Movenote for Fluency Self-Assessment

Reading fluency is critical for reading success and is a component of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  Students should have many opportunities to hear fluent reading through teacher-led read alouds, as well as, opportunities to practice for the development of greater fluency.  Fortunately resources abound for how to accomplish this task that can be found on the Internet (such as Scholastic.com and ReadingRockets.org).  Repeated readings, partner reading, and Reader's Theater all make their way into my third-grade class at various points in the year.

The third-grade Expeditionary Learning Module 1 Unit 2 focuses on developing fluency using the text Thank You, Mr. Falker as an introduction.  Later, students are also provided texts on their reading levels to practice.  When it came time for this lesson, I wondered how I could make my assessment of their fluency easier and how the students could self-assess their own fluency.

Lately, I have been experimenting with web-based programs and Chrome apps for my students to use for presenting knowledge and creating tutorials. Last year,  I used Movenote with a group of students during a Math lesson.  The students were helping a local yoga instructor with ways she could arrange 24 yoga mats in equal rows in her studio.  One of the project requirements was that they had to find a way to communicate their solution to her.  That presentation can be found here.  Movenote is easy to use and works seamlessly with Google Slides.

Once I decided to use Movenote as a way to record my students' oral fluency, the set up was easy.  I found passages from Readinga-z.com that were on each child's independent reading levels. Then I took screen shots of the texts and put each picture in separate Google Slides files. I shared the file with the specific students for which that text was appropriate (I would love to use Doctopus for this in the future).

First thing in the morning I showed a few students the steps the class would need to follow when we did the EL lesson later. I have learned to capitalize on my students' helpfulness and they provide the much needed assistance because I am the only teacher in the room.  This what they did:

1. Add the fluency Google slide to students' Drive accounts.
2. Download Movenote for Education from the Chrome Store.
3. Agree to give Movenote access to Google accounts.
4. Give permission for Movenote to use the web cam and microphone (make sure to agree to the permission request that pops up at the top by the address bar).
5. Click on the plus sign to choose the Google slide you want to use.  
6. Press record!
7. When you are done click Save and Preview... it is that easy!

My students emailed me the Movenote link and I made a Google Sheet of the links for my class. 

Students later listened to their reading and self-assessed their reading using a fluency rating sheet I got from Scholastic.  After having time to practice over the next two days, students rerecorded themselves. This week we will watch both and make comparisons. After making comparisons, we will set goals and continue reading with partners.