Fluency Intervention Lesson Plan Template
Name: Zoe Koop
Target Content/Lesson Topic: Fluency (Pace and Phrasing
State Learning Standards
Identify relevant grade level
standards and Learning Outcomes
from the State Content Learning
Standards, Common Core Standards,
and school learning outcomes.
Learning Targets/Objectives
What should the students know or
be able to do after the instruction?
Use a common format with a
measurable verb that matches the
cognitive domain standard. This
should be a small piece of the
standard stated in measurable
terms.
Grouping
Describe how and why students will
be divided into groups, if applicable
(homogeneous, heterogenous,
random / based on ability, interest,
social purposes, etc.)
Differentiation
If either or both lessons are whole
class, how is the lesson(s)
differentiated for the focal student?
Assessment
How will students demonstrate that
the focal student is making progress
in toward their fluency goals?
Grade Level: 6th
Date: October 7, 2023
Planning
Standard for phrasing and pace: RF.5.4: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
a. Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding. b. Read grade-level text orally with accuracy,
appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings. c. Use context to confirm or self-correct word
recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.
Learning target(phrasing): Student will be able to read with proper phrasing to indicate fluency, which will
then support comprehension.
Learning objective(phrasing): I can read without pausing between words(phrasing) to show fluency, which will
later support my comprehension.
Learning Target(pace): Student will be able to read grade level text with appropriate rate/pace.
Learning objective(phrasing): I can read grade level text at a consistent pace throughout.
Both lessons will be individual intervention lessons with just one student. I will work with students individually
based on their needs at the given intervention time. Students who do not require intervention will be working on
enrichment activities or silent reading at this time.
These two lessons with both be individual and will not require whole group differentiation.
If the focal student needs differentiation within this lesson, I can give them a lower-level text if they are struggling
with the 6th grade level one. If the student still needs additional support, we can choral read the passage.
Assessment
For the student to demonstrate that they are making progress towards their two fluency goals in pace and
phrasing, I will give another fluency assessment after 6 weeks of intervention.
1

Minilesson One
1. Introduction (including setting
expectations and establishing
procedures and instructions)
2. Activate/Connect To Prior
Knowledge
3. Fluency Activity (including
modeled, guided, and
independent practice, as
needed)
Instruction
PHRASING MINILESSON
Opening:
• This lesson will take place at the small group table located in the classroom, and I will set the expectation
that during intervention time, this student will come over and get some one on one help.
• I will start the lesson by telling the student which skill we are going to be focusing on for that particular
day, and activating student’s prior knowledge by asking them what they know about the word phrasing.
o “Today we are going to be working on phrasing while you read, what do you think phrasing is?”
• I will then explain to the student what phrasing is, and how phrasing should look while reading.
o “Phrasing is a part of fluency, and it is how we put words together when they are in a sentence. We
pay attention to punctuation like commas, periods, exclamation marks, question marks, and they
all tell us when we need to pause while we are reading. When there is no punctuation, we should
be reading without taking pauses or breaths in between the words”.
• I will then model for the student what proper and improper phrasing sounds like while reading a few
sentences from a passage.
o To model inaccurate phrasing, I will make breaths in between words, and I will not stop when
there is punctuation.
o I will model proper phrasing by reading continuously in one breath until I see a comma or end of
sentence punctuation.
• After I have done some modeling, I will ask the student what the difference was between the first time I
read, and the second.
During:
• Once they have been introduced to the idea of phrasing and what it should sound like, I will explain
the phrasing activity to the student.
o “We are going to be working on activity to help you practice your phrasing as you read. This
activity is called, “Push Your Eyes”(Page 124, activity 4.17 in reading strategy book).
• During this activity, I will give the student a choice between three randomly selected grade level
reading passages to choose from
• Before they begin reading, I will remind them to read each sentence all I one breath, unless there is a
comma telling them to breath in the middle of the sentence.
• I will tell them to keep pushing their eyes to the end of the sentence, looking for the punctuation.
o I will remind them that the sentence does not end at the end of the row, but rather it end when
they see a period or end punctuation.
• For the first few sentences, I will have the student point out to me where they are going to pause in
the sentences before they read them.
• If the student reads a sentence without the proper phrasing, I will stop and have them reread it.
• If necessary, I will have the student echo read with me in order to model and practice the proper
phrasing.
2

