Developing Fluency by Catching a Wave and Spreading Peanut Butter!

Developing Fluency by Catching a Wave and Spreading Peanut Butter! 

I bet that title piqued your interest. 😊 

As you know, fluency is an important component in comprehension. If a reader can’t read words or sentences smoothly enough for their brain to pick up the concepts presented, they are left feeling frustrated and wondering what they’ve read.  

Here are a couple of fun imagery ideas I suggest to my kiddos to use to improve their fluency. These have proven to be very popular with my kids and are very successful in helping them improve fluency and, therefore, comprehension.  

After I teach phraseology (Phraseology in Categories) to my children and have given them time to practice and gain confidence in their newly learned skill, I tell them I have another fun technique to further increase their fluency.  

“Have you ever gone surfboarding or watched someone surfboard?” I inquire.  

I see their eyes spark with interest and curiosity. Playing with their curiosity, we jump on the computer and search surfing to learn about surfing and to try to imagine what surfing would feel like. We talk about how smooth the board is flowing with the wave and how surfers have to quickly gain and keep their balance, or they’ll fall right off their boards.  

“Can you imagine what it would be like to catch a wave, keep your balance while standing on that floating surfboard and ride it smoothly all the way to the shore?” 

They are alive with the fun of our exploration and are wondering what it has to do with their reading.  

“Imagine yourself surfing as you read a sentence. Feel yourself climbing on your board as you look at the capital letter and the first word. Feel how you catch the wave of the words and while keeping your balance, off you go riding it to the end.” 

We take this imagery of smoothly riding a wave a step further by having them actually feel their smoothness when reading a real sentence.  

“Let’s imagine surfing a sentence again. Feel yourself climbing on your board, gaining your balance with the first word, and then catching that wave. Feel yourself balancing tall and steady and riding the word wave right to the end mark.”  

I ask them, “How did that feel?” 

They always have many answers, but all their answers share their relief and fun. They are impressed with how easy it is to ride the word wave when they are balanced at the beginning. It’s a delight to watch them relaxing with their fluency with this fun technique.  

I tell them, “Now that you have the feeling of surfing your sentence smoothly to the end, your reading fluency will just naturally improve. That’s exciting!” 

And now for peanut butter and fluency. 😊 

I start by talking about smooth peanut butter. “Do you like peanut butter? How do you like to eat and enjoy peanut butter?  

We act out spreading peanut butter. “Let’s imagine getting a BIG GLOB of peanut butter on a knife and smoothly spreading it on a delicious slice of bread. Feel how it spreads so easily, so smoothly. 

“Now picture yourself spreading peanut butter as you read a sentence. Imagine putting your BIG GLOB of your favorite smooth peanut butter on the first word and then spreading it smoothly, without stopping, clear to the end mark. 

“Now, let’s read a sentence. Pretend you are putting that BIG GLOB down on the first word and spreading it to the end mark as you read. Feel how smooth you are.” 

This imagery always makes them giggle and say, “YUM!” 

We play with these two fluency techniques for a couple of weeks during which time I ask them if they are thinking up any other fun ways we can imagine, feel and read more smoothly. 

It’s always a pleasure to hear their new ideas.  

And it’s always a pleasure to hear your new ideas. Please pass them on and we will share them.  

My next blog post shares some research on how our brains work to develop fluency. It’s interesting! 

If you have any nagging questions about fluency and comprehension, just contact us.  

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                  Nina Henson 

An Interesting Discovery About Our Brains and Fluency

An Interesting Discovery About Our Brains and Fluency 

After we’ve spent a couple of weeks having fun imagining surfing the word wave through a sentence and/or spreading peanut butter from the capital letter to the end mark to develop fluency, I’m ready to teach them a new concept to even further improve their fluency. 

I share that I discovered something very interesting about how everyone’s brains work. 

“When we begin to read a sentence in a choppy manner, such as: ‘I saw - a big - dog - in - the park’, we send a message to our brain that we will continue to read the rest of the sentence in that same choppy manner. Since our brain received that message, we continue like this: ‘playing - with - a little boy - and girl - with - a frisbee.’ 

“The whole sentence will sound like this: ‘I saw - a big - dog - in - the park - playing - with - a little boy - and girl - with - a frisbee.’” 

I ask them how that sentence sounds when read that way. They always have answers such as, “Not good. It’s too choppy. You sound like a robot, not a real person.” 

We discuss that when we hear or read a sentence in that way, it can be difficult to stay with the meaning of the sentence. In other words, our comprehension of what we are hearing or reading is slowed way down.  

I continue sharing, “It also works the other way around. When we begin to read the first three or four words in a sentence in a smooth manner, we send a message to our brain that we are going to read the rest of the sentence in that same smooth manner. 

“The whole sentence will sound like this: ‘I saw a big dog in the park playing with a little boy and girl with a frisbee.’”

We take a moment to realize and discuss that hearing or reading that sentence in a smooth way makes it easy to understand, to comprehend.  

I continue, “The control we have over how our brain works is amazing! By just reading the first three or four words in a sentence in a smooth manner, we truly send a message to our brain that we are going to read the rest of the sentence in a smooth manner.” 

I tell them, “You are going to be amazed at how much your reading fluency will increase just by sending this message of reading smoothly to your brain every time you begin to read a sentence! 

“Now, let’s practice our newest reading fluency tool together as we read a sentence.  

After they have practiced this new tool with a few sentences I have them reflect, “Did you notice that by just realizing this science fact about how your brain helps you relax into reading the rest of the sentence smoothly, you actually did read smoothly?”  

They are always so pleased to realize how smoothly they read and how well they understood what they read.  

It’s fun to begin this lesson by recording a child who reads in a choppy manner reading a sentence. After you have taught this skill and they are feeling strong with concentrating on just reading the first three or four words smoothly, record them again. 

You and they will be amazed at the improvement! They will love how easy it is to increase their fluency and comprehension. 

You and your students will have fun using this technique on unfamiliar sentences also to prove to yourself and to them that just by initially reading the first three or four words smoothly, their brain will send a message to read the entire sentence smoothly. 

Now one more small and powerful step, as your kids develop this skill and after you have taught them what a verb is, their fluency will increase even further when they concentrate on reaching the verb smoothly, as the rest of the sentence will just flow! 

Have fun with these techniques! Watch how their fluency scores on school tests such as Dibles shoot up. 😊 And, more importantly, enjoy how they are comprehending all they are reading.  

I’d love for you to share your experience with me! 

If you have any questions about fluency and comprehension, please contact us.  

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                  Nina Henson