Fluency

Fluency Poems

March 24, 2019 by Jodi Leave a Comment

Reading fluency is the ability to read accurately and with expression. What better way to practice reading fluency than by using poetry? Poetry has a rhythm and melody that is perfect for practicing reading fluency. We all know the importance of rereading when it comes to practicing fluency, but rereading can be boring. Using cut apart poems is one of my favorite ways to have my students practice reading fluency.

I give each student a mixed up poem. They cut the strips apart and work to put the poem into the correct order. Guess what they have to be doing the entire time that they are working on putting the poem in order? They have to be rereading it and rereading it over and over again. They also reread it with a rhythm and expression that helps them to figure out the order of the poem. While they are putting these in the correct order, we can discuss rhyming words and how they will align in a poem. This activity also lends itself to discussing capitals and punctuation. The students can get clues about the order of the lines by looking at where the capitals and ending marks are on each strip.

Want to try using fluency poems in your classroom?

I created a packet of 20 fluency poems that can be used in whole group, small group, or in an independent work station. Each rhyming poem comes with a color and black/white version of the completed poem, mixed up poetry strips, and a matching sheet for gluing on the final poem.

I personally always begin using these in a whole group setting. After students get the hang of it, I like to copy the poems and put them in an independent work station. The strips can be laminated and reused if you want to save on paper usage.

Click on any of the pictures above to head over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store and check out these poems.

Reading Warm Ups

March 31, 2018 by Jodi 1 Comment

Time spent in small reading groups is so important, and we have to make the most of our time while I have them at my reading table. I like to start with some type of quick warm up to get their brains working before we get into our lesson. I was constantly scrambling to come up with ideas, or I was stuck on doing the same things, so I came up with Reading Warm Up Cards.

These cards are full of quick reading warm ups that we can use in our small reading groups, as a whole group, or when we have a couple of extra minutes in our day. They are also great to use before lining up for lunch or recess. I printed, laminated, and placed each set on a metal ring. This way, they are easy to grab and use.

I created five sets of Reading Warm Up Cards to reach many aspects of teaching reading and language arts; Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Grammar.

Phonological Awareness is the ability of hear and manipulate sounds. I like to remember that phonemic awareness can be done with your eyes closed. It truly is the foundation for learning to read. This set includes cards for Sentence Segmentation, Rhyming, Alliteration, Syllables, Onset & Rime, Phoneme Blending, Phoneme Segmentation, and Phoneme Manipulation. (48 Warm Up cards in all)

The Phonics Warm Up cards include 120 cards in all working on Letter Sounds, Short Vowels, Beginning Blends, Ending Blends, Digraphs, Long Vowels, R-Controlled Vowels, and Dipthongs.

The Vocabulary set includes 80 vocabulary warm ups. These cards include a variety of vocabulary words as well as work with synonyms, antonyms, prefixes, and suffixes.

The Fluency Warm Ups include 124 fluency cards working on Letter Fluency, Sight Word Fluency, Short Vowel Fluency, Long Vowel Fluency, Blend and Digraph Fluency, R-Controlled and Diphthong Fluency, Expression, and Short Story Fluency.

Grammar Warm Ups include 104 cards working on Sentence Structure, Word Order, Sentence Fragments, Ending Marks, Nouns, Plural Nouns, Possessive Nouns, Proper Nouns, Irregular Plural Nouns, Verbs, Present-Tense Verbs, Past and Future Tense Verbs, Commas, Contractions, Adverbs, Combining Sentences, Adjectives, Pronouns, and Abbreviations.

I have also bundled all 5 sets, 476 Warm Up cards in all, which includes the Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Grammar sets. Click on the picture below to take a closer look and to download the preview files.

If you have any questions or comments, let me know. I love hearing from you and knowing how things are going in your classrooms.

