Rationale: This lesson’s goal is to help students develop fluency in longer and more advanced texts. Fluent Reading is the ability to recognize sight words immediately. It is the ability to quickly read and understand a text. Readers will be motivated to read and reread decodable words and texts. As the students are encouraged throughout this lesson they will learn how to decode, crosscheck, reread, and understand.  The goal of this lesson is for the student to become a fluent reader of Dr. Suess’s “Green Eggs and Ham”. At the end of the lesson, you will have a better idea of the student’s ability to read texts fluently and independently.

 

Material:

• Stop watch (1 for every 2 students)

• Pencil

• Word count sheet to record students words per minute (1 for every child)

• Fluency checklist

• Sample sentences

• Cover up critter

• Copy of Dr. Suess’s “Green Eggs and Ham” (1 copy for each student)

 

Procedures:

1. Explain. Say: “Good morning everybody! Today we are going to be doing a very fun lesson. We are going to be learning how to be fluent readers! To be a “fluent” reader means that you can do something very easily and super fast. Who wants to be able to read Dr. Suess’s “Green Eggs and Ham” all by yourself? It isn’t scary so don’t be worried, we are going to have a lot of fun becoming fluent readers today. Once you are a fluent reader, you will enjoy books so much more because you will be able to read whenever and whatever you would like. The best part is, you will be able to make voices for the characters and feel like you are actually playing a part in the story! Let’s begin.

2. Say: “Now before we get started reading Dr. Suess’s, “Green Eggs and Ham”, I want all of us to practice what to do when we stumble upon a word we do not know. Let me give a sample sentence and I want you to tell me if I am saying it fluently: “I dooo (do) nnnoott (not) lliiikkeee (like) gggrreeenn (green) eeeggggss (eggs) aaannnddd (and)...home? Hmm that is not right. It is Ham, not home.” Was that read fluently? No, I did not read that fluently because I read slowly and had to stop at the end of the sentence. Let me try that again, “I do not like green eggs and ham.” That is much better and a lot more fluent!

3. Say: “Now class, let’s go back to when we did not know the last word of that sentence. What did I do to figure out what it was? I reread the sentence to see that ‘home’ does not make sense at the end of that sentence. When we did not know the word at the end of that sentence, I had to reread that sentence to look for clues. Usually we will get hints from the rest of the sentence that will help us. This method of rereading is called “crosschecking”. Now that we know the word ham we can remember it for next time!

4.  Say: “If I want to read this sentence fluently I would say, “I do not like green eggs and ham”. See, I did not have trouble saying these words and I spoke very clearly and with ease. Let’s try it together, “I do not like green eggs and ham”. It is very important that we use cross checking to become fluent readers!

5. Pass a copy of “Green Eggs and Ham” to each pair you have assigned: Say: “Today we are going to be working on becoming fluent readers by reading Dr. Suess’ “Green Eggs and Ham”. Has anyone ever eaten green eggs or green ham? Who thinks it would taste yummy? Who doesn’t? In this book, Sam I Am asks the cat again and again if he likes green eggs and ham, but every time he says, “I do not like them Sam-I-Am” He really does not like them...but then he decides to try them. Who thinks the cat will like the green eggs and ham? This is a very weird food. Who wants to take a guess of what it tastes like? Let’s read to see if the cat ends up liking the green eggs and ham!

6. (Write directions on the board so everyone can see, pass out materials: 1 stop watch per group of two, coverup critter, fluency checklist and chart). Say: “We are going to play a game with our partners to check our fluency. Each of you will count how many words are on the first 7 pages. Write that number at the top of your chart. Next, figure out which partner will read first. Whoever is not reading needs to pay very close attention to your partners reading and any mistakes that are made. You and your partner will both read the first 7 pages three times. If you are the listener, make sure to have your fluency checklist and chart ready so that you can make note of mistakes made. If your partner makes a mistake be very kind and do not make them feel bad about messing up. Remember, practice makes perfect! We will soon all become fluent readers. When your partner starts to read, start the stopwatch. When they finish, stop the stopwatch. After three times, switch turns and your partner will record you.

7. Model an example of calculating the fluency on the board then explain: Say: “After you finish with your group put your pencils and stopwatches down. You will calculate your partner’s fluency with this formula. Look back at the number of words you wrote down from the first 7 pages. Take that number and multiply it by 60. You will then divide that large number by the number of seconds it took to read the pages. Your final answer will say, ‘I read ____ words in ____ minutes’.

8. Say: “Once everyone has finished we will talk about the story and I want you to tell me your favorite part. We are going to finish reading the whole book together to figure out if the cat likes the green eggs and ham or not.”

 

Fluency Checklist:

Title of book: ________

Student’s name: _______     Date: _______

Partner’s name: _______

After reading 2nd     After reading 3rd

_________               ________           Remembered words faster

_________               ________           Read Faster

_________               ________           Read smoother

_________               ________           Read with Expression

 

(Words X 60 seconds)= WPM

0----10----20----30----40----50----60----70----80----90----100

Correct words per minute:

 

Comprehension Questions:

1. Why do you think the cat doesn't want to try the eggs?

2. How do you think the boy could convince the cat that the eggs are tasty?

3. What do you think the eggs taste like?

4. What do you think made the cat try the eggs?

5. How do you think the cat felt at the end of story?

 

 

Resources:

Book: Dr. Seuss. Green Eggs and Ham. E-book, Random House, 1960.

 

Kowel, Sarah. Reading Genie Website. “Flying High with Fluency” https://sak0032.wixsite.com/website-2/gf-design

 

Medlock, Taylor. Reading Genie Website. “Gaining Fluency with Ramona!” https://sites.google.com/site/taylormedlockeducationwebsite/reading-lessons/growing-independence-and-fluency

 

Talbot, Emma. Reading Genie Website. “Swimming for Fluency”

https://eept2300.wixsite.com/mysite-1/growing-independence-and-fluency