READ 436 Sarah Burleson

Literacy Learning in Primary Grades 11/07/2017

Fluency Minilesson Reflection

I conducted this fluency lesson on Tuesday, October 31st 2017 in Mrs. Brubaker's
morning reading class. It was conducted with a small group of six students who are all at a late-
stage third grade reading level. I used the poem "I Call First" from Giggle Poetry to focus on
better expression and taking expression cue from punctuation.
I planned this lesson by discussing what the students needed to focus on in terms of
fluency with Mrs. Brubaker. She informed me that the students in this particular fifth grade
reading class were all at a third or fourth grade reading level. She also informed me that, while
the students could often read at an appropriate speed, they lacked expression when they read
aloud. We together decided that I would find a short, simple passage that involved expression
and would conduct a group choral reading of the passage.
I knew the activity was appropriate because I took it to school before I used it with
students and had Mrs. Brubaker take a look at the poem. She had me remove or change a few
words to be more appropriate for classroom instruction and for the reading level of the students. I
also had the school reading specialist, who is present in the classroom during this reading
instructional time, read the passage I had selected and she also approved this passage as being an
appropriate activity for the students reading level and as practice for expression. I picked this
activity because I thought that reading and rereading a funny poem about being a student in
elementary school would be more relatable and fun to practice fluency with than reading a
random passage.
I began this lesson in fluency by first discussing with the students what it meant to have
expression. We also discussed what we thought of in terms of expression when we saw the
different punctuation of periods, question marks, and exclamation marks. I asked the students to
make sure to read with good fluency as we read through the poem all together in order to
establish the objective for this reading lesson with the students. We read through the poem
altogether as a whole group the first time through. The second time, I broke the students into
three groups of two students and had each group pick a student number part to be in the poem.
They all read through the poem as groups by taking turns reading aloud and listening to other
groups read. For the third and final read through of the poem, I reminded students before reading
to make sure to have good expression. The students also wanted to switch parts, so I let them do
READ 436 Sarah Burleson
Literacy Learning in Primary Grades 11/07/2017
that but keep the same partners. They completed one more read aloud of the poem and then I did
a quick demonstration of good expression to give them a take-away from this fluency lesson.
The students responded to the activity in a positive manner, but not all the students
completely meet the objective of the reading. All six students thought that the poem was funny,
especially since they had all wanted to be the first reader when I asked them to assign parts. They
all read the poem well, with good speed and comprehension, but only two students really seemed
to strive to have better expression when reading. The other four students just seemed to remain in
the normal manner of monotone choral reading.
There was not very much change or differences to notice in the students' reading as the
lesson took place because a majority of the students did not change how expressively they read
the poem. However, one student did show some improvement in her use of expression during the
three readings of the activity. She was paired with the one student who read with expression
from the beginning of the lesson and I noticed that, while this particular student read very
monotone and with little to no expression during the initial reading, by the third time reading, she
was attempting to match the expression that her partner, which demonstrated better expression
during this lesson.
In this fluency lesson, I felt as if I established my objective for better expression with the
students fairly well, and yet a majority of the group did not achieve this objective. Something
that I would do differently next time I teach this lesson would be to start the readings of the
poem by first modeling for students what this expression is supposed to sound like when reading
aloud. I would have all the students listen to just me read the poem initially while they read along
silently with me to see where and how I had expression. I think this modeling would help the
students to have a better understanding of the objective of better expression. I would also have an
even smaller group size the next time I taught this lesson. I would have only one student on each
voice part of the poem so that I could specifically hear how much expression the students were
using when reading and could offer more specific and helpful feedback to individual students.
In terms of fluency instruction in my own classroom, I would definitely use an activity
like the one used in this minilesson. I like that the students had the specific marker of the
punctuation such as exclamation marks to demonstrate better expression when reading. I also
liked that this reading lent itself nicely to the idea of rereading since students could switch parts.
I also think that materials for activities like Readers Theater would be good for fluency
READ 436 Sarah Burleson
Literacy Learning in Primary Grades 11/07/2017
instruction in my future classroom, especially with students at a higher reading level. When
conducting a fluency lesson, I would make sure to have students in groups that were not broken
up only because of reading level. I noticed that the students in my practicum placement do well
when they have a model for the intended achievement, so I would make sure students who are
struggling with fluency have the time and ability to interact with students who are excelling in
fluency so that they may have a model to strive after when they conduct their readings. I would
make sure to allot time in my reading instruction schedule to allow all students time to partake in
read alouds focused on fluency at least once a day, and have more individualized instruction and
more time for students who are struggling. This way, all students have the time to work on their
fluency in terms of expression and speed every day.
READ 436 Sarah Burleson
Literacy Learning in Primary Grades 11/07/2017
I Call First!

Student 1:
I call first to get a drink! And first to eat my snack!
I call first to go to gym, and first when we come back!

Student 2:
I call first to leave for lunch! And first to switch the light!
I call first to read out loud the poems that I write!

Student 3:
I call first to sharpen up my pencil, loud and slow!
And when we get to sharing time, I call first to show!

Student 1:
I call the computer! I call the special chair!
And I call first in line each time that we go anywhere!

Student 2:
And on the hill at recess, I get to be the king!
I call first forever and for every little thing!

Student 3:
I said those things in class today until my teacher heard.
She sat right down and made a list to keep me at my word.

Student 1:
So now Im first to dump the trash and sweep the floors.
Im first to be the last in linebecause I hold all the doors.

Student 2:
Im first to wipe the tables off and scrape off clumps of clay.
Im first to pass the paper out and put the paints away.

Student 3:
Im first to stack the chairs and first to scrub the sink.
Im probably not the first to see that being first can stink!

The End