Jessica Henry

READ 436
Dr. Sullivan
19 March, 2017
Fluency Minilesson
1. How I planned the lesson
To begin planning the lesson, I talked with my teacher about how the lesson
would be taught in order to best fit the schedule of the classroom. Upon
discussing these important details with her, we decided that I would teach my
lesson during small group. After talking with her, one reading group needed more
work with expression, the other needed work with speed, and the last group
needed a little bit of both. I decided to use a readers theatre to work with the
readers who needed expression instruction, which worked out well because my
teacher had a basket of reading materials specifically geared for readers theatre.
However, we decided that I would split this group into half and work with 4 at a
time, since the group was very large and the readers theatre had only 4 characters
so it worked out well. I decided to do a readers theatre for this group because I
felt it would keep them engaged and focused on the task at hand. Also, this
specific reading group is the higher level group who are more capable of reading
at an appropriate rate, which allowed them to focus more on the voices and
intonation they were using, rather than having to stop and think about decoding
words. For the group who needed speed instruction, they participated in the
tongue twister activity. I choose this activity because I knew it would be silly and
fun and they would be able to handle it without getting out of hand during reading
groups. Also, they are not able to participate in a lot of engaging and fun activities
throughout the day due to the teaching style of my cooperating teacher, so I
wanted to include something that the kids would be able to have fun while still
learning. In order to conduct this lesson, I pulled together some tongue twisters
with words I knew they could read and printed them out on a piece of paper. The
tongue twister sheet can be found in the appendix of this document. I also planned
a second activity of my own in case we finished the tongue twister activity with
time still left. I created a roll and read sheet which included poems from the
giggle poetry site. The roll and read sheet can also be found in the appendix of
this document. For the third group who needed instruction in both, I used the
same tongue twister activity and used a voice jar activity to work with them on
expression, since I knew I wouldnt have time for a readers theatre during the
time I had for their group. For the voice jar activity I created sentence strips based
on the things they were learning at the time and the words they have discussed
during writing and phonics time. In my voice jar, I included different emotions
and voices that the students picked from and then they would read the sentence in
 the emotion or voice that they picked. The voices I included were: excited, sick,
confused, silly, confident, scared, sneaky, happy, surprised, nervous, sad.
2. How the students responded to the activity?
The students really loved the different activities. They were all very engaged and
committed to the task at hand, which was unusual. Typically during small group,
the students begin to lose focus because they spend their whole day at their desks.
When I conducted my activities, I had no behavioral issues that I needed to
address because the students were having fun while still learning. To introduce
the readers theatre, we talked about what makes a story interesting to listen to
and they immediately responded with comments about expression or using
different voices or making some parts sound louder than others. When I told them
they would be able to practice using their expression by doing what is called a
readers theatre and playing characters in a story, they were so excited to find out
what character they would pick and how they would use their voice to make the
story interesting. In the readers theatre, the characters were an elephant, a hippo,
a tortoise, and a narrator. The kids came up with perfect voices for the characters
and were able to use proper pitch and intonation when necessary. There was only
one student who was shy who did not create an original voice, but she still used
the proper expression elements like we discussed before starting the readers
theatre. In the speed group, we also talked about what makes a story interesting to
read and brought up the idea of reading rate and how it effects how interesting the
story is to listen to. After doing this, I asked the kids if they had ever heard of
tongue twisters and about half of them while the other half then figured out what I
meant by tongue twisters after I explained it. After I told them that we were going
to practice reading tongue twisters, I modeled it myself so they understood what
they were supposed to do and so that they could see that its okay if you mess up
because its supposed to sound silly. Then, the students broke into pairs and began
reading the tongue twisters, which they did well with. After doing that activity,
we had some time left. So, we transitioned into the roll and read by talking about
how reading that fast made the words all jumble together and so the sentences
didnt even make sense. Talking about this helped us discuss that to make sense
of what we have read, we have to read at a speed that will make the words sound
like real words and make it all flow together. Then, I told them that for the roll
and read, they would partner up again and take turns rolling the dice and reading
the poem in that numbered box. I also modeled an example of one so they could
hear proper speed and how to complete the activity. They enjoyed this because
even though it wasnt necessarily a game, they thought it was because of the
inclusion of the dice and coloring in the shapes when they read the poem in that
box. The final group loved the voice jar. We also talked about things people do
when they read that makes the story interesting to listen to before completing the
activity, which helped transition them into reading in different emotions because
we were able to discuss how the voices might sound. The students did a really
good job of changing their voice in order to fit the emotion they picked. For the
 tongue twisters, they really enjoyed being able to do something different.
