Fluency: Reading Better and Faster

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Fluency Reading Better and Faster

• Presented by Cherry Carl

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When children are allowed to reread familiar
material, they are being allowed to learn to be
readers, to read in ways which draw on all their
language resources and knowledge of the world, to
put this very complex recall and sequencing
behavior into a fluent rendering of the text.
The orchestration of these complex behaviors
cannot be achieved on a hard book.Clay, M.
(1991) Becoming Literate The construction of
inner control (p. 184)
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Why Reading Fluency?

• A fluent reader decodes text automatically, and
  therefore can devote his /her attention to
  comprehending what is read.
• Laberge Samuels

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• Achieving fluency is recognized as an important
  aspect of proficient reading, but it remains a
  neglected goal of reading instruction.
• Richard Allington

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• With greater fluency, readers can concentrate on
  comprehending what they read, develop greater
• self-confidence, and enjoy reading more.
• Gillet Temple

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• If we provide diverse learners with the tools and
  strategies for achieving automatic and fluent
  word recognition, we increase their chances for
  successful reading experiences.
• Chard, Simmons, Kameenui

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Why Be Concerned?

• Fluency may be almost a necessary condition for
  good comprehension and enjoyable reading
  experiences.
• Source Nathan and Stanovich

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Fluency Awareness

• While many teachers do activities that develop
  fluency, it is not often a focus of literacy
  lessons.
• Reading instruction usually focuses on decoding
  and comprehension.
• Without intervention, somechildren fall further
  andfurther behind in school.

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What is Reading Fluency?

• Fluency is often defined as the rate (words per
  minute)and accuracy (number of words correctly
  identified) with which students perform reading
  tasks.
• Accurate reading has few or no omissions,
  mispronunciations, substitutions,insertions or
  reversals of word order.

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What is Reading Fluency? (cont.)

• An additional dimension to fluency is known as
  prosody, or the rhythms and tones of spoken
  language. Students who read with expression are
  able to segment text into meaningful units,
  marking phrase and sentenceboundaries with
  pauses, vowel lengthening and changes in
  pitchand emphasis.

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Foundation for Fluency

• A solid base of phonological knowledge
• Automatic word recognition
• The ability to apply phonic, morphemic, and
  contextual analysis skills to recognize
  unfamiliar words
• The ability to segment text into meaningful
  syntactic chunks
• Extensive practice with materialsthat are easy
  to read

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Who Is At Risk?

• By second grade, fluent reading is generally
  expected, yet a great deal of foundation building
  must occur in order to make it happen.
• Students in the upper grades who readaloud word
  by word or with littleattention to commas or
  periodsrequire intervention.

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Recognizing At-Risk Readers

• At-Risk Readers
• sound halting when they read
• are word focused
• ignore punctuation
• have no expression
• have limited or no comprehension

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What Are the Consequences?

• Since school reading tasks are difficult, at-risk
  students often fail to complete their work.
• At-risk students lose interest in school since
  reading is prerequisite for success.
• At-risk students never or rarely readfor
  pleasure.
• The lack of progress impacts vocabularyknowledge
  and general learning.
• Many at-risk students developself-esteem issues
  and lackconfidence.

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Effective Instructional Practices

• Repeated oral reading students read a passage
  orally several times, with explicit guidance and
  feedback from a fluent reader and
• Independent silent readingstudents read
  extensively on their own, both inand out of the
  classroom, withminimal guidance and feedback.
• Teacher modeling
• Practice, practice, practice!

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Oral Reading Techniques

• Taking Turns
• Preread, Review and Reread
• Choral Reading
• Plays
• Relaxed Paired Reading
• Puppet Plays
• Cross-Age or Buddy Reading
• Audio Tape

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More Oral Reading Techniques

• The Neurological-Impress Method
• Dyad Reading
• Group-Assisted Reading
• Echo Reading or Imitative Reading
• Repeated Readings
• Paired Repeated Reading
• Precision Reading
• Readers Theater
• Shared Book Experience

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Even More Oral Reading Techniques

• Simultaneous Oral Reading
• Alternate Oral Reading (my turn, your turn)
• Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (FORI)
• Peer Assisted Learning (PALS)
• Tape Assisted Reading
• Power Reading
• Poetry Parties

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Measuring Growth in Fluency

• One of the best ways to assess student fluency is
  to simply listen to them read. Teachers need to
  trust their ears many have been listening to
  children read for years and they know what good
  reading sounds like.
• For more formal assessments, try a Qualitative
  Rubric and a one-minuteReading Fluency
  Probe.

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Norms for Reading Fluency
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Looking at California Standards

• First Grade
• Students understand the basic features of
  reading. They select letter patterns and know how
  to translate them into spoken language by using
  phonics, syllabication,and word parts. They
  apply this knowledgeto achieve fluent oral and
  silent reading.
• 1.16 Read aloud with fluencyin a manner that
  sounds likenatural speech.

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Looking at California Standards

• Second grade
• Students understand the basic features of
  reading. They select letter patterns and know how
  to translate them into spoken language by using
  phonics, syllabication, and word parts. They
  apply this knowledge to achieve fluent oral and
  silent reading.
• 1.6 Read aloud fluently and accuratelyand with
  appropriate intonationand expression.

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Looking at California Standards

• Third Grade
• Students understand the basic features of
  reading. They select letter patterns and know how
  to translate them into spoken language by using
  phonics, syllabication, and word parts. They
  apply this knowledgeto achieve fluent oral and
  silent reading.
• 1.3 Read aloud narrative and expositorytext
  fluently and accurately and withappropriate
  pacing, intonation,and expression.

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Readers Theater Resources

• Plays Around the Year, by Liza Charlesworth
  (Scholastic, 1994). A year's worth of seasonal
  plays suitable for kids in grades 13. 
• Reader's Theatre for Beginning Readers, by
  Suzanne Barchers (Teachers Ideas Press,
  1993).Scripts based on folktales and fables.

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More Readers Theater Resources

• Reader's Theater Scripts of the
  Monthwww.lisablau.comA complete archive,
  available for free downloads. 
• The Reading Ladywww.readinglady.comA number of
  free scripts ( manybased on popular books)
  available in Microsoft Word and Adobe formats.

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References and Resources

• Building Fluency Lessons and Strategies for
  Reading Success by Wiley Blevins, Scholastic,
  2002.
• The Fluent Reader Oral Reading Strategies for
  Building Word Recognition, Fluency, and
  ComprehensionTimothy V. Raskinski, Scholastic.
  2003

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More References and Resources

• From Phonics to Fluency Effective Teaching of
  Decoding and Reading Fluency in the Elementary
  School. by Timothy V. Raskinski, Allyn Bacon,
  2000.

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The hard facts about fluency

• Children vary in the amount of practice that is
  required for fluency and automaticity in reading
  to occur. Some youngsters can read a word only
  once to recognize it again with greater speed
  others need 20 or more exposures. The average
  child needs between fourand 14 exposures to
  automatize the recognition of a new word.
• G. Reid Lyon (1997)