The author says that many fluent readers do not comprehend what they read. Disfluency causes readers to become self-conscious of their reading and learn to avoid reading in public. I see this a lot in the classroom especially with teachers who popcorn read. The children shrink in their seats and try to not to be noticed. Poor instruction leads to disfluent reading. This sentence says a lot to me. As teachers we must know the content, students and use a variety of instructional methods. This chapter defines fluency and emphasizes its importance in comprehension. There are 4 main components of fluency: rate, accuracy, prosody, comprehension and 4 subskills: phonological, word identification, word analysis and semantic. A lack in any of these skill areas will result in reading difficulty. The author reminds us to be conscious of our actions when working with struggling readers. Teachers should not give unknown words or confirmation after every word but allow the students to skip the unknown word and come back to it later or guide the students in using context clues when needed. Expressive reading is mentioned in this chapter, I love to watch students do this! I was especially interested in the section on comprehension since this will probably be my unit focus. I was surprised to learn that 1/3 of fluent readers struggle with comprehension. This percentage is higher than I would have guessed. The list of fluency instruction steps for ELL’s was informative. I also like that the activities give step by step details. Audio books would be great for English Language Learners since they have the Spanish button option. I have seen some of these activities in the classroom but would love to have the opportunity to use the Read-Along Radio Dramas. I think this would be fun and really great for helping students visualize.
I can completely agree with you, I have seen the students who struggle with reading shrink in their seats when they are suppose to read. In my PSR classes and in the older grades when I substitute, we popcorn read, but I let the students who want to read raise their hand and then let the one who finishes reading pick from the students who have their hands raised. I think that it is better for those that struggle to be able to follow along and listen to the other readers.
I still see kids just try to hide when the teacher asks for volunteers to read from the text in high school biology class. One girl that sits with me always says "I don't have to read do I? Please tell me I don't." If she thinks she's going to have to read she will ask to leave and go to the restroom and the teacher always lets her and THAT frustrates me because she ends up missing out on discussion. Now that she is sitting WITH me in class. I reassure her she does not have to read and I will not allow her to leave during lecture or reading because I want her to hear what is being discussed. I hate it that kids get so worried about the possibility of reading aloud that it causes them to not focus on the lesson. When at all possible, I take "my" kids out and the kids can take turns reading in our small group, which they don't mind. Then I spend a lot of time answering questions and elaborating on the text.
This chapter focuses on the fact the fluency is NOT just the ability to spit out words correctly or quickly. Instead, fluency is a combination of correct words, an appropriate speed, comprehension, and the new catch-phrase I am hearing all over my school building: prosody. Prosody is the ability to recognize phrasing within each sentence, such as "Once upon a time," being read together, instead of 4 individual words. This chapter also reiterates what we've heard before, give students materials they can be successful with and build them up from there! Teach them strategies not mere skills (definitely something I heard a lot with Dr. Walizer in RLA), and support these students in every way possible! Some of the activities suggested are ones I've heard in previous classes as well as from Mrs. Stoppel and include Echo reading, flash cards, repeated readings, readers theater, and choral reading. I know that I will be using a lot of bits and pieces from this section in my own lesson plans this semester.
This chapter about fluency did contain a lot of information we have heard from Dr. Walizer in the past. Being able to have different strategies for each student to help with their fluency will help the teacher and student know what will work best for them. This chapter is full of great strategies and activities for teachers to use with their students.
This chapter was a review of things from previous classes and/or books. This makes me see that these are universal themes and one that I should take to heart. I agree that the activities in this chapter are going to be a great resource for planning my lessons
We have heard this information several times, but it is nice to keep it fresh in my mind. There is so much to know and why we should know it that hearing it over will only help me retain it better. I liked the activities at the end, they're several I have seen and several I want to try in my small group.
Fluency is the ability to read the written word, and comprehend what is being read. Teaching fluency is about understanding how children learn by diagnosing they’re reading and using skills to correct their deficiencies. Atomicity has four sub skills if a child lacks any or all of the sub skills then the farther down the reading scale they will fall. Students are graded on the rate or words per minute they can read. Automaticity, the better a student comprehends a word and used punctuation; the more a student can focus on comprehension of the material. Recognition of phrases or porosity is also a component of fluency. Correct punctuation also is important to comprehension because it gives proper meaning to phrases and sentences. A teacher must assess the reading abilities of their students then use proper techniques to help the children that are struggling. Without properly diagnosing the problem the child will fall farther behind. I have a student who is able to read 162 WPM, she is suppose to be at 150, however, she does not use expression or punctuation when reading. Also when I ask what the passage is about, she cannot tell me anything. This is something we are working on. Any suggestions??
Mary, Good summary of fluency. Assessing students shows us strengths and weaknesses of our students. It seems as though that student is fluent but not accurate on the fluency and accuracy score sheet. It sounds like she needs to work on reading at an appropriate rate and paying attention to punctuation. It might be fun to have your student do a "radio read". This could help her with expression etc. Kara
Radio read is a good idea, I am using readers theater with this group, and she loves it. She really acts it out and wants to keep going over it. I think I will throw in a radio read in the next few weeks. Thanks.
An idea I have his making a character bag. A character bag is when you write down different characters or expressions to read with. With younger students expressions are mostly used, but with my 4th grade students, I am making up characters. I think this is a fun way to have them show expression when reading. Good summary of fluency, you hit all the major points!
It seems that so far this semester that fluency is the key word. Without it any reader is lost. Man I swing from feeling like I can help students with reading to feeling like OMG how do I figure this out for all of them!
I loved the first sentence in this chapter, "fluency, the ability to rad with automatic word recognition, expression, and meaning." Fluency is all about comprehending what has just been read and not just knowing the words. I was a student who had huge problems comprehending what I had just read, even though I would know every word on the pages I just read. There is more to fluency, then just comprehending, it is also about having a good pace when reading, as well as use the punctuation correctly. This chapter does a great job breaking down how to become a fluent reader and by showing us the fluency norms for the grades first through eight. This chapter as has a lot of great activities for teachers to use when working on fluency in the classroom. These activities and strategies seem great and are able to start using in kindergarten to help with fluency at an early age.
I believe after reading this far in our text that many people that assess struggling readers make the erroneous assumption that just because a reader reads with a good fluency RATE, that they are excelling at all the other components of fluency, especially comprehension. This is obviously not the case. Many of the assessments and intervention activities will allow us as educators to determine where the students are struggling and help them improve in those areas. Fluency is just one area in the big 5 that will contribute to the ultimate goal which is comprehension.
Chapter 10 of the text discussed fluency. Fluency is made up of four components, rate, automaticity/accuracy, phrasing/prosody, and comprehension. There are also four sub skills needed before fluency can occur. Those are phonological, word identification, word analysis, and semantics. Fluency and comprehension go hand in hand. Some students are able to read fluently, but do not comprehend. This chapter was very helpful in terms of helping student in tutoring sessions. My students need help with sight words and knowing those sight words will help with their fluency. I also like how it states that students need to know how to phrase words for better comprehension instead of reading word by word. The eight principles to guide fluent reading covers modeling fluent reading and helping students achieve it. I think the most beneficial sentence from the text is that readers that struggle are stopped when they are struggling and asked to sound out the word, while more fluent readers are not interrupted and correct at the end of the sentence instead of during the sentence. They are also told to sound out the word. When sounding out each letter, it is harder to remember all those sounds to put them together when the word is long. I am guilty of both of those things, especially with my daughter who is learning to read now. Now, I am aware that this is not helping her nor older students. The activities at the end of the chapter will be very helpful during tutoring. I am excited to try out the rhythm walks.
I found the part about stopping readers interesting and convicting. I thought back to when I've listened to students read as a sub, and I've always been quick to just give them the word when they've struggled. Rather, it would be so much better to have them read to the end of the sentence and go back to use the context to figure out the word. This would help with their comprehension as they have to figure it out. I hope to remember to use this in tutoring sessions and when subbing!
I thought the comparison to a struggling reader and a fluent reader was interesting when you are trying to help them out with errors they made. I am finding that it is hard at times to not just give the words so they can move on and hopefully capture more comprehension from what they are reading. Instead, you should have them finish the sentence, then go back and fix the errors and repeat the sentence. In the end, that should help all students with fluency and comprehension if you use the techniques that helps them make all phrases and words automatic. An interesting concept that I want to use and see the outcomes first hand.
Fluency is described as the ease with which we read and includes grouping or phrasing of words through intonation, stress and pauses; syntax; and expressiveness to show a sense of feeling, anticipation or characterization. Students who are at level 3 or 4 usually are considered to be fluent. There are four main components of fluency: rate, automaticity, prosody and comprehension. There are also sublevels of fluency that include phonological, word identification, word analysis and semantic.
A slow reading rate usually indicates an inefficient reader. Rate and fluency depend on automaticity: accuracy of word recognition, interpreting punctuation and reading rate. If a reader spends too much time struggling to recognize a word, they lose the purpose of reading, which is to take something from the reading. There are strategies to enhance fluency that can be used for individual students or in small groups. What research has shown is that students need to hear fluent reading and have directed instruction that includes feedback. They need support while reading and can benefit from rereading to increase rate, accuracy, phrasing and comprehension. It’s better to have students read easier materials so they can really work on that fluency. And I remember Dr. Walizer saying NEVER EVER EVER put a kid on the spot to do a cold read aloud in front of peers. The last thing we want is for them to feel embarrassed!
Keeping track of student progress is important for monitoring fluency. This can be done through checklists, running records of miscue analysis and rubrics. There are other more formal approaches such as diagnostic reading tests, oral reading tests, analysis of reading difficulty, diagnostic reading scales, reading mastery tests and a few others. These formal assessments only assess rate and accuracy though whereas the informal assessments can monitor rate, automaticity, prosody and comprehension.
The strategies listed at the end of the chapter give me ways I can integrate within during my tutoring sessions through echo reading, flashcards, dyad reading, repeated reading, reader’s theater, choral reading and rhythm walks.
I found this chapter fascinating to read, as it gave me new things to think about when considering the fluency of a student's reading. Fluency is more than just reading through a passage quickly. It involves reading in phrases, watching the punctuation, and putting expression into the reading. While at first thought they don't seem to go together, comprehension is also an important part of fluency. The book stated that when fluency increases, comprehension increases, and the reverse is also true. They suggested that to teach fluency, teachers need to use specific instruction for teaching students how to read using phrases. Using less difficult books that students can read easily helps when teaching students fluency. Formal or informal assessments can be used to keep track of students' progress with their fluency.
I greatly appreciated all the ideas at the end of the book and am anxious to try some of them with my tutoring group. There were some good websites to find passages to use for Readers Theater, so I am looking forward to including those in some sessions. I can see this as being a good way for students to learn from other fluent readers. One of the boys in my group reads very rapidly, but doesn't always comprehend what he has read. So I want to try this to help him with his reading rate.
