fluency

Low Prep, Easy to Manage Math Centers

If you teach kindergarten or have been in a kindergarten classroom for a while, you know that centers can be difficult to put into place. Young students come to us with very little independence and are not able to read directions. Hands-on activities are key to a successful kindergarten classroom.

I came from teaching high achieving first and third grade, so I was familiar with a fast paced, centers-based, independent, active math block. As I prepped for kindergarten math, I made sure I had many activities and manipulatives ready to go. BUT as I began getting into the groove of teaching math to my scholars, I reflected on what was and wasn’t working with my young students. You can read more about that here. I realized that I needed to simplify and make activities low prep for myself and predictable for my students.

Here are a few of the centers that are working WONDERFULLY for our classroom this year…

White Boards – The magical oh-so-much-more-wonderful version of paper. At the beginning of the year, students practiced writing numbers 1-30 using a number line. Currently, my students are writing as many addition sentences as they can on their own. I’m not quite sure why, but they are so engaged, and I am not complaining! About 3-6 students are at this center together.

When using white boards, I just ask that students keep their largest number 10 because I really want them practicing facts up to 10 to build their automaticity with those facts which will be a HUGE blessing to them in first grade. Other than that, students choose which facts they write and solve. However, if I know the student is above level, I will challenge them with using numbers up to 20 or beginning to subtract.

Technology – I am blessed to have quite a bit of technology at my school. We are not 1-to-1, but we currently have 5 laptops, 2 desktops, 3 iPads, and a Promethean Board. I do not tell you these things to brag. I’ve also been at schools with less technology. I just want you to realize that I have these as part of our rotation and it definitely does cut down on the overall noise level of our classroom when almost 10 students are on devices. If you do not have access to technology or certain technologies, you can always add an independent center to help cut down on the noise level while you work with a small group.

technology math center — All computers and laptops are used for i-Ready, a individualized program that our school purchased. Students are required to complete a certain amount of lessons each week.

Student technology in math centers — Our Promethean Board is used as an interactive addition center or for subtilizing practice.

This ice cream addition game is a class favorite. You can find it here. It’s great because you can differentiate it by which addition facts (1-9) it gives the students. We also use the Teacher Tools for Interactive Whiteboards from DreamBox Learning. Our favorites are the ten frames, math racks, and matching number pairs. This subtilizing practice has greatly increased my students’ number sense this year!

Here are some of our favorites: Marble Math, Splash Math, Learn with Boing, Touchtronic 123’s

Pocket Chart – About every 2-3 weeks I switch out this activity. I do not fill this center with an activity kids will need lots of help with. Most activities are strictly number sense or addition. About 4-5 students work at this center together. We loved this 1-20 number sense activity, but I can’t find where I downloaded it. 🙁 It was free.

Recently, I decided that I wanted my students to really understand the patterns that are in a 100 chart. I was also curious to see which students could quickly identify and order numbers to 100, and which needed assistance. I chose three colors of paper and cut them into fourths. I wrote all of the 5’s and 10’s on blue. Then, I alternated the horizontal rows to make it easier on little eyes as they sorted. All in all, this took me 10-15 minutes while my kids enjoyed indoor recess during a thunderstorm. Low Prep.

The results have been fantastic. The activity is time consuming for students, which allows me to truly concentrate on the students in my small group. It is also quite challenging! I have heard some fabulous conversations between students this week. When introducing the center, I explained that if you see a number in the wrong place, you must explain why it isn’t in the right place before you move it. This has helped the kids to work collaboratively with almost no arguing. Yahoooo!

As an extension, my students completed their very own hundred’s chart using this differentiated hundreds chart freebie. I love that I can print different levels of difficulty for each student! Soon, I will put these in clear sheet protectors and add them to our “white board” center for extra practice.

So, let’s talk prep. I don’t need to prep any of the technology centers. I don’t need to prep any of the white board activities. I prep the pocket chart once every 2-3 weeks. The only prep I regularly do is for my small group.

I truly love this set up because I really enjoy focusing on the 4-5 kiddos in front of me when we are in math small group. The repetitive predictable nature of the other centers leaves students feeling successful and allows for fewer teacher distractions. Although the entire arrangement may not work for everyone, you can pick and choose aspects of these centers that may be a success in your classroom as well!

