Video: Introducing Fluency Ladders/Continuous Text during Small Group Instruction

One of my favorite days—introducing fluency ladders and continuous text! Why? Because even though the first one is a bit challenging for the students and thus a bit frustrating for me (and them), it is the beginning of using taught high frequency words/heart words and the beginning of learning to read sentences. In other words, it’s the beginning of REAL READING!

If you’ve watched any of my recent whole group writing videos or seen my lesson plans for whole group writing, you’ll notice the connection—there are “words we know” and “words for which we need to listen to the sounds.”

We do fluency ladders/continuous text every Wednesday during small group instruction/morning centers for the rest of the school year.

The first fluency ladder. I have introduced I, see, the, and a and about a third of the class can read CVC words.

This is a mid-year fluency ladder/continuous text. Notice I’m calling it Continuous Text 3 Little Pigs 2. The 2 on the end indicates that there are three versions of the 3 Little Pigs continuous text—an easy one, a medium one, and a hard one. The Three Little Pigs is one of our weekly themes so it’s worth it to me to make three versions of this continuous text so all of my students can read about the three little pigs and further their comprehension by doing so.

Continuous Text Farm 3 indicates that there are three different levels of continuous text with the farm theme. This is for my advanced readers at the end of the year. There is a medium version and an easy version as well.

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As usual, half of my video is me talking to you the teachers about the ins and outs of introducing the use of fluency ladders/continuous texts and half is me teaching my real live students. I think it’s the perfect combination for professional development. If you are interested in using these fluency ladders/continuous texts, please either 1) email me and ask me for the link to the folder that houses all of them, 2) upgrade to a paid subscription so you can email me and ask me for them, or 3) ask me if I will please make some fluency ladders/continuous texts about certain subjects or that include certain high frequency words that you need. Seriously, I’ll whip them up for you; that’s what I do.

missbusybeekindergarten@gmail.com

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Get on board with fluency ladders/continuous texts! It’s a cheap and (much more) effective alternative to buying expensive decodable books!

Randee