As I already mentioned, I discovered that fluency is more than the rate of speed at which one reads. It involves so much more! I remember Mrs. Stoppel saying in a video that fluency and comprehension were very much connected, and this text supports that. It was interesting to read that they influence each other, and I can certainly see how a disfluent reader is not going to comprehend the text very well.
It was interesting to read this chapter soon after I read a chapter in another textbook about learning disabilities and students who struggle with reading. These students often struggle with fluency because of a variety of reasons, but this, in turn, affects their comprehension. A student can't comprehend something they can't read very well. This chapter made me realize the importance of fluency and working with our students to make sure they master it.
I also began to realize that comprehension may not be my student’s biggest issue, it could be fluency. I have a student who reads very well, she is very articulate, but she doesn’t seem to remember all the details of what she has read. Her words per minute are about where they should be for her age, and she doesn’t seem to struggle with very many words, but now after having read this chapter I am thinking that maybe she is reading too fast, that she needs to slow down a bit so she can comprehend the material better.
Fluency is the phrasing of words, the adherence to author’s syntax and the expressiveness of the reader. In my RLAs internship I seen many students read as fast as they could and they did well and made it through the entire text, but they were very monotone, and were not able to pass the comprehension test at the end of the reading. I have also seen students stutter, and go read slow through a passage. Those students were also very monotone and did not pass the comprehension test. I have also seen students read at a good rate, change their voice a little for each character, pause at a comma, raise their voice for a question, etc. Those students were fluent readers and could pass a comprehension test at the end. I liked figure 10.2 on page 260. I will keep this in my classroom and refer back to it if I believe I have a disfluent reader in my room. Figure 10.3 is helpful as well. The 8 steps to what should guide fluency instruction are very helpful. It was nice to see what a teacher can do to help students be more fluent readers. In this book we have learned things we can teach students to do to be more successful but this section tells the teachers what we can do to be more successful at helping our students. The strategies and activities section are full of helpful games and reading strategies. I have heard of most of these strategies, but some were new and will be helpful to me now and in the future.
Fluency was the topic of chapter 10 in the text. Fluency is that part of reading that helps the reader or audience feel what is being read. Fluency is all about reading at the proper speed, using punctuation the correct way, emphasizing at the right times. Another major point of reading fluently is the effect it has on comprehension. The text lists traits of fluent readers which include the knowledge of language, appropriate rate, slowing down to solve problems, automatic word recognition and analysis skills, intonation to find meaning, use of punctuation, knowledge of story structure, and able to reproduce the natural phrasing. In the text we also find the traits of disfluent readers which include lack of language skills, word by word reading, reading overly fast, poor sight word bank, no analysis skills or expression, ignore punctuation, difficulties with prior knowledge of story structure, and unable to phrase text the correct way. Thus far in my tutoring sessions I have seen some positive and negative aspects of the students reading. I am beginning to believe that fluency is the main issue for one of my students, while the other has comprehension deficiency, but I am wondering if it has anything to do with fluency. During my assessments I found that many of the miscues were due to speeding through the reading, adding words or skipping over words that were not difficult. One of the things that I saw in the text that I think would be a great tool would be the retrospective miscue analysis. I want to use this tool within the next couple of weeks, and have the students assess themselves through this strategy. I think that this could be a valuable tool for those of us who have students with fluency issues. The text also gives us many other activities that can help with fluency issues that I also think will benefit my students.
I have only made it through one assessment session, thus I have one more to go, but I also can see where the retro miscue analysis would be helpful for the kids. By listening to themselves, and also paying attention to their expression and phrasing, they will likely pick up on their mistakes and hence, make improvements the next time through. Maybe all the snow interfering with my tutoring was a blessing so I could read more about fluency and word identification before moving forward.
The more I read this book, the more I like it. It is extremely helpful in breaking down the topic into subsections and is very informative. The great thing is that it gives us tools in the form of activities and strategies that help with what we've just learned. By learning a new strategy, then learning how to diagnose it through specific assessment, and then attack it with a designated activity, is really great to have. I enjoyed this chapter as a continuing series throught the "Big 5". Understanding fluency is to realize that it is much more than being able to read at a specific rate. Rate is not everything, but it is important to the student being able to comprehend. Our text also states that comprehension is the primary goal to reading. I find this to be very true, because comprehension (understanding what we've just read) is the only thing that matters in the end. I loved how the text broke down fluency into the four components of automaticity, rate, prosody (phrasing), and comprehension. By seeing each element on its own, and understanding how it relates to the other components is really important. For example, in automaticity, being able to break down words into chunks or syllables helps keep a students fluency rate up which in turn allows them to spend more cognative energy in discerning the text, or comprehending. The example of recognizing the word transportation through syllables of trans port ta tion instead of sounding it out letter by letter takes much less time and provides for fluency rate. I really like the idea of teaching through prosody or phrasing (why don't we just call it phrasing?) because I feel that it helps students get away from the one word monotone reading that many struggling readers exhibit. I also feel that by understanding punctuation and expressive reading really helps the student to understand the context of what they are reading and it brings the story alive as opposed to being just words that the student is reciting. This can also help to engage the student more into the story. Once again, there are some great activities to promote growth in these fluency components in the latter part of the chapter. Some of my favorites include echo reading because the teacher models first and expects the child to mimic their rate and intonation. I also like the Dyad reading because once a reader finishes reading for their parnter, they need to summarize what they read and the listener can add to what the reader didn't mention. This goes a long way in aiding comprehension as well. Again, I believe this text will serve as a great resource for my classroom in the future. Once question that comes to mind is, "Does it ever feel overwhelming to try and diagnose (assess) and work with so many kids on so many different levels?" I see so many strategies in all my different methods courses, I wonder how anybody remembers them all.? I guess constant referencing back to our texts!
Robert, the question you asked is the overall challenge of being an effective teacher, at least I think. You're right though, sometimes it seems next to impossible to manage, identify and then provide engaging instruction to students at so many instructional levels. It has to be exhausting!! However, I think that is why guided reading and guided reading groups are becoming popular in so many classrooms, or at least from the classrooms I have been in. For a brief moment in the classroom, the teacher gets to engage with a small group of students at (hopefully) the same reading level. However, this challenging question also brings up the importance of parental involvement. It's important to at least try (even if parents are unwilling to participate) to keep parents informed and engaged in their child's learning experiences, because they may actually be the individual that can provide their child with the best one on one instructional support.
Robert, I agree with you the more we read this book the more I like it. I really appreciate the activities at the end of the chapters. They are written well so that I can visualize exactly what they mean. My book is filled with post it note tabs of all the activities that I like. I guess that is how I would answer your question is that we have all these resources to use and we will have colleagues to help guide us. I'm sure that first year or two is very overwhelming, but I feel like I have a lot of tools in my tool belt at this point.
Chapter 10 focused on the foundational skill-fluency. Fluency is an essential skill in reading as it determines reading levels for both adults and children. A fluent reader is someone that recognizes words automatically and adheres properly to punctuation and finally uses appropriate expression and inflection. There are four components that make up fluency; rate, automaticity, prosody and comprehension. Rate is essential to fluency, as a slow rate is indicative of an inefficient reader. Additionally, often time’s fluency is solely assessed or measured by WPM. There are two types of rates that are determined for students; oral reading rate and silent reading rate.
The section of this chapter that I was most drawn to was the emphasis on fluency instruction. The text emphasizes the importance of modeling good fluency to students, in addition to a number of other research-based guidelines, which were noted on page 266. Additionally, another section of this chapter that I thought was extremely applicable to creating my tutoring lesson plans were several of the intervention activities mentioned. The two activities that I am going to look to incorporate as part of the guided reading activities for my kindergarten students were the echo reading and the use of audio-books.
The question that stuck out to me after reading this chapter points directly to the formal assessments of fluency. As the text states, the downside of formally assessing fluency is that the formal assessments only measure rate and accuracy. Therefore how can these be effective tools for assessment, at least formally, when we know that comprehension is the most important overall component to all reading. I understand how essential informal assessments are with regards to fluency in the classroom, as they are truly the only comprehensive assessment to provide students.
In working with kindergarten students in my tutoring sessions, fluency often times is something that I think should be far from our focus. However, this text reminded me that there are a number of different ways to reinforce and model fluency even for beginning readers. Additionally, it reminded me how important it is to have students reading at their instructional level.
Margaret, I liked that you noted how the text emphasized fluency instruction and its importance. Like most other things, modeling plays a key role. I've come to learn that in reading; however, this is especially important. The research guidelines as you mentioned were very interesting and useful. I starred the majority of those in my notes for future reference, good stuff! I also loved the activities that were provided at the end of the chapter. In my post I shared how I loved the echo reading suggestion because my mentor last semester did this and I could see the success rate go up for the students when completing a comprehension test afterwards. Good information!!
Chapter 10 is about fluency and ways to help student understand what they read through techniques and strategies. Definition of fluency is the ability to read with immediate word recognition, interpreting the text with expression and bring meaning to the text. For a student to become a fluent reader, teachers have to develop the components of rate, automaticity, prosody and comprehension. To determine the rate one reads is done through a test, like our miscue analysis that we did in our pre-assessments. In a one minute timed reading, this determines the words correct per minute that the student reads. Automaticity is the accuracy of word recognition and the punctuation interpretation with the readers reading rate. The higher the recognition is, the better fluency the student will have. Prosody is the recognition of word phrases. By being able to link phrases together helps with both fluency and comprehension. When fluency increases, comprehension will also increase. The chapter gave some great fluency instruction tips and reminders. Such as, conducting read alouds, so students hear fluent reading; allow students to be able to read the same material more than once, to increase rate and accuracy, along with working on word phrasing. Again, the chapter gave us some great examples to use in our tutor sessions or classrooms. Some of my favorites include reader theaters, poetry party and rhythm walks. I could see using any of them in many different ways to help students on their fluency.
I think doing read alouds are extremely important for students so that they can hear fluent reading and that you should have them read the same material also. I never realized that fluency played such an important part in students comprehending what they are reading so I must say becoming a teacher I am continuing to learn new things.
Chapter 10 is about fluency which is the ability to read with automatic word recognition, expression, and meaning, which is a critical component of reading instruction. Fluent readers read at a good pace and attend to punctuation marks in sentences. Disfluency can cause readers to become self-conscious and soon learn to avoid reading in public. Comprehension is the main purpose for all reading and fluency is important for comprehension. Being able to recognize sight words is an important component of fluency because they appear in almost all texts. One cause for struggling readers may be poor instruction given by the teacher and this can be a source for disfluent reading. As teachers we need to make sure we are paying attention to all the students needs when it comes to reading and not overlook anything. There are many tests that can be given to help measure where a student is with fluency such as the one minute timed tests. One question I have would be when measuring students through 1 minute timing words does this really show if they are a fluent reader. In my tutoring one of my kids is a very good reader and didn't get to far on the test but got them all right. I continue to look at the issue of students learning sight words as more important after each time I read about them. Learning those common words can make a student read faster and easier which will allow them to comprehend better. I think using flash cards is a great way to learn sight words. In my own experience I can relate back to my internship last semester when the students used flash cards to learn sight words. The students got better at saying them as the weeks went by. I think having students practice these words all the time will help them to be good readers who comprehend better.
