Soaring High in Second Grade!: Other little tid-bits...

Fluency folder, what's that?!

So the newest addition to our homework/classroom routine is the fluency folder. I know I sent home a lot of information with this, but I just wanted to touch base with my parents.

I have a classroom of amazing readers, but one thing I think we need to work on as a whole class is our fluency. Fluency is reading with proper rate, accuracy, and expression. Though we practice this every day in the classroom, I decided that practicing at home would be a great benefit to the students. Every week I will be sending home some sort of passage or poem. Some weeks it may be very short, some days it may be longer. The purpose of this passage is for the children to focus on fluency more than anything!

On the sheet in the folder where you sign, there is only one space to sign your name per week. I just wanted to clarify what I would ideally love to see happening at home. I think the children would benefit most from reading this passage with you nightly. Yes, I realize it may become tedious because it is the same passage, but there are some fun ways to spice it up that I will mention in a moment.

The first couple of nights, it would be best to focus on your child's accuracy. Do they know all of the words? What words do they struggle with? Make sure to spend a little more time reviewing these words with your child so that they can become familiar with them. Next, think about rate. A perfect reading rate would be not too fast, but also not too slow. Think "just right" like in Goldilocks and the Three Bears. ;) Lastly, expression is reading like we talk. You want to make sure your children are reading punctuation. Are they pausing at commas and periods? Are their voices changing at question marks and exclamations? Remember, the best way for them to learn expression is for you to model it for them!

Lastly, a few fun ideas to spice up your fluency passage:

You could try different voices as you read! Maybe write some voices on pieces of paper (monster voice, teacher voice, angry voice, etc.) and have your child draw them out and practice.
Use props! Things like special glasses, play microphones, masks, etc. always get kids excited about reading!
Have your child practice the passage and perform it for the family on Friday!

The sky is the limit with this! I hope you are reading with your child nightly. At the end of the week, you can sign off for the entire week. Of course, I know that we are all busy, busy so just fit this in whenever is best for your family!

If you have any questions, comments, or fun ideas please feel free to post here or email me!