Do you have any other low prep activities that your students enjoy? Share them in the comments below!

Quick Fluency Games to Increase Student Engagement

Fluency is such an important part of our lives in the primary grades. Letter fluency, sound fluency, sight word fluency, math fluency…the list goes on and on. Our classroom even has a “Fluency Center” where students practice their very own set of 10 sight words each day. However, there is not enough urgency at that center….and to be honest, I was craving more urgency. I wanted my students to want to see how quickly and consistently they could recite letter sounds and sight words, but I wasn’t quite happy with what I had going on.

Then I was introduced to Spot It. By a second grader. …and of course I ordered it the very next day. Yup! That’s the truth!

This game transformed my small group warm up in literally one day. All students are on task. They have to be. They game requires that you are constantly observing, constantly reassessing, constantly making connections between different images or words. There are so many versions of this game, which is wonderful for teachers who want to keep those struggling students actively engaged.

How to play:

The game is extremely simple, but challenges the brain the entire time. Because of this, it is perfect for primary grades. Students feel successful and are excited to play every time you open the game. To play you simply deal out the deck of cards evenly to the small group of children, place the last card face up in the middle, and make matches. There is no “taking turns”. Students must quickly scan the middle card and then search their top card for a match. (This is key. ONLY the top card. “One card at a time, or you are cheating, and scholars don’t cheat!” That is the end of that issue!) The quicker you are, the better. You want to get rid of all your cards as quickly as possible. First one with no more cards is the winner!

Fluency Activities:

-Simple alphabet matching – say the letter you identified as a match as you place your card in the middle.

-Letter/sound matching – I used the alphabet set, but my students had to say the letter sound as they placed their match in the center. This was a lot more challenging (even for me) because your brain wants to say the actual letter that your eyes see.

-Math fluency using the number/shape set.

-Simple English word fluency – I plan on using this set with my ESOL student so that he can become more familiar with common day to day words.

Overnight, we have become Spot It kings and queens. We are competitive and focused on building letter/sound knowledge every day. We also had a kindergarten conversation about not bragging, complimenting others no matter who looses, and saying congratulations.

If you use this game, share your ideas and experience with it in the comments. We’d love to hear new ideas for our classroom. If you’re interested in grabbing a game of Spot It for your kiddos, check out the link below.

Skill-based Fluency Instruction

Fluency Overview

In the past, fluency was defined as the ability to read smoothly and effortlessly, at a quick, automatic rate (Harris & Hodges, 1995; Logan, 1997). A student’s reading rate and accuracy are very important because less time spent on decoding leaves more time for the brain to focus on comprehension. However, after recent research, fluency has come to encompass much more. It now includes prosodic elements such as expression, volume, phrasing, pacing, and smoothness. When students read with prosody, they are able to capture the meaning of the story or script. Current research supports phrasing, pacing, and smoothness as elements that help develop fluency in students. (Clark, Morrison, & Wilcox, 2009)

Students who do not read fluently segment the text and read it word by word. However, students who read smoothly with appropriate expression, pacing, and phrasing make reading sound like natural language (Zutell & Rasinski, 1991). Fluent reading develops when students are able to make their reading sound like individuals speaking as they do in daily life.

Although fluency is a large part of reading curricula, it is often neglected in reading instruction (Reutzel & Hollingsworth, 1993; Zutell & Rasinski, 1991). Many teachers refer to traditional methods of measuring fluency. This is usually comprised of giving students an unfamiliar passage and timing their reading while keeping track of errors. Research has shown that varying the fluency practice is beneficial in the classroom in order to motivate those students who are not motivated by competition (Tyler & Chard, 2000; Worthy & Prater, 2002). Repeated readings of familiar texts are necessary in order for fluency, and therefore prosody, to increase.

Fluency in My Classroom

If you teach primary grades, then I’m sure you are used to the Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) Assessments or something of the sort. These are short stories that we ask students to read while we time them and note any mistakes. Last year, I had very high first graders who already read fluently, so our ORFs were easy to administer. I didn’t stress about them. I simply tested my kids, plugged in their scores, and clicked submit.