Hey, You said in your post " As teachers we need to make sure we are paying attention to all the students needs when it comes to reading and not overlook anything." This is so true, however, I see teachers in high school who do nothing when a student reads a section as if it was one long sentence in record time and so quiet you can hardly hear his or her! I have wondered why these teachers allow students to do this. When I have read with students who have done this (Jr high age group) I have found that using humor helps them to relax. When they read quietly, I will scoot my chair closer and closer to them until I am very close or look at me with this "What in the world are you doing?" look. Then I will abruptly sit straight up and say, "I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. Could you read a little louder?" or if they read very fast without punctuation, I will act totally flustered and say "whoa, you're going too fast for me, I can't understand you. Slow down, breath, take a breath between sentences." It usually helps.
Jarad, I agree, sight words are huge when learning to read. I like the idea of flashcards, but to mix it up a little might be to use some sort of game while using the flashcards such as having a small group race the clock each day. See if they are able to beat their time. Doing it as a group will eliminate students racing each other. Some great books that have sight words in them are the Margaret Hillert books. I love her books. I taught my 2 youngest children (several years ago) to read using them.
Fluency is an area that I am interested in learning more about. This chapter was packed with information and studies that supported just how important fluency is to overall reading. I admit that before taking these reading courses, I would have defined fluency as the rate at which a student reads. Fluency involves so much more then that simple definition. Fluency involves word recognition, expression, intonation, appropriate pauses and stress on words, phrasing, and meaning of the words all while a student reads as quickly and accurately as they can.
I am particularly interested in the methods to figure out what to do when students are disfluent readers. With so many components contributing to fluency, it can be difficult to discover what instruction a student needs to help them increase their fluency. I found the figure 10.7 on page 266 an interesting look at how teachers have approached disfluent readers. The disfluent readers are given material that is more difficult and interrupted more often, among other instruction, which just leads to further frustration. This figure offered me a good perspective for planning better instruction for my tutoring students.
I also found it interesting that for years students have been tested for fluency with no regard for their comprehension of the text. This type of assessment is still used in schools today, but the assessment is only one piece of the picture of the student’s reading ability. Fluency without comprehension does not help the students become better readers. We need to use assessments or a combination of assessments to get a whole picture of a student’s reading abilities in order to better meet their instructional needs.
Ellen- I also find it interesting that students were tested on fluency but no comprehension. I don't think I ever recall being asked what the story was about or what the passage was telling the reader. But I do recall reading at a young age and my grandpa asking me what the story was about. I have a nasty habit of reading fluently, but not effectively. This means I read what I want to know and nothing else. In better terms I skip read. It has been really hard for me even in these college courses to make myself read each and every word. I get the general idea of what the passage or book is about and that is it. I think if I would have been tested at a younger age for fluency and comprehension they would have found out and could have slowed me down and made me read slower!
Chapter 10 is all about fluency. This chapter focused on all the areas of fluency and how teachers should cover all areas of fluency. I really enjoyed the intervention section on page 270. This section gave us some ideas on how to improve fluency and activities to use.
Fluency has always not been an issue for me. I have always been able to ready quickly and accurately. But, when it comes to comprehension, that is where I lack. I read too quickly that I skip most of the information. When it comes to books for pleasure, I skip to the good parts. I don't pay attention to the details leading up to it, I just want to know what happens. In college, I tend to read only the important words and titles and get the general understanding of what they are talking about. But I have been better these last few semesters. I take my time and either point or use a bookmark just like we tell the students. It takes me longer to read, but I get all the information I need.
Because of this, I can really empathize with students who love to read quickly and accurately, but do not know what the story is about. I have three students in my tutoring class that are like that, and I am using my history to help them become fluent and comprehend as well.
I really liked the intervention section as well. I thought it gave some great insight on the issue of fluency. I am almost opposite as of you with fluency but similar in comprehension. My fluency has been terrible for as long as I can remember, however I was generally pretty accurate though I didn’t comprehend much of anything that I was reading. I was lacking in the area of phonics for so long that my fluency really suffered and so did everything else. It wasn’t until late high school that anyone noticed that I was having these issues and helped me correct them. Luckily it was taken care of before I got into college so I have been able to work on it and become better with it. That is great that you are able to use your own experiences to help them in their proficiency with fluency.
I also liked the ideas on 270. I think they will be very helpful with my tutoring session and as a future teacher. I have always been a fluent reader with expression,punctuation, and read at a steady pace. I sometimes would have to read parts again to help with comprehending the text.
This chapter talked about fluency and all of the elements that it takes in order to be a fluent reader. There is phrasing, syntax, and expressiveness. The components are rate, automaticity or accuracy, prosody, and comprehension. As we know. Students need to hear fluent reading to be able to read fluently. They need someone to model this for them. It outlines how you assess fluency as well as gives a wonderful intervention for issues with fluency. At the end of the chapter it outlined some wonderful activities to increase fluency.
On page 266, number 6 says that students need easy reading to practice fluency. How easy should this be? Is this where we need to find where their instructional level is and then go back one level? I am with Kindergarten for my tutoring group so this is not something I am working actively with, though it is really important for me to understand.
I was unaware how deep the topic of fluency really is. There is so much that goes into it that I didn’t realize. This chapter does a great job at outlining the components and what all makes up fluency. The figure on page 259 was really helpful to look at to see what level someone might be in fluency very quickly. I didn’t realize that reading along with audio books can help with fluency, though it does make sense. I didn’t realize that telling jokes, like the activity explained on page 274, could help with fluency. There are many more ways than I thought were possible to work on fluency.
I have always had problems with being a good fluent reader. This was because I was not at a mastery level in phonics until much later in my schooling. I still to this day have to think about my fluency when reading, and have to be sure that I am demonstrating it when I am reading to students. For so long I didn’t and it was almost habit before it was corrected. As a result, my comprehension was always very low.
I was also surprised that reading along with audio books, telling jokes are among the various activities that can help teach the student fluency. It is just amazing to me the things we can do to help the student to get the most out of reading.
I was also one who had problems reading. Without the fluency, how can we expect to be able to understand what they are reading? I have had to use 3 methods to understand when I was having trouble. 1)Silent read. If that does not work 2)Mouth the words. If that does not work 3)Read it out loud. First off, I wonder if reading the section over three times helps me and second actually hearing the words helps me to pay attention to my rate, the punctuation, parsing, and word meaning.
Brenna, It was surprising to me as well, how in-depth fluency is and the other areas it can affect. There really were some great strategies and activities included in this section; it can be so beneficial to us with our tutoring students. I'm focusing on comprehension; after reading this section, I realized how important it is to look at fluency skills too.
Fluency is what my content focus is during tutoring session. To be fluent reader a person reads with expression, punctuation, accuracy,comprehension, and at a steady pace. Some students think being fluent is trying to reach their WPM goal, and the zoom through the reading but are not understanding what they are reading. At one school in our district, they have a blocked time called intervention. During this, students practice level passages and try to improve their WPM on their hot score. Although they have a goal to reach they read so fast they do not understand their reading. This bothers me because the students are not learning to become fluent, they are learning to hit 90WPM.
In my tutoring session we are working on sounds, syllables, sight words, root words and level passages. I want them to improve on their WPM, however, I want them to also be able to understand what they are reading. This chapter gave me great ideas to help my students in tutoring.
Cassy, I agree that hitting a WPM goal isn't and shouldn't be a focus for 'reading.' I remember charts and other things that were an everyday part of my classrooms as an elementary student that focused on WPM goals in reading, typing, etc. Being a fluent reader, as you said, isn't about hitting a certain WPM goal - it's about accuracy, expression, comprehension, etc. All of those components are equally important and without them, WPM is seemingly useless. I'm glad that you are using your tutoring sessions to focus on sounds, syllables, sight words, etc. - improving WPM is great, but working on those components will also improve their fluency a great deal which is more important! Nice work!
I was very interested in the section titled Parsing phrases on page 263. I knew it was good for students to learn how to read poetry, but I guess I never really knew that it helped with fluency! The author says. "Teaching students to group words in phrases increases their rate of reading and helps them comprehend connected thoughts." Fascinating! I can see how reading a poem like Big Mary (figure 10.4) can help students to parse phrases because of the grouping of words. And I really like that the author talked about marking phrases in a reading. We don't have to use a poem to do this, but we can teach them the same concept of parsing.
I have used versions of some of the examples in the past to help students with their fluency. After reading this chapter I have many more ideas to use with the students I am tutoring.
Chapter 10 of our DeVries text focuses on fluency. Fluent readers will recognize words automatically when reading; they’re expressive, read at an appropriate pace, and convey understanding of word meaning. Phrasing is a significant part of fluency as well; this component definitely lends itself to greater comprehension for students. Teachers need to help students with reading rate, accuracy, prosody, and comprehension to develop improved fluency. It’s also beneficial to students to hear fluent reading. In regard to automaticity, readers need to focus on these areas: phonological, word identification, word analysis, and semantic. The type of fluency instruction is critical; teachers need to be aware of the fluency instruction they provide for fluent and disfluent readers. Informal and formal assessments can help teachers with diagnosing fluency. I didn’t seem to have any questions or contradictions with this section of the text. This chapter definitely conveyed to me the importance of fluency, especially with how it connects to comprehension and improved fluency. It’s really a bit puzzling to me that some of that instruction shown to be used with non-fluent readers is actually used. There’s such a difference with what the text shows to be used commonly with fluent readers. It makes me realize the importance of assessing and diagnosing fluency and then using appropriate strategies to help improve it. I’m really looking forward to incorporating some of the strategies and activities shown in this chapter to use with my tutoring students. I’m focusing on comprehension with my 4th grade students, and I’ve realized that working on their fluency, as well, will be beneficial to improving their comprehension skills.
You are right about the importance of assessing students. After beginning this class I have thought back and I don't think I remember seeing teachers assess students to find where their weaknesses are in reading.
I think fluency is so important. I agree with you that fluency plays a big part in comprehension. I think that comprehension is over looked so often. Reading is nothing without comprehension. I have watched children within the classroom that could read extremely fast but at the end they could not tell you a single thing that they had read. I think comprehension is so important and fluency is the key to mastering it.
Chapter 10 was an informative chapter. It talks about fluency in reading. Fluency is defined as 1. Grouping or phrasing of words as revealed through the intonation, stress, and pauses exhibited by readers; 2. adherence to author’s syntax; and 3. expressiveness of the oral reading-interjecting a sense of feeling, anticipation, or characterization. Depending on the student’s ability will determine if they are a level 1, 2, 3, or 4. This chapter was full of helpful strategies to increase one’s fluency.
I wonder if a student who has comprehension issues should have some fluency activities even though they do not seem to show signs of struggling with fluency.
This chapter helped me view comprehension differently and to realize that sometimes one of the big five may be interrelated with one another.