Minilesson Two
1. Introduction (including setting
expectations and establishing
procedures and instructions)
2. Activate/Connect To Prior
Knowledge
3. Fluency Activity (including
modeled, guided, and
independent practice, as
needed)
• Some of the following are prompts I will use with the student:
o Push your eyes to the end of the sentence.
o Read that sentence in one breath.
o Did you take any breaths during that sentence?
o Where will you be taking a pause in this sentence?
• After we have read a few paragraphs together, the student will do some independent practice by
finishing the rest of the reading passage alone.
Closing:
• At the end of the lesson, I will ask the student what they found easy about this activity, and where they
might have had some difficulties.
• I will ask them to tell me what proper phrasing looks like (Ex: Not breaking up the sentences into chunks,
no pauses unless there is punctuation, and pushing your eyes to the punctuation).
• I will let the student take home the reading passage, and advise that they try to work on this at home as
well.
PACE MINILESSON
Opening:
• During intervention time, I will have the student come over to my small group table.
• To introduce the lesson, I will ask the student what they think the word pace means.
o They will share their ideas, and then I will tell them that pace describes the speed of something,
like when you are running, some people have a fast pace, and others might have a slower pace”
• I will then give the students the context about pace in reading fluency.
o “As you know, we have been working together on improving your fluency , and one of your goals
was to work on pacing while you read. A fluent reader reads at a consistent pace throughout their
reading unless the text indicates otherwise. This means that when we read, we shouldn’t be
reading really fast or really slow. We should be reading at a nice middle level.
• Next I will model for the students what pace should and shouldn’t look like when reading.
o I will read one sentence really fast, one at a correct rate, and one sentence very slowly.
o I will then have the student tell me which one sounded best, and why.
During:
• After I model for the student what pace should sound like, I will let them select one of the passages I have
provided, or an at grade level text of their choosing(library book).
• Once the student has selected their reading we will choral read the first paragraph together to ensure that
the student has a good idea of what it should sound like.
• I will then introduce the fluency phone.
o “This is a fluency phone. When you are reading, it is important to listen to yourself and monitor
and make corrections if how you are reading doesn’t sound right.”
o “Today, I want you to continue reading, and while you read make sure you are paying attention to
how fast or slow that you are reading”.
3

Instructional Materials,
Equipment and Technology
List equipment or technology that
needs to be available. Attach a copy
of ALL materials the teacher and
students will use during the lesson;
e.g., handouts, questions to answer,
overheads, PowerPoint slides,
worksheets.
• I will give the student an opportunity to talk into the fluency phone and see how it works.
• After that I will give the students some prompts to ask themselves as they read:
o Are you reading too fast or too slow?
o Is your pace consistent?
o Did that sentence sound correct? Or should you go back and reread?
• The student will then read by themselves for about 15 mins using the fluency phone, keeping those
prompts in mind.
Closing:
• After the student has finished reading, we will discuss their thoughts on the fluency phone.
• I will ask them if they noticed themselves speeding up or slowing down at all while they read.
o “Did the fluency phone help you notice when you were speeding up or slowing down while you
read? If so, how did it help you?”
o I would also ask “would you want to keep using this method?
• To conclude, I will remind the student that they can use this strategy at home as well if they wanted to
barrow the fluency phone, and they can even use it to listen to other fluency skills as well in addition to
pace.
Reading used for modeling:
Making Popcorn: https://www.henryanker.com/Language/Reading_Fluency/22_Making_Popcorn.pdf
6th Grade readings:
Dinosaurs: https://www.henryanker.com/Language/Reading_Fluency/06_Dinosaurs.pdf
New Pearls:
https://mrswarnerarlington.weebly.com/uploads/6/9/0/0/6900648/g6u5_new_pearls_student_passage_1.pdf
The new Puppy:
https://www.henryanker.com/Language/Reading_Fluency/28_The_New_Puppy.pdf
5th grade readings if needed for differentiation:
Maria gets better: https://www.henryanker.com/Language/Reading_Fluency/05_Maria_Gets_Better.pdf
The big wave:
https://mrswarnerarlington.weebly.com/uploads/6/9/0/0/6900648/g5u2_the_big_wave_student_passage_1.pdf
Websites used for the readings:
https://www.henryanker.com/FluencyMasters.html
https://mrswarnerarlington.weebly.com/fluency-practice.html
4
Other materials:
Highlighter
Fluency phone
Grade level book of the students choice