Fast forward to this past fall. During the first half of the school year, I taught in a private school. One of the small groups that I worked with consisted of first graders who were struggling readers. Fluency was….not quite their strong point.

Fast forward to January. I transferred back to the public school I was at previously. I now work with third graders, many of whom are at a lower level than the first graders I had last year. So I began to ask myself….What are they missing?

After attending a training in Orton-Gillingham, {LOVE! If you ever have the chance to go, GO! Run! I recommend it over any conference I have ever been to!} I was convinced that students (or at least the ones I have worked with) were lacking basic instruction in phonics skills. If I could teach them the skills that they were lacking, would they then be fluent? Could they then comprehend?

Skill-Based Fluency

I love the idea of fluency practice every day, especially in the primary grades. I have seen the benefits of repeated readings, and the smiles and giggles from successful readers. BUT I have always thought that fluency passages were sort of…random. I’m not saying that they are ineffective. I am not telling you not to use them as part of your curriculum. In fact, many curriculums require them.

Let me just explain my reasoning…

If I am teaching silent E, wouldn’t it be great to immerse the kids in silent E? Letting them SEE silent E everywhere they look or read will help them to identify silent E in the future. Right? So, why not include that skill in your fluency instruction?

I began doing this with two different groups of struggling readers, and have seen the positive effects already! We use LOTS of hands-on activities to drive this concept home. The following pictures are from two groups of students – first graders and second graders.

One activity that my students love is this silent E set from the talented Lavinia Pop.

Use sound chips when saying each sound.

Add the silent E with a dry erase marker and use the sound chips to read the word again, changing the vowel sound.

I then ask students to change the onset of the word while keeping the rime the same. Once they have written the word, they cover the onset so that they see the pattern in the rime. They come up with as many words as possible.

Another day during the same week, we read these Rhyming Poems which are WONDERFUL because they have Elkonin boxes for the rhyme sounds. We use sound chips again here. The students would put a sound chip in the box each time they heard a long vowel and saw a silent E. Then, they would underline the silent E words. In pairs, they would face each other and take turns reading the poem as I listened in and gave advice on pausing and pronunciation of words.

During the same week, I introduce fluency sentences. Jen Jones {my literacy hero} created these amazing fluency sentences that are organized by skill. AHHHHH! Can you hear the hallelujah chorus?! Perfect for RtI and intervention groups!

Students read each sentence and underline and silent E words that they read. I then have them check with their partner to see if any have been missed. Then, they add any underlines that they missed.

I have the kids whisper read to themselves as I listen in to them one at a time. Then, we read together. Finally, they read to a buddy.

You will see here that this sweetie underlined “the” in the second sentence above. This was a GREAT teachable moment to discuss the fact that “Not every E at the end of a word is a silent E.” Use these mistakes to help students understand the reasoning behind the skill.

This student needed more chunking. The text was too overwhelming. I drew lines between sentences and had him only focus on three sentences at a time. He then wrote down all of the silent E words and read them from his white board before continuing to the next few sentences.

At this time, I am currently working with struggling second graders for my final practicum project. These short vowel fluency passages from Miss DeCarbo are a savior! The kids seriously love spinners, so that’s a plus! This set requires students to hunt for words and participate in repeated readings of the text. And guess what!?! They are ALL based on a phonics skill!

This page focused on “ack”. The kids were SO excited that the word backpack had TWO “ack” sounds in it!

After completing all of the steps and reading the passage together as a group a few times, students buddy read. They listen for changes in their partner’s voice each time there is punctuation.

Focusing on a skill while practicing fluency has been SUCH a blessing for my second graders. They are not at grade level and cannot handle second grade fluency passages. Using these passages with the same phonics skill repeated over and over again helps the students to read a full paragraph without stopping to “sound out” any words. They know the phonics skill and are able to apply it throughout the passage. After one day, I had these kiddos giggling and reading with expression in their voices. Why? Because the text was predictable and they had confidence in their skill.

As you go off into your classroom this week, think about including your skills into your fluency practice. There are oh so many ways that you can do this. Just keep practicing in a variety of ways, and make fluency fun! As they say, “Practice Makes Permanent!”

fluency

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