This lesson helped me to see that although a student may struggle with one of the big five it is good to include other components. These components play into one another and everything comes together to create a complete package. As I was teaching one of the lessons I saw how the components do come together.
I love discovering how all of the areas of the "Big 5" come together. It's especially fun when I "see" it with students. I use fluency activities during each one of my tutoring sessions and my content focus is comprehension.
Jeanette, I would honestly say if your student is good in fluency, then I would focus intensely on comprehension - unless of course the student is a very, very FAST reader. I am right now working with a gifted student in second grade who reads at a 7th grade level - with about 160 WPM. He can't remember ANYTHING he's read though, 'cause he reads so fast. In this instance, I'd say that the student isn't fluent because fluency should aid comprehension. If that makes any sense!
Chapter 10 was a great read. I'd began completing the starting sessions information for the student grade sheet assignment, and was interested in the improvements I've already seen in just a couple short lessons! This chapter talked about fluency in reading, which was on of the components I've seen some slight changes already. The beginning of the chapter provided a clear description/definition of what fluency in reading is and includes. The rest of the reading discussed in detail the components of fluency in reading. These components included rate, automaticity, phrasing, and comprehension. Within each description of these components there were additional aspects that were included. For example, under the section discussing automaticity and accuracy it continued on by discussing the recognition of common words or associating letter combinations with their sounds. I loved how this chapter was clear and concise, describing each individual component in detail and with just enough information. I wasn't aware of the way to calculate silent reading wpm, so when that was provided on page 260, I was very happy. Interesting and useful tool to know!
I learned towards the end of the chapter, that in regards to fluency, instruction is crucial. It's important to provide the same teaching for both fluent and disfluent readers, not doing so, may in fact result in some of the issue for the struggling readers. As always, the activities that are listed at the end of the chapters are excellent. These provide some great ideas for the specific topic at hand. In this case, the activities all were centered around developing fluent readers. The first activity, echo reading, is one that I witnessed in my internship classroom last semester. It proved to be used when the student's were later completing a comprehension test over the read, the student's did better the second time around after the teacher used echo reading as a 're-teach' strategy. I also like how the book mentioned that this activity is great for English learners because they can see the words and hear the correct pronunciation at the same time - very true. Good idea to note for if/when I have English learners in my future classroom.
I also really liked the record,check,chart - this seems as though it would be very useful to easily see the improvement. I feel as though this would be a good thing to have on hand during PT conferences to show the improvement a child is making - easy to see and understand. I don't have any questions regarding this chapter at this time.
The record, check, chart sounds like a good activity. I would never have thought of something like that one my own. I am glad they include so many activities in the book. I haven't seen the use of whisper phones used yet, and I am wondering where that will be listed. That is another good way for a student to hear themselves.
I agree with you that providing the same teaching for fluent and disfluent readers is cruical. I think that often times teachers treat children who are struggling differently. I have seen it both ways. Some times a teacher will give a struggling child more attention but other times they will give them less. Either way, I think this makes the child feel isolated and does not allow them to overcome their difficulties.
Years ago, as a young para, I had no idea what the fuss about fluency was all about. As time has gone by I have come to a much better understanding and it seems like there is always something new to learn about fluency. This chapter does a great job with breaking down the many skills needed to a fluent reader as well as how fluency affects a child's learning. My tutoring group is based on comprehension but I use fluency activities in every lesson as well. I find that many of these also help to improve their comprehension. I would love to see both of those scores increase when I complete the summative assignments in April. One area that I find a lot of people ignore is that of punctuation instruction as a means of improving fluency. I also think this fits right in with prosody. I have seen many teachers just focus on the vocabulary and word recall aspect which doesn't give the students all the skills they need to be truly fluent readers. This chapter was full of great information. I really enjoy the activities found at the end as well.
The students I am tutoring are also needing help in fluency and comprehension as well. At first I thought they were struggling with just comprehension, but after reading this chapter I have decided I am wrong. I am now going to be focusing mainly on fluency, because I believe once that has improved their comprehension will improve dramatically as well. Good luck with you students!
I agree with you that fluency and comprehension really do go together. It is actually difficult to teach one without at least touching on the other. Punctuation is something that one of my students also struggle with as well. I think some of the activities at the end of the book will go well with my comprehension content focus also.
Chapter 10 discussed fluency and all of it's aspects. It covered the four components of fluency which are rate, accuracy, prosody, and comprehension. It broke down each component and discussed what each one comprised of. This chapter really helped me out a lot. I almost wish we would have read it a little sooner because it made me change my mind on what I what my students whom I am tutoring to focus on. I thought that they needed help with just comprehension, but after reading this chapter I have discovered I need to be focusing more on comprehension, at least in the beginning and then maybe towards the end I can move onto comprehension. I like how each section gave examples on how to approach that component. I also think I will be using some of the activities at the end of the chapter in my tutoring sessions as well.
Chapter 10 discusses fluency. The three key elements of fluency include phrasing, syntax, and expressiveness. There are four components to fluency, which include rate, prosody, accuracy, and comprehension. Many of these things we have heard about before. The more I read about fluency, the more I realize how it really goes hand in hand with comprehension. When I was deciding on my content focus, I was pulled between fluency and comprehension. I decided on comprehension because both students scored a 50% in that area. I fluency, one did pretty good, while one student struggled. After reading this chapter, I can see how using the guided reading approach really helps with fluency. Figure 10.8 on page 267 gives several examples of the correlation between fluency and comprehension. I was surprised to see that the Cooter Flint Cooter and Dibels assessments we used were not listed. I know they are widely used, so I wonder why they are not listed? I like all the activities they listed to help with fluency. Since one of my students didn't do very well with fluency, it is nice to see these activities. They can be included with guided reading as well as with my comprehension activities. Readers Theater and choral reading work well with fluency, as well as with comprehension. I liked reading about the fluency and technology. I think audiobooks are great, and I wonder if these could be included in guided reading? Maybe they could be used after a picture walk through and play an audiobook instead of reading the text to the students.
I think your idea of incorporating audio books into guided reading is great. I use them for centers. If you have access to computers tumblebooks.com is great for a reading rotation during guided reading time. Also, a listening center with extra headsets works great with audio books. And, the kids love listening to stories.
Fluency is rapid reading with the following components: rate, automaticity, phrasing, expression and punctuation. Too often, I think we forget to focus on the components and think of fluency as only rapid reading. In the past, I've had students who could read over 140 wpm, but the components that comprise fluency were not there. I think we need to emphasis the importance of finding a nice balance between the rapid reading and components. Further, I'm a big believer in using repeated readings to improve fluency. I encourage students to reread books over and over and over again until they can read them fluently. Also, the use of poetry has always played a part in helping students develop their fluency.
Repeated readings are great and I think they are really helpful when you are trying to achieve fluency. Poetry is a great way to help students learn their fluency!! Thanks for sharing!
Chapter 10 was titled Fluency. The chapter began with the definition of fluency, which is the ease or naturalness of reading. The key elements are grouping or phrasing of words as revealed through the intonation, stress, and pauses exhibited by readers, adherence to author's syntax, and expressiveness of the oral reading-interjecting a sense of feeling, anticipation, or characterization. There are many components of fluency and the chapter did a great job of breaking it down. The chapter then went on to break down the rate, automaticity, and accuracy of fluency. After that the chapter talked about recognizing the syllables within words, meanings of words, pharasing or prosody, and parsing phrases. I think this is a very important portion of the chapter. I see a lot of Students who read words instead of phrases. The chapter did a great job of breaking this down and explaining how to beat it. After parsing, the chapter went in to expressive reading, punctuation, comprehension, and finally fluency instruction. I think this chapter is very important to the rest of what we will learn throughout the semester. This chapter sets the groundwork. Fluency to me is almost as important as comprehension. I think that if a teacher, especially one who wants to teach reading, does not understand fluency or know how to teach fluency then he or she will fail their students. I think there are many different ways to teach a child fluency. I personally like repeated readings. I have used this with my own children and with the children I have worked with in the school system and it works. A lot of fluency and reading for that matter, revolves around enjoyment, attitude, and confidence and repeated readings provides that.
I think fluency is extremely important, but I personally believe comprehension is a little more important. I feel like the student needs to understand how to be a fluent reader but also needs to be able to comprehend as they are reading in order to be a successful reader. Thanks for sharing!
Chapter 10 tells us more about Fluency. "Fluency, the ability to read with automatic word recognition, expression, and meaning, is a critical component of reading instruction." Our text tells us the 3 key elements that are included in fluency. We also learn about the 4 Levels in NAEP's oral reading fluency scale. It is nice to see figure 10.2 that shows us the differences between fluent readers and disfluent readers. I remember when I was back in school and the teacher's were all about how many words we could read per minute instead of what we were taking from reading. I think fluency is important but if a child is just reading the words and not understanding what they are reading, the WPM shouldn't matter because they aren't understanding what they are reading. This chapter also goes further into comprehension, punctuation, parsing phrases, and expressive reading. I love that this textbook gives us instruction for ESOL Learners and different assessment options. I have taken note of a few of the listed activities in this chapter for me to incorporate into my tutoring lessons in the next few weeks.
I agree, that fluency, without retention, is not very useful.
I liked the phrasing portion of the chapter. I liked the poems that were broken into managable phrases to show a student how to correctly create and use these phrases.
I swear that just when I start to feel confident with the subject of teaching reading I become the scared turtle that retreats into it's shell to hid from responsibility. I don't want to mess any student up and teaching reading feels like a huge responsibility. I don't remember as a kid learning all of these pieces but facing the challenge of teaching reading seems daunting. Sometimes the thought of teaching the spectrum that is elementary education scares the living daylights out of me and I have been raising 4 kids.
Oh my, I understand. I texted a teacher friend just last week, and told her this tutor was such a huge responsibility! I think reading is so important to teach a student, it will open up so many doors and possibilities. My oldest son had a miracle worker for a reading teacher in 2nd grade. He went from the low group to the very high group in one years time. I wish I could go back and ask her how she did it.
I found this chapter to be very interesting. I once worked with a student who read so very beautifully, but had no idea what she read when she was done reading. I think that perhaps too much effort was put on fluency with her, and nothing was ever done about comprehension.
I found the part of the text that explained the difference in reading one word at a time, verses reading phrases to be very interesting as well. The poem about Mary and her Little Lamb, which read like with managable phrases was such an excellent example of reading in phrases. I would love a whole stack of poems like that.