5
Dear Parents/Guardians,

We have recently seen some signs in the classroom that indicate that your child could benefit

from reading fluency intervention. In order to see which particular areas within fluency that Jane

needs support, I conducted a fluency assessment on September 28, 2023. When a fluency

assessment is taking place, the student is given a text at reading level, and while they are reading

this text the assessor is taking notes on the four parts within fluency: pace, smoothness, phrasing,

and expression and volume. Each category has a score of 1-4: one is below grade level, 2 is

approaching grade level, 3 is almost at grade level, and 4 is at grade level. After giving this

assessment to Jane, I have been able to determine her areas of strengths and weaknesses based on

how they read the given text. Overall, her score indicates that she is almost at grade level with

her fluency. Breaking down each fluency category individually will hopefully provide an

understanding of what each category means, as well as how Jane scored in each particular

category.

Starting off with pace, a student who is at grade level with fluency will be reading

consistently at a conversational pace as they read. So, while Jane was reading I was monitoring

how fast or slow she was reading throughout the passage. Throughout reading “The Amusement

Park”, I observed that Jane read at an inconsistent rate throughout the text. She started off

reading very fast in the beginning, and then after the second paragraph she began to slow down

again. She also began to read very quickly around 214-255, skipping “to see those” in the phrase

“It was kind of cool to see those small rides…” due to her speed. Because she was reading at a

conversational level some of the time in addition to the times when she read very quickly, I

scored her a three for pace on the rubric.

 The next category on the fluency assessment is smoothness. The goal for a fluent at grade

level reader is to be able to read smoothly without breaks in reading caused by difficulty

decoding the grade level vocabulary. Overall, Jane was able to read most words without having

to stop to break them apart, however, there were a few instances where she had difficulties

pronouncing the correct words. When attempting to read the word councilors(word 113), she

paused for a few seconds and had to break it apart into individual sounds. Another example of

where she had difficulty is at word 394 when she incorrectly read didn’t as couldn’t. This shows

me that she is having some trouble with her automatic word recognition. Due to the fact that

these breaks are only occurring occasionally, I scored your child a 3 for smoothness.

Looking at phrasing, the goal is for students to adhere to punctuation throughout the text,

as well as stresses and intonation. This means reading without run on sentences or mid-sentence

pausing for breaths. Jane showed a strength in this area by adhering to the punctuation provided

in the text. She knew that she needed to pause at commas, periods, and other forms of

punctuation. On the other hand, there was many examples where she would pause in between

words when there was no punctuation. One place this occurred in the reading was in the last

paragraph on the first page. The text read, “I was still going on lots of the little kid rides at Bugs

Bunny World, and Jane paused after the words still, going, on, lots, kid, and rides. Another

example of this kind of pausing happens in the third paragraph on page two. When reading the

phrase, “a group of about twenty people walk into a round room and stand against the curved

black rubber wall”, she paused after the words stand, against, the, curved, black, rubber, and

wall. Because Jane adhered to the punctuation, but still had choppy sentences, I scored her a

three on the rubric.

 The final category that is tested on the fluency assessment is expression and volume. For

expression and volume, we are looking for readers to be able to read with expression and

enthusiasm throughout the text, and the volume they read at should also correspond to what they

are reading as well. As she read the text, Jane remained at a good conversational level volume

that was fitting for this story. She did make attempts to include enthusiasm throughout the

reading as she read as well, but it was not consistent throughout. In the second sentence of the

reading it states, “I had been looking forward to this trip all weekend!”, but there was no attempt

to read with excitement. At the end of the second paragraph though, she did show excitement

after reading “…all the fast rides!”. The final sentence of the reading also ends in an exclamation

at the end of the phrase, “I sure am glad we went on that ride before lunch, and not after!”, and

no enthusiasm was included there. Jane shows that he is almost meeting those grade level

expectations for expression and volume, but because of the inconsistency showing expression,

she is not quite there yet. I gave her a score of three in this category.

