Ms. Stewart's Lesson Designs

“Fluency with Ms. Frizzle!”
Growing Independence and Fluency Design | Sara Stewart
Rationale:
In order to have a meaningful reading experience through understanding
literature, students must be fluent readers. Fluent reading is reading to the
point of recognizing words automatically and effortlessly. When students
reach this point, they will understand the meaning behind a text, which will
help lead them to reading comprehension. This lesson is designed to teach
fluency by having students repeat reading and reading within a time limit.
After this lesson, students will be able to read texts quickly, effortlessly, and
with an expression that brings the texts to life, which will ultimately improve
fluency.
Materials:
Class book set of On the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole, stopwatch for each student pairs, timesheet, pencils and
paper, coverup critter, fluency checklist
Procedures:
1. Say: “Good morning! Today we are going to work to become fluent readers. A fluent reader is
someone who is able to recognize words automatically and quickly. Does that sound better than
having to break down each word in a sentence or book? It will take time and hard work in order to
become a fluent reader, but I believe that you all can do it! In doing this you will be able to
understand what is going on in the story and read with more expression. This will help you to enjoy
reading more. Let’s get started!”
2. “First, let’s do a little bit of review about what we have learned to help us with today’s lesson.
First who can tell me what this is? [Hold up a coverup critter.] Bingo! It’s a coverup critter.
Remember, we use a coverup critter to help us break up tough words into smaller chunks to
understand it better. Let’s practice using out coverup critter. Let’s look at this word (drop is written
on the board). I will use my coverup critter to figure out what it says. I recognize o=/o/ so let’s add
the d=/d/ and r=/r/ to make /d/ /r/ /o/. Now I will move onto the last letter p=/p/. Now I can read
the whole word /d/ /r/ /o/ /p/. Drop! The apple will drop from the tree. Our coverup critter helped
us read the word drop when we were usure of what it said.”
3. “What is the other strategy we learned about? Good, cross-checking! Cross-checking is a
strategy we use when we need to double-check a word that we aren’t sure about in a sentence. If
I saw this sentence (have the sentence written out on the board), and I read it as My mom told me
to walk the BOG.' I think I need to double-check my reading of the word slip. It didn’t quite
make sense in the sentence. If I couldn’t figure out the word by reading the full sentence, I can
then go back and use my cover-up critter to break down that word even more. /d/ /o/ /g/. Oh! The
word is dog: My mom told me to walk the dog.'"
4. “Now since we have reviewed previous reading strategies, let’s see what it means to be a
fluent reader. I want you all to listen while I read a short sentence twice. I want to you think
about which way of reading sounds like a beginner reader and which one sounds like a fluent
reader. Option 1: ‘Mmmaaarrryyy wwwaaannntttsss tttooo ssskkkiiippp hhhooommmeee.’ I’ll
read it again. [Repeat streatched out reading]. Now this is option 2: ‘Mary wants to skip home.’
I’ll read it one more time: ‘Mary wants to skip home.’ Now I want everyone to close their eyes
and show me using their fingers which is the best option. (If there are any students who hold up a
one, we will address that first and figure out why. I believe most students will hold up a one.)
Good job! I see a lot of twos. Can someone tell me why the second option sounded more like a
fluent reader? (I hope they will mention one of the following: 'the second time it was easier to
understand the sentence' or 'I followed along better with the second sentence'. If not, I will be
sure to introduce these ideas myself.) Absolutely! The second reading was much easier to
understand and showed a good master of fluent reading."
5. Give a book talk: “Today, we will be reading about a teacher, Ms. Frizzle, who takers her
class on amazing field trips in her magic school bus. This time Ms. Frizzle is going to take her
class to the ocean floor! I wonder what they will see while they explore what’s under the sea.
Let’s read the first two pages aloud together.”
6. “I wonder what the class will see while on their field trip? Now, I want you to break into
partners. Once you have chosen a partner, one of you will come up to me and get a stopwatch
and two copies of the fluency checklist. Once your group has all of the supplies, I want you to
spread out with your partner and your supplies and show me you are ready by sitting still and
quiet with your hands in your lap.”
7. “I love to see everyone sitting so still and quiet. Now that everyone has what they need and are
in partners, we are going to practice reading in our partner pairs. Each partner will take turns
reading a page. When it is your turn to read, you will wait until your partner tells you to start,
and then you will begin reading the page. This is not a race! Read the entire book and your
partner will time you. You will try to beat your own time, not your partners time so do not rush
or pay attention to your partners’ time! Just your own! When you are recording the time, you will
start the timer and let it run until they have finished the book. You will record the time of your
partner and do this 3 times. So, each of you will read the book a total of 3 times. The goal is for
your fluency and time to improve each time. You will fill out the forms as you go. Once you are
done reading the book, I want you to assess your partner on how they did in their reading by
filling out the form. Remember to use kind words when assessing your partner.”
8. Assessment: Students will assess each other and themselves as they complete the activity. Once
everyone is done reading the class will come back together and answer a few comprehension
questions (either written or verbal).
1. Where did Ms. Frizzle take her class?
2. How did Ms. Frizzle and her class get back to land?
Fluency Checklist:
I noticed that the more my partner read:
________________________________
Did my partner remember more words: YES or NO
Did my partner read faster: YES or NO
Did my partner read smoother: YES or NO
Did my partner read with expression: YES or NO
Reading Record Time Sheet:
TIME SHEET:
Name of Reader: _______________
Name of Partner: _______________
1st Reading Time: _______________
2nd Reading Time: _______________
3rd Reading Time:________________
Reference:
“Flat Stanley and Fluent Reading” by Kathryn Stubblefield
https://kms0144.wixsite.com/readinglessons/growing-independence-and-fluency
“Fluency with Junie B. by Logan Boyd https://lolomakayla99.wixsite.com/mysite/fluency-withjunie-
b
Image of Ms. Frizzle. https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2014/06/who-should-playan-
updated-ms-frizzle-on-netflixs-magic-school-bus/372584/
“The Magic School Bus: On the Ocean Floor” by Joanna Cole. Scholastic Inc. 1992
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