Over the course of the year we have had all kinds of lessons and practice on elements of what reading fluency sounds like.
paper I had pre-cut. (And I really didn’t want to have to go to the paper cutter a few rooms down to re-cut.) My favorite set of Astrobrights to use is the “Bright” set because it looks so happy. My next favorites are Brilliant, Punchy Pastel and Cool. So many pretty options!Do I think my wording is perfect? No.
Do my students know what it means? Absolutely.
So I’m stickin’ with it.
K…
So, too keep it focused, I’d already written the wording on the cards when I started the lesson.
Sidebar: Could I have spent time with my class generating the qualities of each level instead of writing them out ahead of the lesson? Yep. But I was limited on time and I chose to do it this way, this year.
Since there were five categories – phrasing, expression, pace, punctuation and self-monitoring, I put the kids randomly into five groups and sent them to their work areas, delivered the cards and the kids got to work, putting the cards from their category in order from 1 to 4 (least to most fluent).
Once the groups had laid them out in order, we traveled around as a whole group to listen to each group present their element. The rest of us commented, respectfully questioned and sometimes tweaked each group’s findings. This time was SO well spent, as it expanded each student’s ownership of the other groups’ elements, as well! No amount of me reminding, telling, showing could have gotten them to take this level of ownership of their fluency!
Here is a close up of our results…
And there you have it – our reading fluency continuum. This lesson lasted about a half hour but the impact went way beyond. All year long we had the poster up for their reference. The different colors helped in a variety of ways and I often overhead kids talking to each other about fluency. Such a win-win!
What do you love to do to help your readers understand fluency?
