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ELA G2:S2:C12:L59

Fluency

In this Lesson

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Daily Learning Targets

  • Opening A: I can identify homophones and determine what they mean and when to use them. (RF.2.3, L.2.2)
    • I can use context to help me decode words that have common sounds with different spelling patterns.
  • Work Time A: I can read a text fluently (smoothly, with expression and meaning, rereading and self-correcting when necessary). (RF.2.4)
    • I can read with appropriate phrasing while paying attention to punctuation.
    • I can reread when something doesn't make sense or sound right.

Ongoing Assessment

  • Observe students during Opening A. Determine whether they can identify which words in a text are homonyms, use context to determine the meaning of each word, and select the correct word to complete a new sentence.
  • Observe students during Work Time A. Determine whether they can group words in logical phrases and attend to punctuation to read the text fluently.
  • Exit ticket (see Differentiated Small Groups: Work with Teacher).

Agenda

Agenda

1. Opening (3-5 minutes)

A. Words Rule: Homophones: "to," "too," and "two"

2. Work Time (10 minutes)

A. Fluency

3. Closing and Assessment (2 minutes)

A. Reflecting on Learning

4. Differentiated Small Group Instruction and Rotations (40-45 minutes)

In Advance

  • Enlarge the Homophone Demonstration Sentence #1: "Sam and Dad went to Soup for You and got two bags of chips and some soup too" (in supporting materials).
  • Enlarge the Homophone Demonstration Sentence #2: "The soup was too hot to eat" (in supporting materials).
  • Write the following Homophone Practice Sentence on chart paper leaving out the words "two," "to," and "too" and putting a blank line in their places: "The two boys want to go to the zoo too but it is too late."
  • Write the following Homophone Word Cards on index cards: "two," "to," and "too."
  • Enlarge the selected excerpt from the Decodable Reader: "Too Many Options!" (in supporting materials).
  • Write the following Rules of Fluency on index cards: "smoothly," "with expression," "with meaning," "just the right speed."
  • Pre-determine partnerships for Work Time A.
  • Gather materials for differentiated small group instruction (see Differentiated Small Groups: Work with Teacher).

Vocabulary

Key: Lesson-Specific Vocabulary (L); Text-Specific Vocabulary (T)

  • excerpt, expression, fluency, homophone, phrase (L)

Materials

  • Homophone Demonstration Sentence #1: "Sam and Dad went to Soup for You and got two bags of chips and some soup too."
  • Homophone Demonstration Sentence #2: "The soup was too hot to eat."
  • Homophone Word Cards
  • Homophone Practice Sentence on chart paper (see Teaching Notes, "In Advance" above): "The _____ boys want _____ go __ the zoo _____ but it is _____ late."
  • Rules of Fluency index cards (see Teaching Notes, "In Advance" above)
  • Individual copies of excerpt from the Decodable Reader: "Too Many Options!" (one per student)
  • Enlarged selected excerpt from the Decodable Reader: "Too Many Options!" (excerpt #1)
  • Pencil (one per student)
  • Clipboards if not working at table or desk (one per student)

Opening

OpeningMeeting Students' Needs

A. Words Rule: Homophones "to," "too," and "two"

  • (Suggested transition song, sung to the tune of "The Muffin Man"):

Teacher: "Can you take a closer look, a closer look, a closer look? Can you take a closer look at these words today?"

Students: "Yes, we'll take a closer look, a closer look, a closer look. Yes, we'll take a closer look to group the words today."

  • Begin the Words Rule instructional practice:

1. Teacher displays Homophone Demonstration Sentence #1: "Sam and Dad went to Soup for You and got two bags of chips and some soup too."

2. Teacher says: "Listen carefully while I read this sentence aloud. There are three words in this sentence that sound exactly the same, but are spelled differently. I want you to listen and watch carefully for those words."

3. Teacher reads the sentence aloud.

4. Teacher invites students to turn to an elbow partner and share which words they heard that sound exactly the same but are spelled differently. Teacher invites one or two students to share.

5. Teacher points to each word in turn and says: "That's right. 'to,' 'two,' and 'too' sound exactly the same but are spelled differently. Language experts give words like these a special name. They're called 'homophones.' Homophones are words that have the same sound but are spelled differently."

6. Teacher says: "Let's see if we can use the sentence to help us understand what each of these homophones mean. Let's start with this one."

7. Teacher points to the word "two" and reads the sentence.

8. Teacher asks:

"What does this 'two' mean?" (the number two)

9. Teacher says: "That's right. When we see 'two' spelled 't-w-o' we know it means the number two."

10. Teacher says: "Let's try another one."

11. Teacher points to the word "too" and reads the sentence.

12. Teacher asks:

"What does this 'too' mean?" (also)

13. Teacher displays Homophone Demonstration Sentence #2: "The soup was too hot to eat" and says: "Listen while I read this sentence."

14. Teacher reads: "The soup was too hot to eat."

15. Teacher points to the word "too" and asks:

"What does this 'too' mean in this sentence?" (The soup was so hot that he couldn't eat it.)