Sight Word Fluency in 5 Easy Steps

January 25, 2018 by Jodi 2 Comments

Every teacher knows the importance of learning sight words, but so many times, sight words are taught in isolation. In order to really improve sight word fluency, we need to teach sight words in context. Students should be able to easily recognize sight words in the text while they are reading. Sight word fluency allows students to increase their reading comprehension because their focus is off of trying to decode unknown words and can shift to comprehending what they are reading.

Did you know that the first 300 Fry Sight Words make up approximately 65% of all written material? When students are not fluent with their sight words, this greatly impacts their reading abilities. There are so many wonderful ways to practice sight words, but I am constantly trying to think of new and exciting ways to keep my students engaged while practicing sight word fluency. A while back, I created my 5-Step Fluency passages. They quickly became a favorite in my classroom, so I wanted to create a way to combine this with sight word fluency. With that, 5-Step Sight Word Fluency was born.

I cannot tell you how excited I am about using these in my classroom. It is such a fun and engaging way to work on sight word fluency. Each passage follows a 5-Step approach.

1. Read the sight words from the Sight Word box on the top of the page.
2. Read the passage.
3. Highlight or circle the sight words in the passage.
4. Reread the passage in a silly voice.
5. Reread the passage in a regular voice.

The students LOVE rereading the passage in silly voices. It is definitely a favorite among my 1st graders.

I have created two sets of 5-Step Sight Word Fluency. I have a set for the first 300 Fry Sight Words. This Fry 5-Step Sight Word set includes 47 passages using the first 300 Fry Sight Words. The second set includes 37 passages using the 220 Dolch Sight Words. This are great for whole group, small group, or individual sight word fluency practice.

If you need an engaging and effective way to practice sight words in context. check out 5-Step Sight Word Fluency.

I also have a BUNDLE that includes BOTH sets of passages.

Christmas Chaos or Fun – You Decide

December 8, 2016 by Jodi Leave a Comment

‘Twas two weeks before break and all through the school,

All the children were crazy and not following the rules.

How about you? Are you ready for Christmas Break, yet? I love almost everything about the weeks before Christmas. (Christmas crafts, Christmas decorations, Christmas programs and plays, Christmas music, …) However, wouldn’t it be perfect if we could slow it down and not try to squeeze everything into a short time frame? Then, the icing on the Christmas cookie would be to have perfectly behaved students. I know…I want to still believe in Christmas miracles. Anyways, I wanted to show you a couple of things that we are doing in the classroom in preparation for Christmas.

We will be performing our ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas Reader’s Theater next week. I wrote this last year for my students, but then made it editable before putting it in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. I’m so glad I did that because it was so easy to switch out my students names for this year.

You can grab the reader’s theater HERE if you are interested.

We also made these measurement trees from Mrs. Lee’s Kindergarten.

To gear the lesson towards 1st graders, I have them actually measure their strips and cut them appropriately. I cut out 8×1 inch strips from a packet of scrapbook paper. Then, the students each picked 5 strips. They glued the first 8 inch strip on the bottom, cut the second strip into a 7 inch and a 1 inch piece, the third strip into a 6 inch and a 2 inch piece, and so on until they created their tree. Then, we used white paint and Q-tips to make snow. They make a really easy bulletin board display.

Another great way that we have been helping to control the Christmas chaos is by using my Reading on the Move Christmas Edition.

The students have so much fun moving around while they practice their reading. It’s a nice way to mix things up a bit during the holiday season. You can check it out in my store HERE.

We have also been busy with our Gift of Kindness. You can read more about it HERE. Today, we gave out candy canes to every adult in our building.

The students absolutely LOVED this activity. The first set of students delivered the candy canes to the office staff. When they came back, two of the boys immediately told me how good it made them feel to give something to someone else. Too cute! You can download this editable note HERE.

We have also been completing activities from my Christmas Comprehension packet.

We are having fun reading Christmas stories while practicing our comprehension skills. You can check it out HERE.

Even though I cannot wait until Christmas, I still cannot believe that we are in the middle of December already! How are you surviving the last week before break?