Although Jane has received a score of 3 in all four of the categories, I have chosen two

that I think she required more intervention with. We have set goals to improve her fluency

through both pace and phrasing. My reasoning for choosing pace and phrasing is because as a

result of pace she is reading very quickly and is skipping words completely, and as a result of

phrasing issues there are significant pauses in between words. The goal for pace is to get Jane to

grade level and have her reading at a consistent conversational pace throughout her reading. Our

goal for Phrasing is to also push her up to grade level and have her reading adhering to

punctuation and only pause when indicated to by the text. I believe that if she is able to improve

her phrasing and pace, then her smoothness will also improve as a result, and she can then focus

on her expression.
 To help Jane achieve these two goals, I have chosen some pace and phrasing related

activities that we will be doing in the classroom to improve her fluency skills. The phrasing

activity that I will be having her practice in the classroom is called “Push Your Eyes”. Because

Jane struggles with breathing and talking breaks in the middle of reading sentences, we will be

working on her reading a sentence in one breath. I will give her a grade level text, and as she is

reading, I will remind her to push her eyes to the punctuation if there is a comma in the sentence,

or to the punctuation at the end of the sentence. I will model for her what the proper sentence

phrasing should sound like and have her practice reading like that. The pace activity that we will

be practicing is called “Fluency Phone for Feedback”. With this activity, students are given a

tube shaped like a phone that they can hold up to their ear and read into the other end. The

purpose of this is so that students can really hear themselves as they are reading and focus on

how they should sound while they read. I will model the proper pace for Jane, and then I will

have her practice reading using the fluency phone and have her pay close attention to her pace

while she reads.

There are also some activities that you can do at home that would help Jane improve her

phrasing and pace. One thing that you could do at home is record Jane as she is reading a grade

level text and have her listen back to how she is reading. Have her listen for mistakes that she

may have made like breathing in the middle of sentences without punctuation(phrasing), or

where she may have been reading too fast(pace). When students are able to self-assess and notice

the mistakes they are making, they will be more aware at trying to correct them. Another easy

way to work on all fluency skills at home would be to have Jane listen to audiobooks while

following along with the actual text. This way, while Jane is looking at the words of the text, she

can hear what the pace and phrasing are supposed to sounds like, and additionally she will also
be getting help with her other fluency skills as well by hearing smoothness and expression

modeled in the audio book too.

I am very hopeful that through practice, repetition, and modeling with the fluency

strategies, Jane will be able to meet her goal of improving her pacing and phrasing while she

reads. We will do another fluency assessment after around 6 weeks to determine if she is still in

need of intervention, and what our next steps of action will be. Our goal is to get Jane to be

reading fluently at grade level so that she can then focus on reading for comprehension. Please

feel free to reach out if you have any questions at all regarding the fluency assessment, Janes

goals, or our plan of action!

 Assessing and teaching Fluency Reflection

I found the process of assessing students’ fluency to be enjoyable. It allowed to me get to

know my student better and gave me an idea of how I can support her better in the classroom.

Before giving the assessment I was worried that I would not be able to keep up with marking

where the student paused, hesitated, or made mistakes while reading. After giving the

assessment, I realized that it actually wasn’t as difficult as I thought it was going to be. I started

off feeling a little overwhelmed making sure that I was taking proper notes, but as we progressed

through the passage it got a lot easier. I tried to keep my notes as simple as possible while the

student was reading, and then directly afterwards I elaborated so I didn’t forget. This seemed to

help me. In the figure I think that I would like to try recording a fluency assessment so that I can

see the difference between what I notice the first time, and what I notice when I listen to the

recording later. I also did not calculate my student’s word per minute this time around but would

be interested in including this next time.

I think that assessing oral reading fluency is very important. The best way to see where

students are at with their reading fluency is to pay close attention and listen to how they read. By

paying attention to the individual categories within fluency, pace, smoothness, phrasing, and

expression and volume, we can identify where our students need additional support. It allows us

to narrow down where they need the most support, but also helps us see the students’ strengths

within fluency. The results will help us elevate our students and get them closer to where they

need to be with intervention. Assessing frequently will allow us to track students growth and

progress.

After getting the results from the fluency assessment, it was very clear to me where my

student struggled the most, and also where they had some strengths. Based on where my student
needed the most support, I was able to create goals for them. My particular student needed some

additional support with phrasing and pace, so those became the goal for the two mini lessons. I

knew that these were going to be their goal because they had a tendency to take mid-sentence

breaths between each word in some phrases while reading, and they also were reading at an

inconsistent rate throughout. Once I knew my goals, it was very easy to find activities that

correlated to the goals by looking in the Reading Strategies textbook. Within the textbook it

walks through how the activity works, and I just went through and located one that addressed

phrasing(specifically mid-sentence pausing) and once that addressed pace. I made sure that the

mini lessons were engaging by offering the student a choice of the reading they were doing, and

they were also short so that the student did not feel overwhelmed. I also made sure that both of

the activities that I chose could be done independently at home for extra practice. Overall, I

found that the process of creating the mini lessons to be very meaningful in supporting the

students needs.