16. Teacher says: "In this sentence, the word 'too' means something like 'extra' or 'way more than it should be.' The soup was extra hot. It wasn't way hotter than it should be."

17. Teacher says: "When we mean the number two, we use 't-w-o,' and when we mean 'also' or 'way more than it should be,' we use 't-o-o.' The rest of the time we use 't-o.'"

18. Teacher reads both sentences again, pointing to the words "to."

19. Teacher says: "Let's practice figuring out which of these homophones we should use."

20. Teacher displays the Homophone Word Cards ("two," "too," and "to") and reads each word aloud.

21. Teacher displays the Homophone Practice Sentence ("The _____ boys want _____ go _____ the zoo _____ but it is _____ late.") and invites students to read it to themselves and think about which word should go in each blank.

22. Teacher reads the sentence aloud: "The two boys want to go to the zoo too, but it is too late."

23. Teacher invites student volunteers to place the appropriate card in each blank line, reinforcing the appropriate word based on the context as needed.
  • Consider providing support as students make connections between the spelling and the meaning of each homophone. Example:
    • "I noticed when too is spelled 't-o-o' it means _____."
  • Consider explaining to students that the word "homophone" has two parts that help explain its meaning: "homo" meaning "same" and "phone" meaning "sound."
  • If introducing the two meanings of "too" feels like too much for your students, consider modifying the sentences in this lesson to focus just on its meaning as "also." This would involve eliminating Homophone Demonstration Sentence #2 (steps 14-17) and the last part of the practice sentence ("but it is too late").

Work Time

Work TimeMeeting Students' Needs

A. Fluency

  • (Suggested transition song, sung to the tune of "The Muffin Man"):

Teacher: "Can you read this fluently? Smoothly, with expression, please. Can you read it smoothly with expression and with meaning?"

Students: "Yes, we'll read it fluently. Not too fast and not too slow. Yes, we'll read it fluently at just the right speed."

All together: "So now we'll read this fluently. Think about how smooth it will be. Now we'll read this fluently at just the right speed."

  • Begin the Fluency instructional practice:

1. Teacher displays enlarged selected excerpt from the Decodable Reader: "Too Many Options!" (excerpt #1).

2. Teacher reminds students that this is an "excerpt" from the Decodable Reader: "Too Many Options!"

3. Teacher displays Rules of Fluency index cards ("smoothly," "with expression," "with meaning," and "just the right speed") on the board and reads them aloud.

4. Teacher points to the "smoothly" card and invites students to turn to an elbow partner.

5. Teacher asks:

"What does it mean to read 'smoothly'?" (not choppy or one word at a time, words are grouped together)

6. Teacher invites one or two students to share their ideas.

7. Teacher invites students to think about what it means to read "smoothly" as they listen to him or her read the excerpt and to be prepared to give him or her feedback on how he or she applied that rule.

8. Teacher reads the excerpt word by word, skipping punctuation.

9. Teacher points to the "smoothly" card again and invites students to turn to an elbow partner to share what they noticed about how he or she read the excerpt.

10. Teacher invites two or three student volunteers to share what they notice (example: sounded word by word), prompting them to name specific examples in the text.

11. Teacher asks:

"Does anyone have any suggestions for how I could make this smoother?" (Responses will vary. Examples: group words together, say more than one word at a time.)

12. Teacher reads the excerpt again, incorporating suggestions made by the students.

13. Teacher reminds students that reading "smoothly" is about reading words in phrases, or groups of words that make sense when read together.

14. Teacher asks:

"What kind of text is this?" (a story, fiction, narrative text)

15. Teacher says: "Knowing the kind of text it is helps me think about how the words should go together."

16. Teacher models annotating a text for phrasing:

      • Teacher invites students to look at the excerpt and identify the periods.
      • Teacher writes a capital "P" above each period and says: "I'm going to be sure and remember to pause at each of these periods."
      • Teacher reads the excerpt word by word again but pauses at each period.
      • Teacher says: "I paused at each period, but clearly I am still not reading very smoothly."
      • Teacher asks:

"Let's see... what words can I put together that would make it sound smooth and not choppy?"

      • Teacher says: "Maybe I should try reading two words together at a time."
      • Teacher underlines as shown here: "Soup for You is a new place to eat."
      • Teacher reads the sentence again, pausing after each set of underlined words.
      • Teacher asks:

"How does that sound?" (doesn't sound right grouped/phrased that way)

17. Teacher says: "I'm not doing too well with putting these words into phrases for smooth reading. I think you should help me."

18. Teacher invites students to suggest which words should be grouped together and articulate why. For example: "The words 'Soup for You' make sense to read together because they are the name of the restaurant."