Sentence Trees – Perfect for Beginner Fluency Practice

December 7, 2016 by Jodi Leave a Comment

About a year and a half ago, I created a packet of Sight Word Sentence Trees for my beginning readers. They became instant favorites with my new 1st grade readers because it gave them confidence with their reading skills.

I love using these during fluency stations, in small groups, or for early finishers. We also use the Sentence Trees while partner reading. You can laminate the cards and place them on a metal ring to make them easy for students to use. I am always amazed at the confidence level of my beginning readers when they use these cards. By slowly building on the words and constantly repeating them, they are able to practice their fluency skills.

I now have four separate sets of Sentence Trees available.

Sight Word Sentence Trees

Short Vowel Sentence Trees

Long Vowel Sentence Trees

Blends and Digraph Sentence Trees

You can find all of these by clicking on the links above.

Increasing Reading Fluency in 5 Easy Steps

October 30, 2016 by Jodi 1 Comment

Reading fluency is a key component in becoming a good reader. Fluent readers not only sound good while they are reading, but they also understand what they are reading. A fluent reader reads with speed, accuracy, and expression. Fluency is the bridge to comprehension. Once a reader does not have to put their entire focus on decoding words, they can focus instead on understanding what they are reading.

I love working on fluency in my classroom. I think it is such an important skill for my 1st graders to understand and grasp. A couple years ago, while working on a presentation about increasing student’s fluency skills, I came up with a 5 step process for practicing fluency passages.

The Five Step Fluency Process includes:

Read It & Mark It – Using a timer, read as much as the passage as possible in one minute.
Read at Your Own Pace – Read the ENTIRE passage at your own pace.
Word Work Strategies – Highlight a particular word work skill in the passage.
Silly Read – Reread the passage using a silly voice.
Read It & Mark It – Reread the passage using a timer to see if you can beat your first time.

These five steps can be used with any passage or short story, but I made the process simpler by creating 5 Step Fluency packets.

I created these in numerous levels and grouped them into three packets. The original packet includes three different sections of stories grouped by the number of words in each reading passage (66-83 wpm, 121-148 wpm, 193-226 wpm.) This was the first packet I created for my students. I use this one with the majority of my on-level to above grade level 1st graders.

They love reading in a silly voice. It is definitely their favorite step, and it is so fun to listen to how dramatic they can become when their voice changes.

After creating my original packet, I had a lot of requests for a lower level packet that could be used with beginning 1st grade readers. So, I created my 5 Step Fluency for Beginning Readers which includes fluency phrases, as well as lower level stories, ranging from 21-42 words per minute.

This packet is perfect for the beginning of the year in 1st grade. I also love that they are working on fluency as well as phonics skills during this activity.

Then, of course, I had to create a packet for my super high flyers. My 5 Step Fluency for Advanced Readers is geared towards 2nd – 3rd grade readers, but I have had a couple 1st graders in the past that have been able to handle these passages as well.

The advanced packet includes passages ranging from 218-336 words per minute. The Word Work skills are also more advanced and include skills like suffixes, prefixes, pronouns, and adverbs.

I love using these passages during small group reading instruction and during Intervention/Enrichment (I/E) time. Now that my students are very comfortable with the 5 step format, we can carry it over into other reading material.

These Voice Sticks are a perfect addition for stations or rereading a story during whole group instruction. You can find those in a separate packet by clicking on the picture below.

The circles are cut out and placed on popsicle sticks for students to choose a voice.

We have even used these during calendar time to choose a voice for counting number patterns. It’s an easy way to add a little fun to your instruction.

Would you like to try a sample of each of my 5 Step Fluency packets?

I created a sampler packet that includes one passage from each of my 5 Step Fluency packets. This will allow you to see which packet would work best for the students in your classroom. If you can see the benefit of all three packets, you might be interested in saving money and purchasing the bundle of all three 5 Step Fluency packets. Just click on the picture below.