Athletics: Section Title

Athletics: Inventory

If You Give a Mouse Fluency

Growing Independence and Fluency Design

Rationale: The purpose of this lesson is to improve students’ reading fluency. If a student can read fluently, he or she has the ability to read quickly, smoothly, and full of emotion. Students will not only be able to verbally read well, but they will also be able to comprehend the passage or book. Reading is more enjoyable for fluent readers because they are not using all of their energy trying to decode the words. They can easily understand what the text is about and have more fun reading it smoothly and with emotion. They will also build confidence in their reading abilities that will encourage them to read independently. In turn, they will build more sight vocabulary and become even more fluent readers. However, they must first be able to decode words in the text they are reading in order to continue as a fluent reader. In this lesson, students will learn strategies and skills that will help them become fluent readers by rereading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. When students encounter unfamiliar words, they can first decode. If the word is irregular or still hard to understand, students can crosscheck and finish the sentence. Teachers can make corrections at the end of the reading.

Materials:

A class set of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
Stopwatches for keeping time
Pencils
Cover-up Critters
Fluency checklist with comprehension questions
Reading rate chart to record words per minute
Record sheet
Whiteboard
Dry erase markers

Procedures:

Say: “Today we are going to practice how to be a fluent reader. Who can tell me what it means to be a fluent reader?” (allow students to answer and respond accordingly). “Great! A fluent reader can read quickly and smoothly, and they can understand what the story is saying as they read. They can read and use different voices without skipping words or stopping. I bet fluent readers have more fun because reading is easier, and they have so many more books to choose from. Let’s begin, so we can all become fluent readers!”
Say: “All words in the story are important, so fluent readers do not skip any words. Sometimes when we read, we come across words that we do not know. It’s a good thing that we have some tools like our cover-up critters that will help us read these words instead of skipping them. Let’s try the word mouse.” Write mouse on the whiteboard. “I am going to use my cover-up critter and break the word up. First, I want to cover up all of the letters except the first one. /m/…/m/…/m/… Now I will uncover the ou. /ou/…/ou/…/m//ou/…/mou/.” Continue uncovering the word and blending phonemes. “M-m-m-o-o-o-u-u-u-s-s-s-e Mouse! Good job! Now let’s use it in a sentence. ‘The mouse squeaks around the house when it is hungry.”
Say: “Our next skill that helps us when reading hard words is cross-checking. In order to cross-check, we need to read the rest of the sentence and see what makes sense in the sentence.” Write the sentence “The dog barked and howled loudly” on the whiteboard. “I am going to pretend that I am reading this sentence in a book. I want you to tell me if I sound like a fluent reader or not. The dog (pause and wait for a few seconds) bbb-uu-zzz-ee-dd huh? Buzzed? That doesn’t make any sense. Let’s finish the sentence: and howled loudly. Oh, barked because dogs bark! By reading the rest of the sentence, I used the context to understand the tough word. Did I sound fluent when I read that sentence (let students answer)? Right, I did not sound fluent because I read the sentence slower and had to take time to sound out a word. Could someone read the sentence to the class fluently? Awesome (student’s name)! (Student’s name) read this sentence with fluency because they read it automatically and effortlessly. They took the tough word and mental marked it, so that when they reread the sentence, they knew exactly what the word was!
Say, “Now it is your turn! You will read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. This story is about a mouse that gets a taste of what a cookie is like to eat. The mouse really likes the cookie and wants more. He then asked for a glass a milk to go along with the cookie. The mouse keeps asking for things until he is back looking inside the refrigerator. The mouse is thirsty again for another glass of milk. What do you think this will lead to? Will he need something to go with his glass of milk? Let’s read to find out.”
Students will read the book to themselves silently. Encourage them to use cover-up critters if they get stuck on a word. After they read individually, pair them up. Make sure that each pair has a stopwatch, a fluency checklist, and a reading rate chart. Say: “Now, we are going to play a fluency game! You and your partner will read this book again 3 times and take turns being the reader and the timer. The reader’s job is to practice fluent reading. They will focus on the story and try to read faster and smoother each time they read. The timer’s job is to write down the reader’s times on their partner’s reading chart. Make sure to fill out the chart all three times, so we can see if the fluency is improving or not. The timer should also listen to the reader and see if they can hear their reading change and improve over time. Does the reader not stumble over any words? Does the reader change their voice or tone? Please write down anything you notice.”
After students have read the book 3 times, call each student up individually to your desk. Have them bring their fluency checklist, their record sheet that their timer wrote on, and their book to you. Ask them to read the book to you and time them, as well as record how many words per minute they read.
After all students have read the book to you individually, have them quietly and independently answer the three comprehension questions to assess their understanding.