Growing Independence and Fluency

Gliding Across Sunset Pond with Fluency

There is a formula for fluent reading. You have to read and reread decodable words in connected text. You need all these ingredients to make a fluent reading. First, you have to read. To make sight words, readers must decode, crosscheck, and mentally mark the irregular elements in unknown words instead of guessing at them. Then you have to reread. It takes about four decoding trials to learn a sight word. Thus, it is important to reread sentences after any struggle with words, and to reread texts until they can be read fluently. The words you read must be decodable. Decodable words are those that can be worked out with correspondence knowledge and crosschecking. With decodable text, readers adopt a decoding strategy, which is essential for learning sight words. Finally, you have to read connected text. Crosschecking requires context, which implies students need to read texts rather than isolated words. With texts, readers read more words with greater interest under the natural time pressure for reading comprehension. In this lesson, teachers will help their students read and reread the words in the decodable text The Sunset Pond until students can glide smoothly across the words, reading them with automatic word recognition.

Materials

Individual copies of Laura Appleton Smith (1997), The Sunset Pond. Lyme NH: Flyleaf Publishing.

Canoe clipart: http://nativeamericans.mrdonn.org/northwest/na_pnw_canoe.gif

Copy of the pond graph (attached).

Chart with this text: Matt and Bud jump from the front steps onto the soft grass. They run past the beds of daffodils and down the hill to the sunset pond.

Procedures

1. Explain to students why we do repeated readings. Boys and girls, when we are reading a brand new text with lots of unfamiliar words, we don’t just read it once. We read it over and over until the words start jumping out at us. When we learn the words well, they get a lot easier, which means we can read the words faster. And that’s not all: We have extra time to think about how to say the words with expression and to better understand what is happening in the story.

2. Let me show you what I mean with our book The Sunset Pond. [Display the chart.]

Matt and Bud jump from the front steps onto the soft grass. They run past the beds of daffodils and down the hill to the sunset pond.

The first time I read something, I may make some mistakes, and it takes time to fix them.

Matt and Bud j-jump from thee frahnt steps—front steps—onto thee soft grass. They ran, no run past thee beds of daffy . . . [coverups] daf-fah-dils, daffodils . . . and down thee hill to thee sun-set, sunset pond. Whew. Now that I know all the words, I can read faster:

Matt and Bud jump from thee front steps onto thee soft grass. They run past thee beds of daffodils and down thee hill to thee sunset pond.

I'm going to try again to make it smoother and add expression by saying important words louder: Matt and Bud jump from the front steps onto the soft grass. They run past the beds of daffodils and down the hill to the sunset pond.

3. Now I want you to read the page on the chart along with me. I’ll take it slow but you try to keep up. [Choral read the chart.]

4. I don’t know if you noticed, but I had to crosscheck to figure out some of the words. Crosschecking means that after you decode a word, you read on after you come to a word you don’t know so that the rest of the sentence can you recognize it. For example, I read, Matt and Bud jump from the frahnt steps. As soon as I read steps, I thought of the front steps. Once you get the word, you should reread that sentence: Matt and Bud jump from the front steps.

5. Now I want you to work with a neighbor. First one of you will read, and the other listen. Then you’ll switch off so the other person reads. If you have trouble with a word, I want you to decode it, but then finish the sentence to crosscheck.

6. Let me tell a little bit about The Sunset Pond and show you some pictures. Matt is a boy about your age, and he has a dog named Bud. He asks his mom if he and Bud can run down to the pond to play, and his mom says, “Yes, but plan to be back at dusk.” Dusk is the time it’s just starting to get dark. When they get to the pond, Matt throws a stick in the water, and Bud swims in the pond to bring it back. But then they see a giant bullfrog! Do you think Bud can catch the bullfrog? To find out, you’ll have to read The Sunset Pond.

7. [Pass out copies of The Sunset Pond.] I would like you to read silently at your desk. Then I’m going to call on you to come up, bring your book, and read to me at my desk. Raise your hand when you’ve finished the book. If I’m busy with someone else, I want you to write on a piece paper about your favorite part of the story.

8. Each student comes up to teacher’s desk for a turn to read aloud. The teacher times the reading and gets miscue notes during the reading. After each reader finishes, the teacher graphs the reading time by moving the canoe across the pond to record words per minute, using the formula:

Words X 60

Seconds

Encourage the student to keep practicing until he can reach the goal of 85 words per minute.

9. After complimenting the reader, the teacher asks one or more comprehension questions:

Why did Mom want Matt to be back at dusk? (It isn’t safe to be out after dark.)
What season of the year do you think this story takes place? Why? (Summer because the water isn’t cold and frogs are still out.)
Was Bud a smart dog? How do you know? (Yes, Bud is smart because he knew how to fetch a stick for Matt.)
If Bud had swum faster, would he have caught the frog? Why not? (No, because the frog can always swim away when Bud gets close.)
What does it mean to skip a rock? (To throw a flat rock sidewise so that it bounces a few times before sinking.)
Why did Matt pick a daffodil? (He wanted to give his mom a present).

10. Before the student returns to his seat, have him reread any missed words, crosscheck to finish the sentence, provide the word as needed, and have the student reread that sentence. Make a note of the student’s words per minute.

11. Allow more turns as time permits, asking different comprehension questions each time, until students reach 85 WPM.

Reference: Katie Oliver, Sailing Swiftly into Fluency. http://kaitlinoliver.wix.com/ctrdlessondesigns#!growing-independence-and-fluency/j2g6q

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