However, they did have more troubles reading them as fluently as the other group
because they are at a lower reading level. Although they knew all the words in the
sentences, they struggled more with being able to fastly transition from word to
word. Either way, they were still able to practice reading fast without repeating
words or stopping to fix any mistakes.
3. Differences in the students reading as the lesson took place.
In the readers theatre, it was really interesting to see the students use different
voices. I had never seen them read outside of their own voices or heard them read
so expressively before. I loved being able to hear the different voices they created
and how well they maintained those voices throughout the entire story. The same
goes for the group that completed the voice jar. They did such a good job of
thinking about how the voices would sound and why and then using them in
practice. There were significant differences in the way the students read in the
speed activities when they read the poems or tongue twisters a second or third
time. You could tell that the repetitiveness in the activities helped them feel more
comfortable with the words they needed to pronounce fluently.
4. What would I do differently next time?
For the readers theatre, I would have liked to have had masks for them to wear
while reading the story. I would do this because it would make the activity even
more fun and engaging and allow the students to truly get into character. Also,
with the tongue twisters, I think some of the students were intimidated by them
because they were afraid to mess up. So, next time I would use a different
activity. However, I think part of this is how the classroom is structure and in my
classroom I want my students to understand that it is okay to make mistakes and
be silly sometimes. I would establish a certain classroom environment, so that
they would be comfortable when doing an activity like the tongue twisters. I also
dont think I would use the tongue twisters again with the lower level group
because they struggled to read the phrases quickly and steadily. I think for their
group, something like the roll and read activity was a better fit because they didnt
have to think so fast about the words they were reading.
5. How will you incorporate fluency instruction in your own classroom?
In my own classroom, I think working on the practice of fluency would best be
done during small group so that the instruction is more focused for each child.
However, that does not mean that fluency wouldnt be a part of the everyday
classroom routine. In all content areas, I will model fluency so that they are able
to recognize good reading strategies and practices. As we discussed in class, I
would also divide fluency instruction between speed and expression so that each
is taught directly and connections can be made between the two to learn what
makes a story interesting to listen to. During small group instruction, I would love
to use the activities we talked about in class, as well as, activities like the roll and
read that really concentrate on appropriate speed and repeated readings. I think
its important for the students to understand that fluency does not mean reading
the fastest, but rather at an appropriate speed that is not too slow and not too fast,
which makes the story interesting and easy to comprehend. For expression, I
absolutely loved the readers theatre, so this is something I would definitely
implement in my future classroom. I think a readers theatre could also be
something used in a whole group that can be practiced and presented to the
students families, which gives the students motivation and purpose for their
reading. My cooperating teacher had a basket of different readers theatre that she
purchased from an educational site. In my own classroom, I would also like to
have a few of these containers, so that the students could participate in many
different readers theatres about different topics and with different characters. In
order to assess the concept of fluency, I will do timed readings where the students
will read a passage and I will record how many words per minute they read.
Another way I will assess fluency is by creating a rubric or checklist and having
the students read, so I can check off whether or not they met the criteria and write
additional notes. For example, I might take note of whether or not the student put
appropriate emphasis on specific words. To take note of this, I would do monthly
recordings of the students reading by allowing them to read a story to the class. I
could then use these recordings to complete my own assessments and then allow
the students to have a copy of the recording for them to complete a self-
assessment and for their family to have at home.