The author says that many fluent readers do not comprehend what they read. Disfluency causes readers to become self-conscious of their reading and learn to avoid reading in public. I see this a lot in the classroom especially with teachers who popcorn read. The children shrink in their seats and try to not to be noticed. Poor instruction leads to disfluent reading. This sentence says a lot to me. As teachers we must know the content, students and use a variety of instructional methods. This chapter defines fluency and emphasizes its importance in comprehension. There are 4 main components of fluency: rate, accuracy, prosody, comprehension and 4 subskills: phonological, word identification, word analysis and semantic. A lack in any of these skill areas will result in reading difficulty. The author reminds us to be conscious of our actions when working with struggling readers. Teachers should not give unknown words or confirmation after every word but allow the students to skip the unknown word and come back to it later or guide the students in using context clues when needed. Expressive reading is mentioned in this chapter, I love to watch students do this! I was especially interested in the section on comprehension since this will probably be my unit focus. I was surprised to learn that 1/3 of fluent readers struggle with comprehension. This percentage is higher than I would have guessed. The list of fluency instruction steps for ELL’s was informative. I also like that the activities give step by step details. Audio books would be great for English Language Learners since they have the Spanish button option. I have seen some of these activities in the classroom but would love to have the opportunity to use the Read-Along Radio Dramas. I think this would be fun and really great for helping students visualize.
ReplyDeleteI can completely agree with you, I have seen the students who struggle with reading shrink in their seats when they are suppose to read. In my PSR classes and in the older grades when I substitute, we popcorn read, but I let the students who want to read raise their hand and then let the one who finishes reading pick from the students who have their hands raised. I think that it is better for those that struggle to be able to follow along and listen to the other readers.
DeleteI still see kids just try to hide when the teacher asks for volunteers to read from the text in high school biology class. One girl that sits with me always says "I don't have to read do I? Please tell me I don't." If she thinks she's going to have to read she will ask to leave and go to the restroom and the teacher always lets her and THAT frustrates me because she ends up missing out on discussion. Now that she is sitting WITH me in class. I reassure her she does not have to read and I will not allow her to leave during lecture or reading because I want her to hear what is being discussed. I hate it that kids get so worried about the possibility of reading aloud that it causes them to not focus on the lesson. When at all possible, I take "my" kids out and the kids can take turns reading in our small group, which they don't mind. Then I spend a lot of time answering questions and elaborating on the text.
DeleteThis chapter focuses on the fact the fluency is NOT just the ability to spit out words correctly or quickly. Instead, fluency is a combination of correct words, an appropriate speed, comprehension, and the new catch-phrase I am hearing all over my school building: prosody. Prosody is the ability to recognize phrasing within each sentence, such as "Once upon a time," being read together, instead of 4 individual words. This chapter also reiterates what we've heard before, give students materials they can be successful with and build them up from there! Teach them strategies not mere skills (definitely something I heard a lot with Dr. Walizer in RLA), and support these students in every way possible! Some of the activities suggested are ones I've heard in previous classes as well as from Mrs. Stoppel and include Echo reading, flash cards, repeated readings, readers theater, and choral reading. I know that I will be using a lot of bits and pieces from this section in my own lesson plans this semester.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter about fluency did contain a lot of information we have heard from Dr. Walizer in the past. Being able to have different strategies for each student to help with their fluency will help the teacher and student know what will work best for them. This chapter is full of great strategies and activities for teachers to use with their students.
DeleteThis chapter was a review of things from previous classes and/or books. This makes me see that these are universal themes and one that I should take to heart. I agree that the activities in this chapter are going to be a great resource for planning my lessons
DeleteWe have heard this information several times, but it is nice to keep it fresh in my mind. There is so much to know and why we should know it that hearing it over will only help me retain it better. I liked the activities at the end, they're several I have seen and several I want to try in my small group.
DeleteFluency is the ability to read the written word, and comprehend what is being read. Teaching fluency is about understanding how children learn by diagnosing they’re reading and using skills to correct their deficiencies. Atomicity has four sub skills if a child lacks any or all of the sub skills then the farther down the reading scale they will fall. Students are graded on the rate or words per minute they can read. Automaticity, the better a student comprehends a word and used punctuation; the more a student can focus on comprehension of the material. Recognition of phrases or porosity is also a component of fluency. Correct punctuation also is important to comprehension because it gives proper meaning to phrases and sentences. A teacher must assess the reading abilities of their students then use proper techniques to help the children that are struggling. Without properly diagnosing the problem the child will fall farther behind. I have a student who is able to read 162 WPM, she is suppose to be at 150, however, she does not use expression or punctuation when reading. Also when I ask what the passage is about, she cannot tell me anything. This is something we are working on. Any suggestions??
ReplyDeleteMary,
DeleteGood summary of fluency. Assessing students shows us strengths and weaknesses of our students. It seems as though that student is fluent but not accurate on the fluency and accuracy score sheet. It sounds like she needs to work on reading at an appropriate rate and paying attention to punctuation. It might be fun to have your student do a "radio read". This could help her with expression etc. Kara
Radio read is a good idea, I am using readers theater with this group, and she loves it. She really acts it out and wants to keep going over it. I think I will throw in a radio read in the next few weeks. Thanks.
DeleteAn idea I have his making a character bag. A character bag is when you write down different characters or expressions to read with. With younger students expressions are mostly used, but with my 4th grade students, I am making up characters. I think this is a fun way to have them show expression when reading. Good summary of fluency, you hit all the major points!
DeleteIt seems that so far this semester that fluency is the key word. Without it any reader is lost. Man I swing from feeling like I can help students with reading to feeling like OMG how do I figure this out for all of them!
DeleteI loved the first sentence in this chapter, "fluency, the ability to rad with automatic word recognition, expression, and meaning." Fluency is all about comprehending what has just been read and not just knowing the words. I was a student who had huge problems comprehending what I had just read, even though I would know every word on the pages I just read. There is more to fluency, then just comprehending, it is also about having a good pace when reading, as well as use the punctuation correctly. This chapter does a great job breaking down how to become a fluent reader and by showing us the fluency norms for the grades first through eight. This chapter as has a lot of great activities for teachers to use when working on fluency in the classroom. These activities and strategies seem great and are able to start using in kindergarten to help with fluency at an early age.
ReplyDeleteI believe after reading this far in our text that many people that assess struggling readers make the erroneous assumption that just because a reader reads with a good fluency RATE, that they are excelling at all the other components of fluency, especially comprehension. This is obviously not the case. Many of the assessments and intervention activities will allow us as educators to determine where the students are struggling and help them improve in those areas. Fluency is just one area in the big 5 that will contribute to the ultimate goal which is comprehension.
DeleteChapter 10 of the text discussed fluency. Fluency is made up of four components, rate, automaticity/accuracy, phrasing/prosody, and comprehension. There are also four sub skills needed before fluency can occur. Those are phonological, word identification, word analysis, and semantics.
ReplyDeleteFluency and comprehension go hand in hand. Some students are able to read fluently, but do not comprehend. This chapter was very helpful in terms of helping student in tutoring sessions. My students need help with sight words and knowing those sight words will help with their fluency. I also like how it states that students need to know how to phrase words for better comprehension instead of reading word by word. The eight principles to guide fluent reading covers modeling fluent reading and helping students achieve it.
I think the most beneficial sentence from the text is that readers that struggle are stopped when they are struggling and asked to sound out the word, while more fluent readers are not interrupted and correct at the end of the sentence instead of during the sentence. They are also told to sound out the word. When sounding out each letter, it is harder to remember all those sounds to put them together when the word is long. I am guilty of both of those things, especially with my daughter who is learning to read now. Now, I am aware that this is not helping her nor older students.
The activities at the end of the chapter will be very helpful during tutoring. I am excited to try out the rhythm walks.
I found the part about stopping readers interesting and convicting. I thought back to when I've listened to students read as a sub, and I've always been quick to just give them the word when they've struggled. Rather, it would be so much better to have them read to the end of the sentence and go back to use the context to figure out the word. This would help with their comprehension as they have to figure it out. I hope to remember to use this in tutoring sessions and when subbing!
DeleteI thought the comparison to a struggling reader and a fluent reader was interesting when you are trying to help them out with errors they made. I am finding that it is hard at times to not just give the words so they can move on and hopefully capture more comprehension from what they are reading. Instead, you should have them finish the sentence, then go back and fix the errors and repeat the sentence. In the end, that should help all students with fluency and comprehension if you use the techniques that helps them make all phrases and words automatic. An interesting concept that I want to use and see the outcomes first hand.
DeleteFluency is described as the ease with which we read and includes grouping or phrasing of words through intonation, stress and pauses; syntax; and expressiveness to show a sense of feeling, anticipation or characterization. Students who are at level 3 or 4 usually are considered to be fluent. There are four main components of fluency: rate, automaticity, prosody and comprehension. There are also sublevels of fluency that include phonological, word identification, word analysis and semantic.
ReplyDeleteA slow reading rate usually indicates an inefficient reader. Rate and fluency depend on automaticity: accuracy of word recognition, interpreting punctuation and reading rate. If a reader spends too much time struggling to recognize a word, they lose the purpose of reading, which is to take something from the reading. There are strategies to enhance fluency that can be used for individual students or in small groups. What research has shown is that students need to hear fluent reading and have directed instruction that includes feedback. They need support while reading and can benefit from rereading to increase rate, accuracy, phrasing and comprehension. It’s better to have students read easier materials so they can really work on that fluency. And I remember Dr. Walizer saying NEVER EVER EVER put a kid on the spot to do a cold read aloud in front of peers. The last thing we want is for them to feel embarrassed!
Keeping track of student progress is important for monitoring fluency. This can be done through checklists, running records of miscue analysis and rubrics. There are other more formal approaches such as diagnostic reading tests, oral reading tests, analysis of reading difficulty, diagnostic reading scales, reading mastery tests and a few others. These formal assessments only assess rate and accuracy though whereas the informal assessments can monitor rate, automaticity, prosody and comprehension.
The strategies listed at the end of the chapter give me ways I can integrate within during my tutoring sessions through echo reading, flashcards, dyad reading, repeated reading, reader’s theater, choral reading and rhythm walks.
I found this chapter fascinating to read, as it gave me new things to think about when considering the fluency of a student's reading. Fluency is more than just reading through a passage quickly. It involves reading in phrases, watching the punctuation, and putting expression into the reading. While at first thought they don't seem to go together, comprehension is also an important part of fluency. The book stated that when fluency increases, comprehension increases, and the reverse is also true. They suggested that to teach fluency, teachers need to use specific instruction for teaching students how to read using phrases. Using less difficult books that students can read easily helps when teaching students fluency. Formal or informal assessments can be used to keep track of students' progress with their fluency.
ReplyDeleteI greatly appreciated all the ideas at the end of the book and am anxious to try some of them with my tutoring group. There were some good websites to find passages to use for Readers Theater, so I am looking forward to including those in some sessions. I can see this as being a good way for students to learn from other fluent readers. One of the boys in my group reads very rapidly, but doesn't always comprehend what he has read. So I want to try this to help him with his reading rate.
As I already mentioned, I discovered that fluency is more than the rate of speed at which one reads. It involves so much more! I remember Mrs. Stoppel saying in a video that fluency and comprehension were very much connected, and this text supports that. It was interesting to read that they influence each other, and I can certainly see how a disfluent reader is not going to comprehend the text very well.
