GROWING FLUENCY LESSON

If You Give a Mouse a Book

Rationale:

In order to have a meaningful experience with reading comprehension, students need to be able to read fluently. Reading fluently means being able to recognize words automatically and naturally. Achieving reading fluency is essential to comprehension of texts. In this lesson, students will learn reading fluency by repeat reading and reading within a time limit. After the conclusion of this lesson, students will have the ability to read fluently which will increase their reading comprehension. 

Materials:

Class set of If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Numeroff, Sentence strip reading “Mice love to ask for cookies”, Pencils, Paper, Timesheets, Stopwatches, Coverup Critters, Fluency Checklist Chart

Procedures:

1. Open the lesson by saying, “Today we are going to work on becoming fluent readers. What does the word fluent mean to you? Why is this important?” Wait for students’ responses. “We want to be fluent readers because they are able to read quickly, smoothly, and with expression because they recognize words automatically. How could that improve our reading?” Wait for responses. “Right! Reading fluently could help us understand the stories we read better and also enjoy them more.” 

2. Display the sentence strip reading, “Mice love to ask for cookies” on the board for the students to see. Say: “Listen to how I read this sentence that is on the board. (Read by separating each sound). “M-i-c-e-l-o-v-e-t-o-a-s-k-f-o-r-c-o-o-k-i-e-s”. “Was it easy or difficult to understand that sentence?” Wait for the student’s responses. “I agree, it was hard to tell what I was saying. You may have understood it but let me read it again and let’s see if it is easier. I was saying. Let me try reading this sentence again.” Read the sentence again but this time slightly faster and fluid. “Would you say that was a little better? But I feel like I could get the message even better, even clearer. Let me try one more read through!” Now read the sentence quickly, smoothly, fluently, and expressively. “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 time that I read it was easier for you to understand?” Wait for the student’s responses. “See! This is why it is important that we become fluent readers so that we can all understand the stories we read even more.”

3. Say: “If you come across a word that you don’t know, you can use your cover up critter to figure out what it is. You know how to do that since we have done it in our past lessons. Does everyone have their critter creature?” 

4. Give an engaging book talk about If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Say: “So we have met this little guy before, it is our friend Mouse. And Mouse is always wanting more, right? So in this story he starts off a little hungry, so he asks for a cookie, but he doesn’t stop there, he asks for some pretty weird things. Let’s find out what else he wants. We are going to spend some time doing repeated readings with a partner. Repeated readings are helpful because they help us become more fluent with our reading. The more times we read a story, the better we will be able to read that story. Just like how I read that sentence a few times and become more comfortable with it.”

5. Divide the class into reading pairs. Give each pair a copy of the book, a timer, a fluency checklist chart, a pencil, and a reading time sheet. “I will read the first part of the book out loud, and I want you to use your finger to follow along with me. I will read as fluently and expressively as I can, so pay attention to the way I read the story.” Read the first 3 pages aloud. 

6. Once students have the materials, give the instructions. Say: “With your partner, one of you will read first, and the other will record your data. You all may decide who goes first. When it is your turn to read, you will begin when your partner says “go!”. Read the whole book and your partner’s job is to time you. Keep in mind, this is not a race, so don’t worry about going faster than your partner so you “win.” This is meant to help each of your fluencies so that you can read faster and more smoothly, not who can finish first. After you have read, and your partner has recorded your time, you will switch jobs, you will become the recorder and your partner will read. When you say “go,” make sure you start the timer. When your partner has finished the book, stop the timer. Record their time on the chart and record how your partner did. Once you have filled out both forms, switch forms again. Do this three time 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.”

7. While students complete their repeated reading, the teacher’s role is to monitor progress. You can offer some help if needed but avoid giving too much help. At first, repeated reading might take some time to develop and practice, reminders may be necessary. 

Assessment:

The Fluency Chart Checklist can be assessed. The teacher assesses each student by using the fluency formula to determine words per minute: (wordsx60)/ seconds. You can also ask comprehension questions as you monitor the class. Lastly, at the conclusion of the lesson, assign each student to write two-three sentences describing the story in their own words. This helps to assess the level at which each student is comprehending the lesson. 

References:

Numeroff, Laura Joffe. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. New York: Harper & Row, 1985.

Emily Christensen. https://emilybchristensen.wixsite.com/beginningreading/growing-independence-and-fluency

Emily Rutledge. https://sites.google.com/view/elr0018/growing-fluency