Taylor Humphrey

 

 

 

Riding to Fluency with Junie B. Jones

Growing Independence and Fluency Design

By Taylor Humphrey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rationale:

The goal of this lesson is to strengthen student’s fluency by practicing reading and rereading texts. In order to understand and comprehend text, students must be able to read fluently.

In this lesson, students will participate in a series of timed repeated reading. This will allow the student to have most or all of the words in the text entered into their sight vocabulary, which will result in result faster and more fluent reading.

Materials:

• Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus

• 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 Bus Chart (riding to the school on top of the hill=at least 85 words per minute) for each student

 

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

• Small print out of bus

Procedure:

1. Say: "Today, we are going to work on becoming fluent readers. Fluent readers are able to read words quickly and automatically with expressions. Being fluent is important because it makes reading more exciting and easier to understand. We can all become fluent readers by reading a text several times. Each time we read it, we will become more familiar with it, which is known as repeated reading.”

2. Say: "Now, I will show you the difference between a fluent reader and a non-fluent reader. I am going to read this sentence on the board three times". (Display sentence on the board that says, "Are you going to ride the bus?"). Say: "The first time I read it I’m NOT going to read fluently. “Are you g-o-i-n-g to ride the b- ‘no wait /u/-/s/’(sound each letter out). When I read it slowly and had to sound out each word it was hard to understand what I just read. Now I will show you what it sounds like if I read fluently. “Are you going to ride the bus?” See! That was much easier to understand! Now, I can add expression (Read with expression) “Are you going to ride the bus” and I can better comprehend what I am reading. 

3. Say: “Sometimes, there are words that even fluent readers will not know and will have to sound out. Can someone tell me a decoding skill can you use when you are reading and see a word you do not know? (Wait for response) That’s right, you could use a cover-up critter! After you think you have figured out the word with your cover-up critter, go back and reread the sentence so you can see if the word makes sense with the story.” (Model how to use cover-up critter for ‘watch’ and sound out 'w/a/tch’ and then cross-check so you can self-correct and say ‘p/a/tch’. I have a new watch.) 

4.  Pass out copies of Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus, stopwatches for each pair of students, Bus Charts, and the Read Time Chart. Say: We are going to read a book called Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. (Give book-talk: This book is about a kindergartner named Junie B. Jones. It is the first day of school and she is riding the bus. Junie B. hates the bus because the kids are mean and it smells really bad! After school, it’s time to get back on the bus, but she doesn’t know if she wants to get on. What will she do? Let’s read and find out! 

5.  Say: Now we are going to work in pairs and practice our fluency.  Here’s what you are going to do. One partner will read the story all the way through and the other will time their partner and then you will switch, the person who was reading will now be the person timing their partner. 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 put a checkmark by what the reader improved on. If they remembered more words or read faster put a checkmark. The partner with the timer will also mark the word their partner missed. I will go around and observe the times that you all recorded so that I can convert it to the bus chart after each read. Our goal is to get the bus up the hill and to school and reach our goal of 85 words-per-minute. Move your bus to match your word per minute on your bus chart so you can see how you are becoming a more fluent reader. Before we begin I am going to show you how to use the stopwatch (demonstrate how to use a stopwatch) 

6.  Assessment: To assess the students, the teacher will go around and look at each student’s bus chart to see their progress. The teacher will call the students up one at a time and have them read the story aloud as the teacher takes miscue notes and record the number of words read per minute. Then the students will be asked the following comprehension questions:  

                      1.) What big event was happening that day? 

                      2.)Whom did Junie B. meet before school started?

                      3.)Why did Junie B. show off her shoes? 

 

References

Levine, E. Cheeta Readers. https://sites.google.com/view/ctrdlessondesigns/growing-fluency-design?authuser=1

 

Zimmerman, L. Hiking for Fluency https://llz0002.wixsite.com/website/growing-independence-and-fluency-gf

 

Park, B. Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. New York: Random House, 1992. http://rhcbooks.com/books/126666/junie-b-jones-1-junie-b-jones-and-the-stupid-smelly-bus-by-barbara-park-illustrated-by-denise-brunkus

 

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