Fluency Fun {and a FREEBIE!}

03 May 2015 / 2 comments

Hi! It's Allison from Stuckey in Second! So happy to be sharing some of my fun fluency strategies here. I've loved reading the daily posts on this new collaborative blog, too! How fun to have so many fresh and new ideas DAILY! These fluency strategies are definitely Classroom Tested and approved! This is my tenth year of teaching second grade, and my tenth year of being FLOODED with FLUENCY!


Fluency....isn't that what we are all working on? In our district, second graders have to reach 87 wpm by the end of the year.  After being frustrated for a long time, thinking I was having to teach speed reading, I have finally accepted that it actually helps students comprehend what they are reading. Sometimes, with the tests that they have to take we forget that fluency isn't just about SPEED, but also about phrasing and pausing in the correct places. Fluency helps make a student's reading sound better, which also helps them understand what they are reading too. I always spend a good portion of the beginning of the year working on fluency with every student.  Some students move out of needing so much fluency work, but others need it the whole year.

I discovered Fry's Fluency Phrases probably 5 years ago. At first, I was excited to just copy them onto different colors of card stock, cut them out into strips, and put them on rings for students to practice. I can actually remember cutting them and assembling them in the car on a road trip we took to Nashville. I actually still use those rings of phrases. They hang up on hooks in my classroom. I have the 100 phrases of each level separated into 5 or 6 rings, so I will pass those out to my small group (whichever level they are on with the phrases.) We usually warm up our small group with those. They will read through one set, then toss them in the middle of the table and when someone else is done, they take theirs, etc.
Even though the kids still like doing those phrases on the rings, I felt like I need some more creative ways to practice the same phrases. Of course, the kids don't seem to notice they are practicing the SAME thing, they think it's a new and fun game! Here is an example of the "game" versions that we play. They go around the circle reading the cards, keeping the cards that they read correctly, then putting all of their cards back if they get a "return all of your cards" card.

Another version of the fluency phrases that the kids love are Roll and Read Fluency Phrases. Again, they are the same thing, leveled phrases, but another "game" that they think is different. The thing that I love about all of these activities that use Fry's phrases is that there are six levels, so they are great for all of the students in my classroom and can last all year. Kids that may have started the year practicing level one phrases, may be finishing the year with level six phrases. Also, even my most fluent readers can still use extra practice now and then!
My Roll and Read Fluency Phrases are kept in plastic sleeves in a binder and I pull out one whole sleeve for each student in my small group. They each roll a die, then practice reading the phrases. After a minute or so, I let them rotate, so they pass their sleeve to the next student and practice those phrases. All six levels are right in my binder, so I can pull them out for each of my groups quickly and have an instant differentiated warm up activity for my small reading groups!

Besides fluency phrases, there are many other things that I include in my classroom to encourage fluency. Some students will be assigned more of these things than others, depending on their differentiated need.

Buddy Reading
Recording Reading
Listening Center
Familiar Reading Fluency Practice
Roll & Read Fluency Phrases 
Leveled Fluency Passages 
Sight Word Practice 
Poetry

To see any of the fluency products that I have shown above, please click on the pictures below. Then, keep scrolling down for a FUN FLUENCY FREEBIE!

         
         
Check out this freebie!!

2 comments:

  1. We have to have 87 wpm - those 5 less words would get a couple more kids above target. I agree that fluency is more than just speed. Thanks for the ideas! Sara

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  2. I'm moving down to a primary grade level (I think 1st, not set in stone yet though!) after teaching 4th this year - I am so glad I found these resources! Thanks for the freebie, and I'm looking into your other fluency resources as well!

    Sarah Beth
    Miss White's Classroom

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