Fluency

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.

Check out each of my 5 Step Packets and Voice Sticks by clicking on the links below.

5 Step Fluency for Beginning Readers

5 Step Fluency

5 Step Fluency for Advanced Readers

5 Step Fluency (The Bundle)

Voice Sticks & Spinners

Reading on the Move

September 18, 2016 by Jodi 6 Comments

We all know the importance of getting students up and moving around. Six and seven year olds do not want to sit all day. The more active I can keep them, the better our day goes. Since, I am a little obsessed with reading fluency, my mind is constantly thinking of new ways to make it fun for my students. I combined two of my favorite things…reading and exercise…and created Reading on the Move.

We used this for the first time last week, and the students LOVED it! It allowed them to practice their reading and get up and moving. After doing a story together, the students tried their own. I gave each of them dice and a story from my Reading on the Move Simple Stories packet. The students rolled, read the story, and then completed the movement that matched their dice roll.

Now, I will say, if you are adamant about a perfectly quiet classroom, this will not be your favorite activity. It’s noisy. The kids are reading and exercising. It’s what you would expect 🙂

One of the first things they told me was that our P.E. teacher would LOVE this!

In each packet, there are two options to choose from. The first set allows the students to move WHILE reading. (March in place while reading, raise up and down on your toes while reading, etc.) The second option allows the students to move AFTER reading. (Do 5 pushups, Do 10 jumping jacks, etc.) The second option is definitely your better option for those students that may still need to track their print with their finger.

The students draw about the passage when they are finished. This adds a comprehension component to the reading as well.

So far, I have two separate Reading on the Move products available.

I have many more in the works including some for nonsense word fluency, specific phonics skills, and even seasonal packets. You can always find all of my Reading on the Move products at

www.readingonthemove.com

I’d LOVE to see this in action in your classroom. If you use any of my Reading on the Move packets in your classroom and you post it on Instagram, use the hashtag #readingonthemove.

Nonfiction Fluency

May 15, 2016 by Jodi 1 Comment

I love using nonfiction text as often as I can. It’s such a great way to integrate science and social studies into reading, since we all know how difficult it can be to fit everything into our school day.

I created this Nonfiction Fluency Roll & Read packet to add some excitement into their reading fluency practice.

This packet includes 40 science and social studies topics as well as a response sheet for your students to write about what they have learned.

These can be used in whole group, small group, partners, or as individuals. I like to place my students into partnerships, so they can listen to each other read. The students take turns rolling and reading the passage. I usually give them a number of times to roll or a time limit before they stop to write on their response page.

If you would like to check out this packet, click on the cover page below.