It was interesting to read this chapter soon after I read a chapter in another textbook about learning disabilities and students who struggle with reading. These students often struggle with fluency because of a variety of reasons, but this, in turn, affects their comprehension. A student can't comprehend something they can't read very well. This chapter made me realize the importance of fluency and working with our students to make sure they master it.
I also began to realize that comprehension may not be my student’s biggest issue, it could be fluency. I have a student who reads very well, she is very articulate, but she doesn’t seem to remember all the details of what she has read. Her words per minute are about where they should be for her age, and she doesn’t seem to struggle with very many words, but now after having read this chapter I am thinking that maybe she is reading too fast, that she needs to slow down a bit so she can comprehend the material better.
DeleteFluency is the phrasing of words, the adherence to author’s syntax and the expressiveness of the reader. In my RLAs internship I seen many students read as fast as they could and they did well and made it through the entire text, but they were very monotone, and were not able to pass the comprehension test at the end of the reading. I have also seen students stutter, and go read slow through a passage. Those students were also very monotone and did not pass the comprehension test. I have also seen students read at a good rate, change their voice a little for each character, pause at a comma, raise their voice for a question, etc. Those students were fluent readers and could pass a comprehension test at the end.
ReplyDeleteI liked figure 10.2 on page 260. I will keep this in my classroom and refer back to it if I believe I have a disfluent reader in my room. Figure 10.3 is helpful as well. The 8 steps to what should guide fluency instruction are very helpful. It was nice to see what a teacher can do to help students be more fluent readers. In this book we have learned things we can teach students to do to be more successful but this section tells the teachers what we can do to be more successful at helping our students.
The strategies and activities section are full of helpful games and reading strategies. I have heard of most of these strategies, but some were new and will be helpful to me now and in the future.
Fluency was the topic of chapter 10 in the text. Fluency is that part of reading that helps the reader or audience feel what is being read. Fluency is all about reading at the proper speed, using punctuation the correct way, emphasizing at the right times. Another major point of reading fluently is the effect it has on comprehension.
ReplyDeleteThe text lists traits of fluent readers which include the knowledge of language, appropriate rate, slowing down to solve problems, automatic word recognition and analysis skills, intonation to find meaning, use of punctuation, knowledge of story structure, and able to reproduce the natural phrasing. In the text we also find the traits of disfluent readers which include lack of language skills, word by word reading, reading overly fast, poor sight word bank, no analysis skills or expression, ignore punctuation, difficulties with prior knowledge of story structure, and unable to phrase text the correct way.
Thus far in my tutoring sessions I have seen some positive and negative aspects of the students reading. I am beginning to believe that fluency is the main issue for one of my students, while the other has comprehension deficiency, but I am wondering if it has anything to do with fluency. During my assessments I found that many of the miscues were due to speeding through the reading, adding words or skipping over words that were not difficult. One of the things that I saw in the text that I think would be a great tool would be the retrospective miscue analysis. I want to use this tool within the next couple of weeks, and have the students assess themselves through this strategy. I think that this could be a valuable tool for those of us who have students with fluency issues. The text also gives us many other activities that can help with fluency issues that I also think will benefit my students.
I have only made it through one assessment session, thus I have one more to go, but I also can see where the retro miscue analysis would be helpful for the kids. By listening to themselves, and also paying attention to their expression and phrasing, they will likely pick up on their mistakes and hence, make improvements the next time through. Maybe all the snow interfering with my tutoring was a blessing so I could read more about fluency and word identification before moving forward.
DeleteThe more I read this book, the more I like it. It is extremely helpful in breaking down the topic into subsections and is very informative. The great thing is that it gives us tools in the form of activities and strategies that help with what we've just learned. By learning a new strategy, then learning how to diagnose it through specific assessment, and then attack it with a designated activity, is really great to have. I enjoyed this chapter as a continuing series throught the "Big 5". Understanding fluency is to realize that it is much more than being able to read at a specific rate. Rate is not everything, but it is important to the student being able to comprehend. Our text also states that comprehension is the primary goal to reading. I find this to be very true, because comprehension (understanding what we've just read) is the only thing that matters in the end. I loved how the text broke down fluency into the four components of automaticity, rate, prosody (phrasing), and comprehension. By seeing each element on its own, and understanding how it relates to the other components is really important. For example, in automaticity, being able to break down words into chunks or syllables helps keep a students fluency rate up which in turn allows them to spend more cognative energy in discerning the text, or comprehending. The example of recognizing the word transportation through syllables of trans port ta tion instead of sounding it out letter by letter takes much less time and provides for fluency rate. I really like the idea of teaching through prosody or phrasing (why don't we just call it phrasing?) because I feel that it helps students get away from the one word monotone reading that many struggling readers exhibit. I also feel that by understanding punctuation and expressive reading really helps the student to understand the context of what they are reading and it brings the story alive as opposed to being just words that the student is reciting. This can also help to engage the student more into the story. Once again, there are some great activities to promote growth in these fluency components in the latter part of the chapter. Some of my favorites include echo reading because the teacher models first and expects the child to mimic their rate and intonation. I also like the Dyad reading because once a reader finishes reading for their parnter, they need to summarize what they read and the listener can add to what the reader didn't mention. This goes a long way in aiding comprehension as well. Again, I believe this text will serve as a great resource for my classroom in the future. Once question that comes to mind is, "Does it ever feel overwhelming to try and diagnose (assess) and work with so many kids on so many different levels?" I see so many strategies in all my different methods courses, I wonder how anybody remembers them all.? I guess constant referencing back to our texts!
ReplyDeleteRobert, the question you asked is the overall challenge of being an effective teacher, at least I think. You're right though, sometimes it seems next to impossible to manage, identify and then provide engaging instruction to students at so many instructional levels. It has to be exhausting!! However, I think that is why guided reading and guided reading groups are becoming popular in so many classrooms, or at least from the classrooms I have been in. For a brief moment in the classroom, the teacher gets to engage with a small group of students at (hopefully) the same reading level. However, this challenging question also brings up the importance of parental involvement. It's important to at least try (even if parents are unwilling to participate) to keep parents informed and engaged in their child's learning experiences, because they may actually be the individual that can provide their child with the best one on one instructional support.
DeleteRobert,
DeleteI agree with you the more we read this book the more I like it. I really appreciate the activities at the end of the chapters. They are written well so that I can visualize exactly what they mean. My book is filled with post it note tabs of all the activities that I like. I guess that is how I would answer your question is that we have all these resources to use and we will have colleagues to help guide us. I'm sure that first year or two is very overwhelming, but I feel like I have a lot of tools in my tool belt at this point.
Chapter 10 focused on the foundational skill-fluency. Fluency is an essential skill in reading as it determines reading levels for both adults and children. A fluent reader is someone that recognizes words automatically and adheres properly to punctuation and finally uses appropriate expression and inflection. There are four components that make up fluency; rate, automaticity, prosody and comprehension. Rate is essential to fluency, as a slow rate is indicative of an inefficient reader. Additionally, often time’s fluency is solely assessed or measured by WPM. There are two types of rates that are determined for students; oral reading rate and silent reading rate.
ReplyDeleteThe section of this chapter that I was most drawn to was the emphasis on fluency instruction. The text emphasizes the importance of modeling good fluency to students, in addition to a number of other research-based guidelines, which were noted on page 266. Additionally, another section of this chapter that I thought was extremely applicable to creating my tutoring lesson plans were several of the intervention activities mentioned. The two activities that I am going to look to incorporate as part of the guided reading activities for my kindergarten students were the echo reading and the use of audio-books.
The question that stuck out to me after reading this chapter points directly to the formal assessments of fluency. As the text states, the downside of formally assessing fluency is that the formal assessments only measure rate and accuracy. Therefore how can these be effective tools for assessment, at least formally, when we know that comprehension is the most important overall component to all reading. I understand how essential informal assessments are with regards to fluency in the classroom, as they are truly the only comprehensive assessment to provide students.
In working with kindergarten students in my tutoring sessions, fluency often times is something that I think should be far from our focus. However, this text reminded me that there are a number of different ways to reinforce and model fluency even for beginning readers. Additionally, it reminded me how important it is to have students reading at their instructional level.
Margaret,
DeleteI liked that you noted how the text emphasized fluency instruction and its importance. Like most other things, modeling plays a key role. I've come to learn that in reading; however, this is especially important. The research guidelines as you mentioned were very interesting and useful. I starred the majority of those in my notes for future reference, good stuff! I also loved the activities that were provided at the end of the chapter. In my post I shared how I loved the echo reading suggestion because my mentor last semester did this and I could see the success rate go up for the students when completing a comprehension test afterwards. Good information!!
Chapter 10 is about fluency and ways to help student understand what they read through techniques and strategies. Definition of fluency is the ability to read with immediate word recognition, interpreting the text with expression and bring meaning to the text. For a student to become a fluent reader, teachers have to develop the components of rate, automaticity, prosody and comprehension. To determine the rate one reads is done through a test, like our miscue analysis that we did in our pre-assessments. In a one minute timed reading, this determines the words correct per minute that the student reads. Automaticity is the accuracy of word recognition and the punctuation interpretation with the readers reading rate. The higher the recognition is, the better fluency the student will have. Prosody is the recognition of word phrases. By being able to link phrases together helps with both fluency and comprehension. When fluency increases, comprehension will also increase. The chapter gave some great fluency instruction tips and reminders. Such as, conducting read alouds, so students hear fluent reading; allow students to be able to read the same material more than once, to increase rate and accuracy, along with working on word phrasing. Again, the chapter gave us some great examples to use in our tutor sessions or classrooms. Some of my favorites include reader theaters, poetry party and rhythm walks. I could see using any of them in many different ways to help students on their fluency.
ReplyDeleteI think doing read alouds are extremely important for students so that they can hear fluent reading and that you should have them read the same material also. I never realized that fluency played such an important part in students comprehending what they are reading so I must say becoming a teacher I am continuing to learn new things.
DeleteChapter 10 is about fluency which is the ability to read with automatic word recognition, expression, and meaning, which is a critical component of reading instruction. Fluent readers read at a good pace and attend to punctuation marks in sentences. Disfluency can cause readers to become self-conscious and soon learn to avoid reading in public. Comprehension is the main purpose for all reading and fluency is important for comprehension. Being able to recognize sight words is an important component of fluency because they appear in almost all texts. One cause for struggling readers may be poor instruction given by the teacher and this can be a source for disfluent reading. As teachers we need to make sure we are paying attention to all the students needs when it comes to reading and not overlook anything. There are many tests that can be given to help measure where a student is with fluency such as the one minute timed tests.
ReplyDeleteOne question I have would be when measuring students through 1 minute timing words does this really show if they are a fluent reader. In my tutoring one of my kids is a very good reader and didn't get to far on the test but got them all right.
I continue to look at the issue of students learning sight words as more important after each time I read about them. Learning those common words can make a student read faster and easier which will allow them to comprehend better. I think using flash cards is a great way to learn sight words.