19. Teacher underlines the suggested groupings and reads the sentence aloud again.

20. Teacher invites revisions as needed.

21. Teacher says: "It's time to give this a try with the rest of the excerpt. Each of you will get your own copy and make some decisions about what words should be grouped and read together. Then you can try it out with your partner so you can hear how it sounds. That will help you know if you need to revise how you grouped words. You should do this with excerpt #1 first. If you have time, you can try it with excerpts #2 and #3. Remember to pause when you see a period."

22. Teacher distributes individual copies of excerpt from the Decodable Reader: "Too Many Options!" and a pencil and clipboard (if not working at tables).

23. Students annotate their own excerpts for words to be grouped together and then practice reading it aloud to their partners.

24. If time allows, consider inviting one or two students to come up and read the excerpt to the group. When they are done, the teacher can invite students to name one star and one step.
  • The word "excerpt" may be unfamiliar to many students. Consider modeling this vocabulary by extending one hand, palm up, and explaining that this represents the whole text in the Decodable Reader. With the other hand, model pulling out a "piece" of the text. This "piece" is the "excerpt."
  • Consider providing the entire Decodable Reader (from Lesson 57) for students to use when partnering and practicing fluent reading.

Closing & Assessments

ClosingMeeting Students' Needs

A. Reflecting on Learning

  • Emphasize that successful learners take responsibility for their own learning. Invite students to reflect on ways they took responsibility for their learning during whole group instruction or how they plan to take responsibility during differentiated small group instruction.
  • Invite a volunteer to share. Afterward, invite any students who did something similar to indicate that in an interactive way (example: give a thumbs-up).
  • For students who need additional support organizing their ideas: Provide sentence frames. Examples:
    • "When I read the excerpt I thought about _____, and I _____."
    • "After I got feedback about _____ from _____, I read the excerpt again and made it sound _____."

Differentiated Small Groups: Work with Teacher

Suggested Plan: Teacher works with students in the Partial Alphabetic and Full Alphabetic groups. If possible, teacher should also meet with the Consolidated Alphabetic group at least once per week.

Note: Groups not working with the teacher at a given time should be engaged in purposeful independent rotation work. Refer to the Independent and Small Group Work guidance document for more details (see K-2 Skills Resource Manual).

Partial Alphabetic:

  • Students complete exit ticket:
    • Students work with an excerpt from a decodable text using patterns they are working on. (Consider using the Assessment Conversion chart to identify an appropriate Grade 1 cycle and use the Decodable Reader from that cycle.)
    • Students use a highlighter to find and highlight punctuation in the text (examples: periods, question marks, exclamation points, quotation marks).
    • Teacher guides students to understand what the identified punctuation communicates to us as readers (examples: a period tells us to stop for a moment, quotation marks tell us to make it sound like someone is talking).
    • Teacher follows the process outlined in the whole group lesson work time to practice fluency with this text.
  • Use the Assessment Conversion chart to determine appropriate Grade 1 lessons and Activity Bank ideas to use in daily small group instruction.
  • Check in with Accountable Independent Reading.
  • Additional Supporting Materials:
    • Highlighters (one per student)
    • Copies of a previous or the current Decodable Reader: "Too Many Options!" (using patterns students are working with)

Full Alphabetic:

  • Students complete exit ticket:
    • Consider beginning with the silly sentences produced by students in the Consolidated Alphabetic group during Lesson 58. Guide students to review the spelling pattern and then guide them to practice reading them fluently.
    • Students work with additional pages in the Decodable Reader: "Too Many Options!" (from Lesson 57).
    • Students use a highlighter to find and highlight punctuation in the text (example: periods, question marks, exclamation points, quotation marks, commas).
    • Teacher guides students to understand what the identified punctuation communicates to us as readers. (Example: a period tells us to stop for a moment, quotation marks tell us to make it sound like someone is talking.)
    • Teacher follows the process outlined in the whole group lesson work time to practice fluency with this text.
  • Check in with Accountable Independent Reading.
  • See Activity Bank Fluency activities (F) for Readers Theater options.
  • Additional Supporting Materials:
    • Silly sentences produced during differentiated small group instruction from Lesson 58 (optional)
    • Highlighters (one per student)
    • Copies of Decodable Reader: "Too Many Options!" from Lesson 57

Consolidated Alphabetic:

  • Students complete exit ticket:
    • Students reread the Engagement Text: "New Restaurant Opens in Sunnyside," focusing on fluency.
    • Then they become television reporters and write a script to show what they would say.
    • Finally, they practice reading the script and conduct a Readers Theater.
    • This can be done individually or with a partner.
    • Look over the scripts with students. Analyze parts that are fluent and provide feedback for fluency as needed. Listen to Readers Theater performances and provide feedback.
  • Use leveled readers for fluency practice. (Refer to Independent and Small Group Work guidance document for guidance; see K-2 Skills Resource Manual.)
  • Check in with Accountable Independent Reading.
  • See Activity Bank Fluency activities (F) for Readers Theater options.
  • Additional Supporting Materials:
    • Individual copies of the Engagement Text: "New Restaurant Opens in Sunnyside" (from Lesson 57)
    • Paper and writing utensils

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