? I still did not get the full message from the sentence. Let me try once more! Now read the sentence quickly, smoothly, fluently, and expressively. I love to eat cookies! It makes a lot more sense now, right? Does everyone see how I reread the sentence a few times before I could understand what it meant? Which reading did all of you follow and understand the easiest? Wait for the student’s responses. That is exactly why it is so important that we learn to become fluent readers. Today, our goal is to learn how to do just that!
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Say: “When you get to a word you don’t know you can use your cover up critter to figure out what the word is. Let me show you an example.” Write the word “bill” on the board. “I’ll use the cover up critter to help me figure out this difficult word. First, I start with the vowel and cover up every other letter. The vowel here is “i,” and I know that i=/i/. Once I figure that out, I’ll uncover the letters before the vowel. In this case, it is the letter b, which says /b/. Then I’ll put the b and the i together to get /b/ /i/. Now I’ll uncover the letters that are left, l and l. I know they say /ll/ when they are together. Now I’ll put it all together… /b/-/i/-/ll/…. ‘bill.’ That’s not too hard, right? It can even be fun if you look at it like a riddle.”
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Give an engaging book talk about “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” Say: “In this book, we meet a cute, little, hungry mouse who is given a cookie. When he gets his cookie, he keeps thinking of more and more thinks he wants to go with his cookie. This little mouse can only ask for so much, right? Let’s read the book to see what all he asks for!”
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Tell the class they will now be doing repeated reading with an assigned partner. “We do repeated readings because they will help us become more fluent readers. The more we read a story, the better we will be able to read that story. I will read the beginning out loud to you all, and I want you to follow along with me. I will read as fluently and expressively as I can, so pay close attention to the way I read the story.” Read pages 1-3 aloud.
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Divide the class into reading pairs. Give each pair a copy of the book, a timer, a fluency checklist, a pencil, and a reading time sheet.
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Once students are ready to go, give instructions. Say: “With your partner, one of you will read first, and the other will record. You all may decide who goes first. When it is your turn to read, you will begin when your partner tells you to. Read the entire book and your partner will time you. This is not a race, so do not try to go faster than your classmates so you “win.” This exercise is meant to help each of you improve your fluency so that you can read faster and more smoothly, not so that you can read faster than your partner. After you have read and your partner has recorded your time, you will become the recorder and your partner will read. When you are the recorder, tell your partner when to begin reading. When you say “begin” you will start the timer. When your partner has finished the book, stop the stopwatch. Record their time on the time sheet. Fill out the fluency checklist based on how your partner did. Once you have filled out both forms, switch forms again. Do this process three times each, so you each read the book three times through and you each record the other three times. This will test to see if your fluency has improved through each of the readings.”
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While students are doing their reading, walk around to monitor progress. You can offer some help if needed, but avoid giving too much help- they should learn to do it on their own.
Assessment: Students assess each other by filling out the fluency checklist and the time sheet. The teacher assesses each student by using the fluency formula to determine words per minute: (words x 60)/ seconds. Also, ask comprehension questions while walking around the classroom. “Why do you think the mouse wanted so many things to go with just one cookie? What made the mouse want ______? What do you think the mouse will ask for next?” Assign each student to write one complete paragraph describing the story in their own words. This helps to assess the level at which each student is comprehending the lesson.
Fluency Checklist:
I noticed that my partner…
After 2nd reading…
After 3rd reading…
Remembered more words
Read faster
Read smoother
Read with expression
Reading Record Time Sheet:
Name: ____________
Date: ____________
1st reading: _________
2nd Reading: ___________
3rd Reading: ____________
Resources:
Numeroff, Laura and Bond, Felicia. If you Give a Mouse a Cookie. New York, New York. Harper & Row Publishers, 1985. Print.
“If You Teach a Pig Fluency” by Sophie Taylor https://smt0034.wixsite.com/mysite/growing-independency-and-fluency
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http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/advancements/
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