Danielle Knopp

Fluency Minilesson

Objectives:

 Students will be able to identify the three components of fluency: accuracy (correctness),
automaticity (smoothness), and prosody (expression/emotion)
 Students will be able to read a short passage aloud fluently

Materials:

 Loose Tooth Reader’s Theater Script

o See attached
 Sweet and Salty Reader’s Theater Script
o See attached

Procedure:

1. Ask the group what they think fluency means

a. Tell them things to look for when reading:
i. Accuracy/correctness, automaticity/smoothness, and prosody/expression
2. Give each pair their Reader’s Theater Scripts,
a. Have them choose which character they would like to be and let them highlight their
respective parts
3. Tell them as a small group that they will read their parts in their heads first, then read the
script aloud with their partner, and then to the group, keeping in mind the different
components of fluency
4. After each group has read their script to the group, do a verbal self-evaluation
a. Ask if they tried to sound like the character they read for so that the audience knew
how that character was feeling
b. Talk about how smoothly they read, if their voice sounded like it does when they talk
to their friends
c. Discuss the pace whether or not they went too fast or too slow
Reflection:

Before even beginning to plan the minilesson, my cooperating teacher selected the small
group of students she wanted me to work with which were some of the lower-level reading
students in the class. I decided to do a Reader’s Theater activity so that they could practice their
fluency by reading aloud, something that they do not get the opportunity to do in class very
often. I knew that these passages were on an independent level for these students based on my
prior experiences with them, and got approval from my CT after selecting them.

I was actually surprised by how much the students enjoyed the activity since my previous
observations of them throughout the past few weeks indicated that they had no interest in
reading. However, after setting the stage that they were real actors/actresses now, they each tried
their best to get into character, and one even created her own accent to go along with the script.
They insisted that they needed to perfect their roles, and loved that they got to critique and self-
evaluate their own reading afterwards.
As the lesson took place, I definitely noticed that the more the students practiced reading
their scripts out loud, the more fluent they sounded. Since these students are at a lower reading
level, I was expecting them to have some difficulty reading and comprehending the text but was
surprised as to how quickly they were able to pick up on it. Furthermore, as they got more
engaged and interested, their fluency increased even more.
If I had to make adaptations for this lesson, I would provide more visual supports throughout
the script to make the text a little more decodable for the students. There were a few words
within each passage that were a little challenging for the students, and I believe having those
visual aids would be beneficial for them. Similarly, if time-permitting, I would use slightly larger
groups of 4-5 students and allow them more time to practice and get into character.
I think that Reader’s Theater is a great and developmentally appropriate way for students to
develop their fluency and is also an effective tool for teachers to assess their students’ reading
levels. I would try to group students homogenously by ability for this activity, but work closely
with each group so that I can monitor their progress. For assessment data, I would have the
students fill out a self-reflection chart with explicit items for them to evaluate such as their
tone/expression, their pace, and their accuracy of words.
Attachments:
Loose Tooth Script

Sweet and Salty Script