Fluency Fun

One of my groups has been really struggling with their fluency while reading. I wanted something quick and easy to help them, that we could do every day-practice makes perfect!

I found exactly what I was looking for in Teaching With a Mountain View's shop (she has amazing stuff btw!)

Fortunately, she had bundled her task cards!


So after printing, laminating, hole-punching, we were ready to use them!

Each day, I give the kids two cards to practice on (They practice independently when group is over).

The next day, I have them read the cards that they had. When they are done, we discuss (as a group) what they could have done better. This way, I have the other kids listening for what good fluency sounds like-and they may pay more attention to it in their own reading!

After we discuss what they need to improve on-we talk about what they did well! Now they are feeling good about themselves, knowing they are doing some things well with their fluency.

Since I have four students in group, we switch cards for the second day (ex. Student A has cards 1,2 and B has 3,4. Now Student A has 3,4 and B has 1,2). This also makes the students 'experts' on the second day, so their critiques are more thoughtful, because they know what the card says and have an idea what it should sound like.

I've also found this book helpful-it's full on fun poems!

We used this last week on Thursday and Friday (because we are on vacation this week and I didn't want to start a new book).

On Thursday, I introduced the poems and we did a 'cold' read. We talked about how we could improve-and then I read it to them and asked them what they noticed. Then on Friday, we read the same poem again-with 100 times improvement!

These small strategies has really helped this group! One of my girls basically reads word by word, and just by doing the cards, her fluency has improved (I'm not saying that it is awesome and amazing, but it is better!).

My hope is that this group will be fluent, expressive readers by the end of the year!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn