Fluency Reading Plan

Author

Institution

Introduction

The 5-day study plan is developed around Stephen Krensky’s book, titled “Dangerous Crossing: The Revolutionary Voyage of John Quincy Adams”. The story, told in the third person, falls under historical fiction category and revolves around the American Revolution time. John Adams, who is the future US president is sent to France on a secret mission to seek assistance in combating the English. He takes John Quincy Adams, his ten year old son who is also a future President (Krensky, 2004). The story lays emphasis on the numerous dangers and sacrifices made by past generations in an effort to lay the foundation of the United States and assist in defeating England. As much as the story falls under fiction, it chronicles the journal entries that John Adams made in his personal diary around this time. Krensky undertook careful study in making this text, which forms the basis for a 5-day mini unit plan of study.

Brief overview of the fluency reading plan

The 5-day fluency reading plan starts on Monday going all the way to Friday. The main focus on Monday is vocabulary and oral communication. Every student will be required to read out a certain portion of the text. In this time, the teacher will pause to expound on the vocabularies used and the author’s choice of words.

On Tuesday, the main theme is reading fluency where students are taught on the importance of reading out difficult terms, as well as correcting themselves in case they pronounce any term incorrectly.

On Wednesday, the key theme is word analysis and word patterns. In this case, there will be a class discussion on how and why the author used certain vocabularies in the text. In addition, the teacher will show the students how they could use these vocabularies in other contexts.

The main theme of Thursday’s lesson plan is reading comprehension. All students will be required to read out the text one last time, during which the teacher points out the importance of visualization in enhancing comprehension. The students are then required to complete worksheets incorporating text-specific visualizations questions.

Friday’s lesson will focus on writing. During this lesson, all key lessons that have been discussed in the previous four days will be discussed, as well as the entire text. In this lesson, all students will be given a test that covers all the issues learnt throughout the week. The test will encompass vocabularies, visualizations, quotes from the text among other aspects.

Monday lesson

Duration: 60 minutes

Objective: Vocabularies and Oral communication

Sequence

The lesson starts with the entire class reading out the story aloud. Every student will be required to read a paragraph, while the teacher will read reading after every student and assist struggling readers.

The teacher will pause occasionally in the course of reading to ask questions on the vocabularies, definitions and word choice.

Once the story is completed, the teacher goes over the vocabularies with every student using vocabulary-context cards to expound on the words. They will then be randomly asked about certain vocabularies, its context, and substitutes.

Tuesday lesson

Duration: 60 Minutes

Objectives: Reading Fluency

Sequence

The students will reread the story, which their groups will rewrite. Every student will read a portion of the rewritten story with the teacher assisting the readers who mispronounce difficult words.

The teacher will acknowledge and applaud the use of new words in the rewritten sentences and require sentences that make no sense be redone. Once the students are through with reading the rewritten stories, the tutor will emphasize on the importance of self-correction and reading accuracy. Proficient readers enhance their reading skills through self-correction and reading out difficult words (Tompkins, 2010).

Wednesday lesson

Duration: 60 minutes

Objective: word analysis and word patterns.

Sequence

Strong readers will be paired with weak readers and asked to read out the passage to each other. They will be required to be attentive to each other’s reading skills so as to correct and help each other in case of mistakes in pronouncing.

The teacher will use the vocabulary context cards and ask students to explain the use of varied vocabularies in varied contexts. Students will, however, be free to refer to the book.

The teacher will then explain the use of these vocabularies in other contexts, as well as how other words would be used in their place.

Thursday lesson

Duration: 60 Minutes

Objective: Reading Comprehension

Sequence

The entire class is required to read out the story, with every student being assigned a paragraph. The teacher reads after every student, with the rotation continuing to the end of the story. The teacher will help struggling readers.

The teacher then leads the class in visualizing the text through demonstrations and pictures where possible. Pictures are known to create a lasting image in the minds of students as far as comprehension is concerned (Johns & Berglund, 2010). Occasionally, the teacher will pause to ask questions pertaining to certain aspects of the story.

The teacher will give students visualization worksheets and assist the students on answering the questions. The students will, however, be free to refer to the book in answering the visualization questions.

Friday lesson

Duration: 60 minutes

Objective: Writing

Sequence

The teacher informs the class that this is the final day involving the story and revisits varied aspect of the story including vocabularies, visualization, word patterns, reading fluency, and comprehension.

Question papers will then be distributed with each student being required to work on the questions independently. The students will be required to compose a comprehensive essay on why they would or would not recommend the book to someone else. In this essay, they will have to use a minimum of five vocabularies, use a color-picture visualization, and quote from the text. The grading system considers correctness, rough draft, neatness and thoroughness. This helps in gauging the skills of the students regarding reading fluency and comprehension (Kuhn & Schwanenflugel, 2007).

References

Krensky, S. (2004). Dangerous Crossing: The Revolutionary Voyage of John Quincy Adams. (Teacher’s ed.). Orlando, FL: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.Kuhn, M R & Schwanenflugel, PJ (2007). Fluency in the Classroom. New York: Guilford Press

Johns, JL, & Berglund, RL (2010). Fluency: Differentiated Interventions and Progress-Monitoring Assessments. New York: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company

Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach (5th ed.). New York, NY: Allyn & Bacon.