In my own experience I can relate back to my internship last semester when the students used flash cards to learn sight words. The students got better at saying them as the weeks went by. I think having students practice these words all the time will help them to be good readers who comprehend better.
Hey,
DeleteYou said in your post " As teachers we need to make sure we are paying attention to all the students needs when it comes to reading and not overlook anything." This is so true, however, I see teachers in high school who do nothing when a student reads a section as if it was one long sentence in record time and so quiet you can hardly hear his or her! I have wondered why these teachers allow students to do this.
When I have read with students who have done this (Jr high age group) I have found that using humor helps them to relax. When they read quietly, I will scoot my chair closer and closer to them until I am very close or look at me with this "What in the world are you doing?" look. Then I will abruptly sit straight up and say, "I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. Could you read a little louder?" or if they read very fast without punctuation, I will act totally flustered and say "whoa, you're going too fast for me, I can't understand you. Slow down, breath, take a breath between sentences." It usually helps.
Jarad,
ReplyDeleteI agree, sight words are huge when learning to read. I like the idea of flashcards, but to mix it up a little might be to use some sort of game while using the flashcards such as having a small group race the clock each day. See if they are able to beat their time. Doing it as a group will eliminate students racing each other. Some great books that have sight words in them are the Margaret Hillert books. I love her books. I taught my 2 youngest children (several years ago) to read using them.
Fluency is an area that I am interested in learning more about. This chapter was packed with information and studies that supported just how important fluency is to overall reading. I admit that before taking these reading courses, I would have defined fluency as the rate at which a student reads. Fluency involves so much more then that simple definition. Fluency involves word recognition, expression, intonation, appropriate pauses and stress on words, phrasing, and meaning of the words all while a student reads as quickly and accurately as they can.
ReplyDeleteI am particularly interested in the methods to figure out what to do when students are disfluent readers. With so many components contributing to fluency, it can be difficult to discover what instruction a student needs to help them increase their fluency. I found the figure 10.7 on page 266 an interesting look at how teachers have approached disfluent readers. The disfluent readers are given material that is more difficult and interrupted more often, among other instruction, which just leads to further frustration. This figure offered me a good perspective for planning better instruction for my tutoring students.
I also found it interesting that for years students have been tested for fluency with no regard for their comprehension of the text. This type of assessment is still used in schools today, but the assessment is only one piece of the picture of the student’s reading ability. Fluency without comprehension does not help the students become better readers. We need to use assessments or a combination of assessments to get a whole picture of a student’s reading abilities in order to better meet their instructional needs.
Ellen-
DeleteI also find it interesting that students were tested on fluency but no comprehension. I don't think I ever recall being asked what the story was about or what the passage was telling the reader. But I do recall reading at a young age and my grandpa asking me what the story was about. I have a nasty habit of reading fluently, but not effectively. This means I read what I want to know and nothing else. In better terms I skip read. It has been really hard for me even in these college courses to make myself read each and every word. I get the general idea of what the passage or book is about and that is it. I think if I would have been tested at a younger age for fluency and comprehension they would have found out and could have slowed me down and made me read slower!
Chapter 10 is all about fluency. This chapter focused on all the areas of fluency and how teachers should cover all areas of fluency. I really enjoyed the intervention section on page 270. This section gave us some ideas on how to improve fluency and activities to use.
ReplyDeleteFluency has always not been an issue for me. I have always been able to ready quickly and accurately. But, when it comes to comprehension, that is where I lack. I read too quickly that I skip most of the information. When it comes to books for pleasure, I skip to the good parts. I don't pay attention to the details leading up to it, I just want to know what happens. In college, I tend to read only the important words and titles and get the general understanding of what they are talking about. But I have been better these last few semesters. I take my time and either point or use a bookmark just like we tell the students. It takes me longer to read, but I get all the information I need.
Because of this, I can really empathize with students who love to read quickly and accurately, but do not know what the story is about. I have three students in my tutoring class that are like that, and I am using my history to help them become fluent and comprehend as well.
I really liked the intervention section as well. I thought it gave some great insight on the issue of fluency. I am almost opposite as of you with fluency but similar in comprehension. My fluency has been terrible for as long as I can remember, however I was generally pretty accurate though I didn’t comprehend much of anything that I was reading. I was lacking in the area of phonics for so long that my fluency really suffered and so did everything else. It wasn’t until late high school that anyone noticed that I was having these issues and helped me correct them. Luckily it was taken care of before I got into college so I have been able to work on it and become better with it. That is great that you are able to use your own experiences to help them in their proficiency with fluency.
DeleteI also liked the ideas on 270. I think they will be very helpful with my tutoring session and as a future teacher. I have always been a fluent reader with expression,punctuation, and read at a steady pace. I sometimes would have to read parts again to help with comprehending the text.
DeleteThis chapter talked about fluency and all of the elements that it takes in order to be a fluent reader. There is phrasing, syntax, and expressiveness. The components are rate, automaticity or accuracy, prosody, and comprehension. As we know. Students need to hear fluent reading to be able to read fluently. They need someone to model this for them. It outlines how you assess fluency as well as gives a wonderful intervention for issues with fluency. At the end of the chapter it outlined some wonderful activities to increase fluency.
ReplyDeleteOn page 266, number 6 says that students need easy reading to practice fluency. How easy should this be? Is this where we need to find where their instructional level is and then go back one level? I am with Kindergarten for my tutoring group so this is not something I am working actively with, though it is really important for me to understand.
I was unaware how deep the topic of fluency really is. There is so much that goes into it that I didn’t realize. This chapter does a great job at outlining the components and what all makes up fluency. The figure on page 259 was really helpful to look at to see what level someone might be in fluency very quickly. I didn’t realize that reading along with audio books can help with fluency, though it does make sense. I didn’t realize that telling jokes, like the activity explained on page 274, could help with fluency. There are many more ways than I thought were possible to work on fluency.
I have always had problems with being a good fluent reader. This was because I was not at a mastery level in phonics until much later in my schooling. I still to this day have to think about my fluency when reading, and have to be sure that I am demonstrating it when I am reading to students. For so long I didn’t and it was almost habit before it was corrected. As a result, my comprehension was always very low.
I was also surprised that reading along with audio books, telling jokes are among the various activities that can help teach the student fluency. It is just amazing to me the things we can do to help the student to get the most out of reading.
DeleteI was also one who had problems reading. Without the fluency, how can we expect to be able to understand what they are reading? I have had to use 3 methods to understand when I was having trouble. 1)Silent read. If that does not work 2)Mouth the words. If that does not work 3)Read it out loud. First off, I wonder if reading the section over three times helps me and second actually hearing the words helps me to pay attention to my rate, the punctuation, parsing, and word meaning.
Brenna,
DeleteIt was surprising to me as well, how in-depth fluency is and the other areas it can affect.
There really were some great strategies and activities included in this section; it can be so beneficial to us with our tutoring students. I'm focusing on comprehension; after reading this section, I realized how important it is to look at fluency skills too.
Fluency is what my content focus is during tutoring session. To be fluent reader a person reads with expression, punctuation, accuracy,comprehension, and at a steady pace. Some students think being fluent is trying to reach their WPM goal, and the zoom through the reading but are not understanding what they are reading. At one school in our district, they have a blocked time called intervention. During this, students practice level passages and try to improve their WPM on their hot score. Although they have a goal to reach they read so fast they do not understand their reading. This bothers me because the students are not learning to become fluent, they are learning to hit 90WPM.
ReplyDeleteIn my tutoring session we are working on sounds, syllables, sight words, root words and level passages. I want them to improve on their WPM, however, I want them to also be able to understand what they are reading. This chapter gave me great ideas to help my students in tutoring.
Cassy,
DeleteI agree that hitting a WPM goal isn't and shouldn't be a focus for 'reading.' I remember charts and other things that were an everyday part of my classrooms as an elementary student that focused on WPM goals in reading, typing, etc. Being a fluent reader, as you said, isn't about hitting a certain WPM goal - it's about accuracy, expression, comprehension, etc. All of those components are equally important and without them, WPM is seemingly useless. I'm glad that you are using your tutoring sessions to focus on sounds, syllables, sight words, etc. - improving WPM is great, but working on those components will also improve their fluency a great deal which is more important! Nice work!
I was very interested in the section titled Parsing phrases on page 263. I knew it was good for students to learn how to read poetry, but I guess I never really knew that it helped with fluency! The author says. "Teaching students to group words in phrases increases their rate of reading and helps them comprehend connected thoughts." Fascinating!
ReplyDeleteI can see how reading a poem like Big Mary (figure 10.4) can help students to parse phrases because of the grouping of words. And I really like that the author talked about marking phrases in a reading. We don't have to use a poem to do this, but we can teach them the same concept of parsing.
I have used versions of some of the examples in the past to help students with their fluency. After reading this chapter I have many more ideas to use with the students I am tutoring.
DeleteChapter 10 of our DeVries text focuses on fluency. Fluent readers will recognize words automatically when reading; they’re expressive, read at an appropriate pace, and convey understanding of word meaning. Phrasing is a significant part of fluency as well; this component definitely lends itself to greater comprehension for students. Teachers need to help students with reading rate, accuracy, prosody, and comprehension to develop improved fluency. It’s also beneficial to students to hear fluent reading. In regard to automaticity, readers need to focus on these areas: phonological, word identification, word analysis, and semantic. The type of fluency instruction is critical; teachers need to be aware of the fluency instruction they provide for fluent and disfluent readers. Informal and formal assessments can help teachers with diagnosing fluency.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t seem to have any questions or contradictions with this section of the text.
This chapter definitely conveyed to me the importance of fluency, especially with how it connects to comprehension and improved fluency. It’s really a bit puzzling to me that some of that instruction shown to be used with non-fluent readers is actually used. There’s such a difference with what the text shows to be used commonly with fluent readers. It makes me realize the importance of assessing and diagnosing fluency and then using appropriate strategies to help improve it.
I’m really looking forward to incorporating some of the strategies and activities shown in this chapter to use with my tutoring students. I’m focusing on comprehension with my 4th grade students, and I’ve realized that working on their fluency, as well, will be beneficial to improving their comprehension skills.
You are right about the importance of assessing students. After beginning this class I have thought back and I don't think I remember seeing teachers assess students to find where their weaknesses are in reading.
DeleteI think fluency is so important. I agree with you that fluency plays a big part in comprehension. I think that comprehension is over looked so often.
DeleteReading is nothing without comprehension. I have watched children within the classroom that could read extremely fast but at the end they could not tell you a single thing that they had read. I think comprehension is so important and fluency is the key to mastering it.
thanks,
Julie Copeland
Chapter 10 was an informative chapter. It talks about fluency in reading. Fluency is defined as 1. Grouping or phrasing of words as revealed through the intonation, stress, and pauses exhibited by readers; 2. adherence to author’s syntax; and 3. expressiveness of the oral reading-interjecting a sense of feeling, anticipation, or characterization. Depending on the student’s ability will determine if they are a level 1, 2, 3, or 4. This chapter was full of helpful strategies to increase one’s fluency.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if a student who has comprehension issues should have some fluency activities even though they do not seem to show signs of struggling with fluency.
