Growing Independence and Fluency: Hiking for Fluency

Rationale: At the end of this lesson, readers will strengthen their fluency skills by repeated text under my guidance. The reader continues with the same material until the text is master, which is usually denoted by a reading rate. This will allow for the student to have most or all of the words in the text entered into their sight vocabulary, which will translate into a faster and more fluent reading.

​

Materials:

-Red Gets Fed 

-Read Time Chart 

Name: ________Date: ____

1st reading time: ______

2nd reading time: ______

3rd reading time: ______

-Partner check- sheet:

Name: _____ Partner: ____ Date: ____

I noticed that my partner... (check the circle)

After 2nd after 3rd

( ) ( ) Remembered more words

( ) ( ) Read faster

( ) ( ) Read smoother

( ) ( ) Read with expression

-pencil

-Stopwatch for each group

​

​

- The Hiking Man  (hiking to the top of the mountain =at least 85 words per minute) for each student

​

0……….10……….20……….30……….40……….50……….60……….70……….80……….90……….100

-Small print out of hiking man

​​

Procedure:

1. “Today we are going to learn how to become more fluent readers. Fluency is when we are able to read at faster and effortless pace. We are able to remember what we read more easily when we read fluently. We become fluent readers when we reread passages that we have already read so that we can see ourselves get faster and faster. When we practice reread, we also learn new words so that we don’t have to sound them out again and again, so we’ll read those faster too.”

2. “Now I’m going to show you how a non-fluent reader works to sound like a fluent reader. So, I’m the non-fluent reader and I say the first sentence, “My h-a-t is for k/a/t no wait’ -/A/- m (sound out each letter). Because I had to sound out each word, I could not read fast or smoothly. Now I will read it again and show you how to read fluently My hat is for Kate.” I was able to read it faster and recognize each word smoothly. Now that I am able to do that, I can add expression “My hat is for Kate!” (Read in excitement) and I can observe that my reading is more fluent. 

3. “Occasionally, there are word that even fluent reader will not know and will have to sound out. A way to solve this problem is to use our coverup critter to help us by uncovering the word a letter at a time so that we can sound it out. After you think you have figure out a word, then go back and reread the sentence so you can see if the word make sense or not with the story.” [Model how to use cover up critter for ‘patch’ and sound out 'p/a/tch’ and then cross check so you can self-correct and say ‘p/a/tch’. Let’s go to the pumpkin patch.] 

4. Pass out copies of Red Gets Fed, stop watches for each pair, Hiking Man Charts, and read time charts. Now we are going to work in pairs to check each other’s fluency with this book, Red Gets Fed. In this book, our friend Meg has a dog named Red and Red is hungry, but Meg is sleeping. Red goes into Meg’s room and begs for food, but he is still hungry after what Meg fed him so now, he goes to dad’s room, but dad is sound asleep. To find out if Red gets fed again, you’ll have to read and find out. First, I’ll show you how to work the stop watches. So, one partner will read the story all the way through and the other will time their partner and then you will switch roles. This will be done three times, so that you can read more quickly and smoothly. After each read the partner, that is timing, will fill out the chart and check mark on what the read improved on. If they remembered more words check mark that or if they read faster check mark that. The partner time will also mark the word their partner missed. I will go around and quickly observe the time that you all recorded so that I can convert it to the Hiking Man chart after each read. [Our goal is to get the hiker to the top and reach our goal of 85 words per-minute. Move your Hiking Man to match your word per minute on your Hiking Man Chart so you can see how you are becoming a more fluent reader.]

5. “After each student has read, the partners will fill out the partner check sheet, which will tell us if your partner has improved.”

6. Assessment: I will go around and look at each student’s Hiking Man Chart to see their progress. I will call them up one at a time and have them read the story again in front of me and I will record their words per minute and note miscues. After the student is done reading, I will ask them the following comprehension questions:

   1. Why does Red keep wake everyone up?

   2. Does Red end up happy?

   3. Do you think it was okay for Red to continue waking everyone up?

References:

Cheetah Readers. Levins, Emma. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/view/ctrdlessondesigns/growing-fluency-design?authuser=1

Educational Insights. Red Gets Fed. Retrieved from   

Reading Genie Advancements, http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/advancements/ 

Patrolling for Fluency. Mena, Ulices. Retrieved from https://menaulices.wixsite.com/powerreading/growing-independence-and-fluency