Sasha from theautismhelper.com shows how to run fluency stations that go beyond sight words. Three setups: rapid labeling of word types, quick personal-information recall, and state-capital pairs. Students race against a timer, earn points per correct answer, and get immediate error correction.
Hi, this is Sasha from theautismhelper.com, and this is a video tutorial of additional fluency timings. So I think when we think of fluency, we always think of sight words, addition, subtraction, math facts, things like that. But there's really so many areas you can use fluency, so I want to share some ways that I'm using fluency with my students that is a little bit non-traditional. So a few things that we've recently been working on, which I'm loving are noun, verbs, and adjectives, personal information, and state and state capitals. And we're doing these as fluency timings. So I'm going to show some of the ways we use these fluency timings in our classroom. So the first one I'm going to show is the noun, verb, and adjective. This is something we've been working on quite a lot, so these skills are really mastered. I just want to make sure that my students maintain this mastery but are also able to do this skill quickly. So I want the second they see a word not to think about the rules of a noun, the rules of an adjective. I want them to know immediately. So that's what this fluency station is perfect for, is for making sure that mastered skills are functional and quickly can be said. So we made a set, I made a set of all different nouns, verbs, and adjectives. So just all different ones, a big set of them, so they're going to be responding to multiple exemplars. Then I had them write on the back with pencil whether they were noun, verbs, and adjectives. This is a perfect lesson. I was going to write it myself, but it's way better to have them do it and then be engaging in the work. So I'll show how this is done. You're gonna have to teach your students to start to not read the word. You want them to say noun, verb, or adjective, and when they see it, not say, "Read verb." You want them to just say verb because you want them to do it as quickly as they can and get in as many opportunities during the allotted timing. So I'm gonna get started. All right, once we do our timing, you're gonna get 2 points, okay? So you can work it towards iPad or computer.
Okay.
Which one? iPad? Great. Okay, so I want you to say noun, verb, or adjective as quickly as you can and don't stop till the timer goes off. Ready?
Verb. Noun. Noun. Adjective. Uh, adjective.
Noun.
Noun. Adjective. Adjective.
Noun. Noun.
Noun. Noun.
Great job! Here's your point. So quickly count up the numbers and put it in your data sheet. And take this opportunity, if your student is someone that self-competition is successful, to show them their numbers. To some kids, really, it's motivating to see their numbers going up. Like, "Oh, great job! Look, you got 10 today and yesterday you got 9. Really awesome!" And then take the opportunity to immediately work on the errors once you're done. Alright, so what's bark?
A noun.
It's a verb, remember? Something we can do. A verb. Adjective. Good! Bolden, adjective. So let's practice again.
Adjective. Verb.
Great! I do a little bit more error correction from that, but you get the idea. I just want to be able to see them do it independently once they're done. So the next one I'm going to share is the personal information one. I am loving this one because these are questions that our students are going to see 1,000 times in their life. They're gonna have to write age for name, last name, city on a form where someone's going to ask them, so I want them to be responding immediately. So I made a list, I'll put this on the website, of all different kinds of personal information that I want them to be responding to. So I did things like first name, last name, birthday, address, phone number, country, so all different kinds of things that they should be seeing that prompt and responding immediately with their first name. Alright, so you're going to get another point once you're done, okay? You're doing great. So We're going to say the answer to the question and not the question right when you see it, as fast as you can. You ready?
Yes. Sarah.
11. Chicago.
6th grade. Mr. Brown. 847-698-7402. Obama.
Michigan.
Ronald Mango. Uh, Swift.
Awesome! You got no errors! You get an extra point for that. Take the opportunity to really reinforce when your students do have no errors or have a really high fluency. Give an extra point, give an extra candy, because you really want to make this powerful. Cut them up and add it to your data sheet. So this is really a successful one. It's been going so well for my students. I've seen immediate results on them responding to things like country, city, continent. They're getting really confused with, so this has been really helpful. The last one that we're doing is pretty tricky. So we're doing states and capitals. This is something that a few of my students are working on in the inclusion setting, so I want them to be really, really fluent with it, and then they can kind of show off when they go to inclusion. So I just made a set that says the state on one side and the capital on the other. So again, you're teaching your student to not just read the words, they're responding with different information. Once your child can do this, it opens it up to so many opportunities. You can be doing a fluency timing for vocabulary definitions, for working on synonyms and antonyms, for all kinds of skills like that once they are responding without just reading the word. Alright, so I'm going to show you some states and I would like you to say the capital as fast as you can. When you're done, you're going to get a point. You ready?
Yes. Springfield.
Annapolis.
Uh, I don't know. Minneapolis.
Sacramento.
Jackson. Baton Rouge.
Denver. Great, you got 5, that's awesome. So again, give them the prompts, go through the error correction, and really give them the opportunity. But I love thinking outside the box. I think when we think about fluency, it's traditionally really just flashcards of sight words and knockbacks, but really pushing the boundary on Getting our kids to respond to different things in a fast way has been so helpful for my students. And this is a station that is run so easily and efficiently by a paraprofessional. So it's a great way to add more to it. Um, this was a video tutorial of different fluency station ideas from theautismhelper.com.