This chapter helped me view comprehension differently and to realize that sometimes one of the big five may be interrelated with one another.
This lesson helped me to see that although a student may struggle with one of the big five it is good to include other components. These components play into one another and everything comes together to create a complete package. As I was teaching one of the lessons I saw how the components do come together.
I love discovering how all of the areas of the "Big 5" come together. It's especially fun when I "see" it with students. I use fluency activities during each one of my tutoring sessions and my content focus is comprehension.
DeleteJeanette, I would honestly say if your student is good in fluency, then I would focus intensely on comprehension - unless of course the student is a very, very FAST reader. I am right now working with a gifted student in second grade who reads at a 7th grade level - with about 160 WPM. He can't remember ANYTHING he's read though, 'cause he reads so fast. In this instance, I'd say that the student isn't fluent because fluency should aid comprehension. If that makes any sense!
DeleteChapter 10 was a great read. I'd began completing the starting sessions information for the student grade sheet assignment, and was interested in the improvements I've already seen in just a couple short lessons! This chapter talked about fluency in reading, which was on of the components I've seen some slight changes already. The beginning of the chapter provided a clear description/definition of what fluency in reading is and includes. The rest of the reading discussed in detail the components of fluency in reading. These components included rate, automaticity, phrasing, and comprehension. Within each description of these components there were additional aspects that were included. For example, under the section discussing automaticity and accuracy it continued on by discussing the recognition of common words or associating letter combinations with their sounds. I loved how this chapter was clear and concise, describing each individual component in detail and with just enough information. I wasn't aware of the way to calculate silent reading wpm, so when that was provided on page 260, I was very happy. Interesting and useful tool to know!
ReplyDeleteI learned towards the end of the chapter, that in regards to fluency, instruction is crucial. It's important to provide the same teaching for both fluent and disfluent readers, not doing so, may in fact result in some of the issue for the struggling readers. As always, the activities that are listed at the end of the chapters are excellent. These provide some great ideas for the specific topic at hand. In this case, the activities all were centered around developing fluent readers. The first activity, echo reading, is one that I witnessed in my internship classroom last semester. It proved to be used when the student's were later completing a comprehension test over the read, the student's did better the second time around after the teacher used echo reading as a 're-teach' strategy. I also like how the book mentioned that this activity is great for English learners because they can see the words and hear the correct pronunciation at the same time - very true. Good idea to note for if/when I have English learners in my future classroom.
I also really liked the record,check,chart - this seems as though it would be very useful to easily see the improvement. I feel as though this would be a good thing to have on hand during PT conferences to show the improvement a child is making - easy to see and understand. I don't have any questions regarding this chapter at this time.
The record, check, chart sounds like a good activity. I would never have thought of something like that one my own. I am glad they include so many activities in the book. I haven't seen the use of whisper phones used yet, and I am wondering where that will be listed. That is another good way for a student to hear themselves.
DeleteI agree with you that providing the same teaching for fluent and disfluent readers is cruical. I think that often times teachers treat children who are struggling differently. I have seen it both ways. Some times a teacher will give a struggling child more attention but other times they will give them less. Either way, I think this makes the child feel isolated and does not allow them to overcome their difficulties.
Deletethanks,
Julie Copeland
Years ago, as a young para, I had no idea what the fuss about fluency was all about. As time has gone by I have come to a much better understanding and it seems like there is always something new to learn about fluency. This chapter does a great job with breaking down the many skills needed to a fluent reader as well as how fluency affects a child's learning. My tutoring group is based on comprehension but I use fluency activities in every lesson as well. I find that many of these also help to improve their comprehension. I would love to see both of those scores increase when I complete the summative assignments in April. One area that I find a lot of people ignore is that of punctuation instruction as a means of improving fluency. I also think this fits right in with prosody. I have seen many teachers just focus on the vocabulary and word recall aspect which doesn't give the students all the skills they need to be truly fluent readers. This chapter was full of great information. I really enjoy the activities found at the end as well.
ReplyDeleteThe students I am tutoring are also needing help in fluency and comprehension as well. At first I thought they were struggling with just comprehension, but after reading this chapter I have decided I am wrong. I am now going to be focusing mainly on fluency, because I believe once that has improved their comprehension will improve dramatically as well. Good luck with you students!
DeleteI agree with you that fluency and comprehension really do go together. It is actually difficult to teach one without at least touching on the other. Punctuation is something that one of my students also struggle with as well. I think some of the activities at the end of the book will go well with my comprehension content focus also.
DeleteChapter 10 discussed fluency and all of it's aspects. It covered the four components of fluency which are rate, accuracy, prosody, and comprehension. It broke down each component and discussed what each one comprised of. This chapter really helped me out a lot. I almost wish we would have read it a little sooner because it made me change my mind on what I what my students whom I am tutoring to focus on. I thought that they needed help with just comprehension, but after reading this chapter I have discovered I need to be focusing more on comprehension, at least in the beginning and then maybe towards the end I can move onto comprehension. I like how each section gave examples on how to approach that component. I also think I will be using some of the activities at the end of the chapter in my tutoring sessions as well.
ReplyDeleteChapter 10 discusses fluency. The three key elements of fluency include phrasing, syntax, and expressiveness. There are four components to fluency, which include rate, prosody, accuracy, and comprehension. Many of these things we have heard about before. The more I read about fluency, the more I realize how it really goes hand in hand with comprehension. When I was deciding on my content focus, I was pulled between fluency and comprehension. I decided on comprehension because both students scored a 50% in that area. I fluency, one did pretty good, while one student struggled. After reading this chapter, I can see how using the guided reading approach really helps with fluency. Figure 10.8 on page 267 gives several examples of the correlation between fluency and comprehension.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to see that the Cooter Flint Cooter and Dibels assessments we used were not listed. I know they are widely used, so I wonder why they are not listed?
I like all the activities they listed to help with fluency. Since one of my students didn't do very well with fluency, it is nice to see these activities. They can be included with guided reading as well as with my comprehension activities. Readers Theater and choral reading work well with fluency, as well as with comprehension.
I liked reading about the fluency and technology. I think audiobooks are great, and I wonder if these could be included in guided reading? Maybe they could be used after a picture walk through and play an audiobook instead of reading the text to the students.
I think your idea of incorporating audio books into guided reading is great. I use them for centers. If you have access to computers tumblebooks.com is great for a reading rotation during guided reading time. Also, a listening center with extra headsets works great with audio books. And, the kids love listening to stories.
DeleteFluency is rapid reading with the following components: rate, automaticity, phrasing, expression and punctuation. Too often, I think we forget to focus on the components and think of fluency as only rapid reading. In the past, I've had students who could read over 140 wpm, but the components that comprise fluency were not there. I think we need to emphasis the importance of finding a nice balance between the rapid reading and components.
ReplyDeleteFurther, I'm a big believer in using repeated readings to improve fluency. I encourage students to reread books over and over and over again until they can read them fluently. Also, the use of poetry has always played a part in helping students develop their fluency.
Repeated readings are great and I think they are really helpful when you are trying to achieve fluency. Poetry is a great way to help students learn their fluency!! Thanks for sharing!
DeleteChapter 10 was titled Fluency. The chapter began with the definition of fluency, which is the ease or naturalness of reading. The key elements are grouping or phrasing of words as revealed through the intonation, stress, and pauses exhibited by readers, adherence to author's syntax, and expressiveness of the oral reading-interjecting a sense of feeling, anticipation, or characterization. There are many components of fluency and the chapter did a great job of breaking it down. The chapter then went on to break down the rate, automaticity, and accuracy of fluency. After that the chapter talked about recognizing the syllables within words, meanings of words, pharasing or prosody, and parsing phrases. I think this is a very important portion of the chapter. I see a lot of Students who read words instead of phrases. The chapter did a great job of breaking this down and explaining how to beat it. After parsing, the chapter went in to expressive reading, punctuation, comprehension, and finally fluency instruction. I think this chapter is very important to the rest of what we will learn throughout the semester. This chapter sets the groundwork. Fluency to me is almost as important as comprehension. I think that if a teacher, especially one who wants to teach reading, does not understand fluency or know how to teach fluency then he or she will fail their students. I think there are many different ways to teach a child fluency. I personally like repeated readings. I have used this with my own children and with the children I have worked with in the school system and it works. A lot of fluency and reading for that matter, revolves around enjoyment, attitude, and confidence and repeated readings provides that.
ReplyDeletethanks,
Julie Copeland
I think fluency is extremely important, but I personally believe comprehension is a little more important. I feel like the student needs to understand how to be a fluent reader but also needs to be able to comprehend as they are reading in order to be a successful reader.
DeleteThanks for sharing!
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ReplyDeleteChapter 10 tells us more about Fluency. "Fluency, the ability to read with automatic word recognition, expression, and meaning, is a critical component of reading instruction." Our text tells us the 3 key elements that are included in fluency. We also learn about the 4 Levels in NAEP's oral reading fluency scale. It is nice to see figure 10.2 that shows us the differences between fluent readers and disfluent readers. I remember when I was back in school and the teacher's were all about how many words we could read per minute instead of what we were taking from reading. I think fluency is important but if a child is just reading the words and not understanding what they are reading, the WPM shouldn't matter because they aren't understanding what they are reading. This chapter also goes further into comprehension, punctuation, parsing phrases, and expressive reading. I love that this textbook gives us instruction for ESOL Learners and different assessment options. I have taken note of a few of the listed activities in this chapter for me to incorporate into my tutoring lessons in the next few weeks.
ReplyDeleteI agree, that fluency, without retention, is not very useful.
DeleteI liked the phrasing portion of the chapter. I liked the poems that were broken into managable phrases to show a student how to correctly create and use these phrases.
I swear that just when I start to feel confident with the subject of teaching reading I become the scared turtle that retreats into it's shell to hid from responsibility. I don't want to mess any student up and teaching reading feels like a huge responsibility. I don't remember as a kid learning all of these pieces but facing the challenge of teaching reading seems daunting. Sometimes the thought of teaching the spectrum that is elementary education scares the living daylights out of me and I have been raising 4 kids.
ReplyDeleteOh my, I understand. I texted a teacher friend just last week, and told her this tutor was such a huge responsibility! I think reading is so important to teach a student, it will open up so many doors and possibilities. My oldest son had a miracle worker for a reading teacher in 2nd grade. He went from the low group to the very high group in one years time. I wish I could go back and ask her how she did it.
DeleteI found this chapter to be very interesting. I once worked with a student who read so very beautifully, but had no idea what she read when she was done reading. I think that perhaps too much effort was put on fluency with her, and nothing was ever done about comprehension.
ReplyDeleteI found the part of the text that explained the difference in reading one word at a time, verses reading phrases to be very interesting as well. The poem about Mary and her Little Lamb, which read like with managable phrases was such an excellent example of reading in phrases. I would love a whole stack of poems like that.