What is Fluency?
Reading fluency is the ability to read phrases and sentences smoothly and quickly, while understanding them as expressions of complete ideas.Reading fluency is described as complex and multifaceted, not simply defined as reading fast. There are three elements involved in reading fluency: accuracy, rate, and appropriate prosody or reading with expression. From the text Reading Research at Work, Stahl accepted the idea that reading fluency involved gaining power or automaticity over the surface- level processing of text- most notably word decoding.
Three Components of Fluency
Accuracy- Words read correct
Rate/ Speed- Words per minute "WPM"
Prosody- Phrasing, pausing, expression, inotonation
Rate/ Speed- Words per minute "WPM"
Prosody- Phrasing, pausing, expression, inotonation
The Fluency Song.... Cute Song about Reading Fluency!
How Do Students Develop Fluency?
Students become fluent by reading and rereading and rereading. We know that good readers read more than poor readers. Reading voraciously will provide, for struggling readers an avenue to catch up with their peers who are average achieving in vocabulary, sentence structure, and word structure, especially as they move into the intermediate and middle grades.
How Do We Get Struggling Readers To Read More?
Enticing struggling readers to read can present a real challenge for the classroom teacher. Reading practice that builds fluency must be oral, planned, and monitored. Several proven interventions, including many opportunities for repeated reading, there are 10 basic guidelines for providing planned and monitored oral reading fluency practice.
1. Use passages that are on the students instructional level but are a little bit challenging.
2. Practice several times each day for only a few minutes, increasing to longer periods of time.
3. Practice building automaticity through timed reading at their subskill level.
4. When measuring rate and accuracy of connected text, it's important to include a measure of comprehension("Tell me about what you just read")
5. Use decodable texts with struggling readers
6. Frequent , brief distributed practice spread out over a number of days is more effective than concentrated practice.
7. Model fluent oral reading using teacher read- alouds as part of repeated reading interventions.
8. Provide immediate feedback on words missed
9.Emphasize instruction designed to develop oral reading fluency as soon as students can read at least 60 words.
10. Let students chart their own progress. Charting is a strong motivator.
1. Use passages that are on the students instructional level but are a little bit challenging.
2. Practice several times each day for only a few minutes, increasing to longer periods of time.
3. Practice building automaticity through timed reading at their subskill level.
4. When measuring rate and accuracy of connected text, it's important to include a measure of comprehension("Tell me about what you just read")
5. Use decodable texts with struggling readers
6. Frequent , brief distributed practice spread out over a number of days is more effective than concentrated practice.
7. Model fluent oral reading using teacher read- alouds as part of repeated reading interventions.
8. Provide immediate feedback on words missed
9.Emphasize instruction designed to develop oral reading fluency as soon as students can read at least 60 words.
10. Let students chart their own progress. Charting is a strong motivator.
Sight Words
Sight Words are phonetically irregular and therefore must be memorized (said,what, one)- Hard to sound out, must be memorized.
High Frequency Words
High Frequency Words include the words that we see often in print (she, the, he, was, to)
Word Wall
Word Walls are a literacy tool used mostly in elementary school classrooms. As
part of a reading instruction program, teachers designate one wall (or part of a
wall) in the classroom for displaying commonly used vocabulary and/or sight
words in large print so that all students can read the words from their desks.
The students can then refer to the wall during literacy exercises. The large
visual nature of Word Walls helps students to naturally gain familiarity with
these high frequency words, as well as to gain reinforcement of vocabulary.
part of a reading instruction program, teachers designate one wall (or part of a
wall) in the classroom for displaying commonly used vocabulary and/or sight
words in large print so that all students can read the words from their desks.
The students can then refer to the wall during literacy exercises. The large
visual nature of Word Walls helps students to naturally gain familiarity with
these high frequency words, as well as to gain reinforcement of vocabulary.
Fluency Activities
Use multiple opportunities to orally spell or write words.
Rainbow Writing
Shaving Cream Tray/ Desk
Students practice spelling words on their desk using shaving cream. This can be messy, but is very engaging and interactice. Plus you will have clean desk at the end!
Wikki Stix
Salt Box!
Assessing Fluency
DIBELS and TPRI
Assessment should occur with passages on the reader's instructional reading level. (90-95 % accury)
Total # of words read:_____- errors:_____= __________ (Words Read Correctly)
Total # of words read correctly: ______x (multiply by) 60, divide by # of seconds to read passage:______= WCPM
Examples
1.) Total # words= 60 60-2= 58 x 60= 3,480
2 errors 3480/ 70= 49.71
1 min. 10 sec. 49.7
2.) Total # words= 260 260-3= 257 x 60=15,420
3 errors 15,420/83= 185.7831
1 min. 23 sec. 185.7
3.) Total # of words= 375 375-2= 373x 60= 22,380
2 errors 22,380/130= 172.15384
2 min. 10 sec. 172.15
Total # of words read:_____- errors:_____= __________ (Words Read Correctly)
Total # of words read correctly: ______x (multiply by) 60, divide by # of seconds to read passage:______= WCPM
Examples
1.) Total # words= 60 60-2= 58 x 60= 3,480
2 errors 3480/ 70= 49.71
1 min. 10 sec. 49.7
2.) Total # words= 260 260-3= 257 x 60=15,420
3 errors 15,420/83= 185.7831
1 min. 23 sec. 185.7
3.) Total # of words= 375 375-2= 373x 60= 22,380
2 errors 22,380/130= 172.15384
2 min. 10 sec. 172.15
What Does Research Say About Improving Fluency?
Once a student is a fluent reader and the demanding task of decoding is automatic, then the energy, effort, and focus of reading can be directed toward comprehension of the material being read. Reading fluency is a well- proven way to distinguish good readers from poor readers. Good readers tend to read accurately in a fluid, smooth, labored, word-by-word, disconnected manner, or too slowly to maintain appropriate levels of comprehension. Poor readers focus at the word level and have limited capacity or attention left to focus on comprehension. Torgesen and Hudson (2006) summarized the research with the following statement: "For students at all levels, but particularly for students at the beginning stages of learning to read- oral reading rate is strongly correlated with students ability to comprehend both simple and complex." Although researchers have agreed that fluency is critical to solid, proficient reading success, fluency is not the only reading skill of instructional focus. Decoding and recognizing words automatically, background knowledge, and vocabulary all play important roles in fluency and ultimately in comprehension. Pikulski and Chard stressed the critical connection between fluency and comprehension: "While fluency in and of itself is not sufficient to ensure high levels of reading achievement, fluency is absolutely necessary for that achievement because it depends upon and typically reflects comprehension" (2005) Information from Next Steps in Literacy Instruction