Growing Independence and Fluencey

If You Give a Mouse Reading Practice, He Will Become Fluent!

Rationale

The goal of this lesson is to strengthen reader’s fluency by practicing reading through rereading texts. When readers have fluency, they can begin to focus on the meaning of the text instead of focusing on decoding the words. This allows them to become faster, more efficient readers. Rereading texts to practice will help students gain word recognition, speed, smoothness, and expression.

Materials

- Copy of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

- Poster with practice sentence written on it

-Read Time Chart (for each pair of students)

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 or other writing utensil

-Stopwatch for each group

- Fluency sheet for each group with small mouse print out to track fluency.

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

Correct words per minute:

Procedures:

1. Say- Today we are going to learn how to become a fluent reader. A fluent reader can read all types of books. When we are fluent, we can read effortlessly and with expression to make the text more exciting. Fluent readers understand the stories that they read. When we become fluent readers, we improve our reading comprehension. We are going to practice this by reading the same book multiple times. Each time we read a text, we become more familiar with the words and confident in our reading ability. This process is called repeated reading.

2. Say- Now, let me show you what I mean by “fluency” with an example. (Pull out poster with “I love chocolate chip cookies” written on it.) I am going to read this sentence aloud to you and I want you to think about how my reading sounds. (slowly) “I lll-uuu-v CHHH-o-k-l-i-t CHH-i-p c-u-k-i-ee-s”. Could you easily understand what I was saying? Did I read with any expression? No, that sentence did not make sense because I was not reading fluently. Listen again as I read the same sentence. (reread the same sentence with better fluency) “ I l-u-v ch-o-c-l-i-t ch-i-p c-ook-ie-s” That was better, but it still was not fluent. When I noticed that my sentence did not make sense because I did not know the words very well, I re-read the sentence to figure out what the sentence was saying. This strategy is called crosschecking and it is very helpful when you are trying to figure out what a word or sentence says. I am going to read the sentence one more time (perfectly). “I love chocolate chip cookies.” I read the sentence effortlessly because I am a fluent reader, and because I read it with fluency, you could easily understand what I meant. By re-reading the sentence and using my reading strategies, I was able to master the sentence.

3. Say- It takes practice to become a great reader. When I first read the sentence, it was difficult because I had never read it before. But, when I read it again, it was a little easier because I have decoded the words before and I remembered them. The third time I read it I was able to master the sentence and become fluent because I had practiced the new words a couple of times. . I read it faster, more smoothly, and with more expression. Now that we have learned what a fluent and a non-fluent reader is, we are going to practice our fluency. We will practice by reading the book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” In the text, a mouse gets a taste of what a cookie is like to eat. The mouse really likes the cookie and wants more and more. He then asked for a glass a milk to go along with his cookie. The mouse keeps asking for more and more things until the house is a wreck. Will he ever be satisfied, or do you think he will just want more and more? Let’s read to find out.

4. Say- We are going to work in pairs to practice our fluency. I am going to assign you a partner (Assign everyone to a partner and give each student a peer fluency sheet and a timer). You are going to take turns reading the book and timing each other. Whoever is not reading first will keep time with the timer. (Demonstrate how to work the timer). When it is your turn to read, you will read three times, and then your partner will read. The first time you read, the partner will not time you, they will just listen. The second and third time that you read, your partner will time you. The partner in charge of keeping time will write the time down and tell if his partner read with fluency and efficiency. This partner should also write down any differences between the second and third reading.

After both partners have read three times, I want you to talk about what you wrote down. Remember to use kind words when discussing with your partner. We do not want to hurt anyone’s feelings. After you finish reading and recording, discuss the book with your partner. Some questions you can ask your partner: “Did you like it? Is it what you expected to happen?” When you are finished, you should go back to your seat and fill out your reading comprehension worksheet.

5. Assessment. “Great job practicing your reading! Now I want you all to answer a few questions on a sheet of paper to see what we remember about the story we just read. While you are writing, I am going to call you to my desk one by one so that I can hear you read fluently too.” *ask students comprehension questions when they read one on one*

Reading Comprehension Worksheet:

1. What do you think the mouse will ask for next?

2. Why do you think the mouse is asking for so many things?

3. What do you think the mouse’s favorite thing is? Why?

References:

Murray, G. (2004) Reading Genie: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/geniebooks/

Sarah Northcutt: A Mouse with Fluency https://smn0016.wixsite.com/readinglessons/growing-independence-and-fluency

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff