Fluency

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.

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.

Phonics Based Fluency Passages

April 18, 2016 by Jodi 2 Comments

I love working on fluency in my classroom. I am always looking for new ways to practice fluency and integrate it with every part of our day.

I created these phonics based fluency passages to give my students the opportunity to practice their fluency skills while also reviewing phonics skills. This is the perfect way for your students to put their phonics skills to use. So many times, we see students not being able to use their phonics and spelling skills in context. Phonics fluency passages are the perfect opportunity for this.

They are a great addition to our weekly phonics skill. The students read the passage and then highlight the words.

Their next job is to write the words in the box. This is a great way to reinforce that phonics skill and spelling.

Each passage also has an area to write a sentence using their phonics skill. This is great for getting students to use their thinking skills to come up with their own sentence.

Finally, the students illustrate the story. This helps to add a comprehension component to the passage.

I have created four separate packets (Short Vowel, Long Vowel, Blends & Digraphs, and Diphthongs & Modified Vowels.)

I also grouped all of these packets into one large bundle (118 passages total) and discounted it.

You can read all about the bundle, and see the included word families and phonics skills, by clicking on the picture below.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Phonics-Based-Fluency-Passages-The-Bundle-2506144

Sight Word Sentence Trees

July 25, 2015 by Jodi 7 Comments

Fluency is such an important aspect of reading, but it’s often something that we only think of working on with our highest readers. I am constantly trying to think of ways to work on fluency even with my beginning readers.

These Sight Word Sentence Trees will be a perfect way for my students to work on sight words AND fluency.

The cards come in both a color version and a black and white version. I printed the black and white version onto colored paper to make them more eye catching for my students.

These cards will be laminated and placed on a metal ring. Early finishers will be able to grab these to practice. I can also throw these into a center for independent practice. These Sight Word Sentence Trees will also be perfect if I have a parent volunteer that can work with students.

I love that once I prep a couple sets of these for my class, they can provide practice for my students for the rest of the year.

You can check these out by clicking on the picture below.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Word-Sentence-Trees-Fluency-Practice-Cards-1982530

Ways to Make Fluency Fun

March 30, 2015 by Jodi 5 Comments

I’ve really been brainstorming ways to make
working on fluency more fun lately.

Just having students reread a passage over and
over again is sooooo boring for kids.

A couple of weeks ago, I made this 5 Step Fluency
packet.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/5-Step-Fluency-1741360

I loved
it so much that I made a 5 StepFluency for Beginning Readers and a 5 Step Fluency for Advanced Readers packet.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/5-Step-Fluency-for-Beginning-Readers-1753749

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/5-Step-Fluency-For-Advanced-Readers-1784140

These packets are such a fun way for
students to practice their fluency skills.
They love to be able to reread the passages in their special voices.

Since it’s such a fun activity, I had a chance today to sit down and make these
Fluency Voice Sticks.

The students pull a stick
out of the container to see which voice they will be using to reread. These can be used with any passage or
book. Fluency
Voice Sticks can be used in a whole group
or small group setting.
They would also work well for an independent
reading center.

I made these into Fluency Voice Cards
as well. These give you another option
of hooking the cards to a metal ring, or allowing the students to just pull a
card from a box to see what voice they will use.

I also thought it would be fun to make
some Fluency Voice Spinners. The
students spin a voice to see how to reread their passage or story.

I placed all of these ideas into a new packet that you can check out by clicking on the picture below.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fluency-Voice-Sticks-Spinners-1788002

What are your favorite ways to practice fluency?

5 Step Fluency

March 3, 2015 by Jodi 13 Comments

I am always looking for ways to make fluency a little more fun for my students. It is such an important skill for readers to develop because it is truly the bridge to comprehension. When students don’t have to put all of their effort into decoding the words they are reading, they can focus on comprehending what they are reading instead.

I came up with an idea called 5 Step Fluency. These five steps could really be done with any passage, but I created a packet that includes everything you need.

The 5 Step Fluency approach includes:

1. Read It & Mark It – This is a cold read of the passage. Give the student the passage and set a timer for 1 minute. {For faster readers, you could give them 30 seconds instead.} Have the student place a mark after the last word they read.

2. Read at Your Own Pace – The second reading allows the student to read the entire passage at their own pace. Do not time the student during this reading.

3. Highlight Word Work – The third time going into the passage, the student will be focusing on a particular word work skill. This truly is just another way for the student to reread the passage again, but for a different purpose. Each passage in the packet includes a Word Work skill for the student to work on.

4. Silly Read – This is a fun way for students to reread the passage. Students will be rereading like monsters, grandmas, pirates, and more.

5. Read It & Mark It – This is exactly like the first step, but this time the students have now read the passage four times. They will try to beat their score from the first read.