Tara Bauman
Fluency Summary
Fluency is reading with accuracy, rate and prosody. It is important for students to be reading fluently to better understand and comprehend what they are reading. We are to test fluency with students by counting how many words correct per minute. When looking at fluency, it is important to look for if the student is using expression, pitch, rhythm, and making sure he/she is using appropriate natural pauses.
Vocabulary Terms
Fluency: Reading with accuracy, rate, and prosody
Accuracy: A person's ability to read words in a text
Rate: how many words read in a minute
Prosody: Expression, stress, pitch, phrasing and rhythm
Wcpm: A way fluency is measured using words correct per minute
Theory of Automaticity
Automaticity means the ability to read words aloud without thinking about
Steps for Automaticity:
Readers start off with having little or no knowledge of letters, words, or sentence structure. Practice is crucial to reach automaticity.
Look at letters and the alphabet- building phonemic awareness and phonics
Combining letters and building words
Comprehension
Accuracy
Accuracy means automaticity. Accuracy is the number of words read correctly per minute (wpmc).
Accuracy Fix-ups
Slow reading speed
Break down of letters in words read incorrectly
Say the words
Segment & blend sounds
Listening to hear if it makes sense
Reread the word
Ask for help
Rate
The pace at which one reads at. Number of words read by reader per minute.
How to help students improve rate:
Go faster when text is familiar
Go slower to really comprehend
Prosody
1. Expression:
-Fluent readers raise and lower the volume and pitch of their voices
-Speed up and slow down when appropriate
-Reader is able to vary expression and volume to match his or her interpretation of the passage
2. Stress:
- Stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence.
3. Pitch:
-The reader varies expression and volume to match his or her interpretation of the passage
4. Phrasing:
-Refers to how the reader puts words together in groups to represent the meaningful units of language
5. Rhythm:
-Refers to the pace or rhythm at which the reader moves through a text
-Reader moves at an appropriate rate with few stops or long pauses
Artifact
Fluency Voice Jar
Materials: Jar (plastic or glass) and voice cards with expressions on them
Student would choose a passage, poem, or something that is easy for them to read and then they would draw an emotion card from the jar. They would then read in the voice that they chose out of the voice jar. This can be done individually, small groups, or whole class. It is important to make students feel comfortable doing this and make sure that the teacher models this activity.
Fluency Instrucional Strategies
Stop & Go
Stop and go is a great strategy for students who ignore sentence end marks or other punctuation. When using this strategy, give students a text that they can read with 95% accuracy. Have the student first read the passage and at the end of every sentence the teacher will say, “stop” and pause for 2-5 seconds. Once the teacher says, “go” the student can start reading again. Continue this the whole way through the passage. The student will then read the passage again but this time taking depth breaths in at the end of every sentence. Lastly, the third time through, students will read it naturally with only briefly pausing at punctuations.
Reader's Theatre
This strategy not only improves fluency; it can engage many students. Teacher starts by introducing reader’s theatre. Students are then placed into work groups with scrips and assigned roles. Students go over their lines multiple times and perform them in their small groups. Then, with enough practice, students will do it for the whole class. The key to this strategy is practice and giving students enough time to learn their roles.
Read it like you've always known it
Read it like you’ve always known it is a great strategy for students who pause multiple times when reading because they are stuck on words. When using this strategy, students would read until they come across a word they are stuck on. They would pause, break the word down and determine what it is, and then go back and read the sentence like they have always known the word. This helps with the students’ fluency and can also help them comprehend the story.
Whisper Phones
Give students each a fluency phone or have them share depending how many are available. Once the students have a phone, have them start reading their text quietly into the phone. Have student listen to themselves read. If students sound flat or choppy, have them reread the text to have them sound more like they would when they talk.
Choral Reading
The strategy involves have the class reading aloud together. When doing this make sure teacher picks appropriate book or passage so it not too long and at the level of most students. Each student should receive a copy of the text so they can follow along. First have the teacher read the text aloud to model fluent reading and then have the students read aloud the next time. Have students following the text with their finger and read it out loud at an appropriate pace. Read aloud-all together to improve fluency skills.
Fluency Website and Applications
Reading A to Z is a website that has many different fluency passages that are leveled for students. It also offers readers theatre scrips that teachers can use in class. Teachers are also able to keep track of their students’ progress and see which passages the students have read. I would use this website in my future by using the reader’s theatres scripts in class. I believe this would be a fun way for students to interact and get the reading components to improve their skills.
One Minute Reader
One Minute Reader is an app that offers nonfiction stories that very interesting and filled with information that students can obtain. When using this app, students are to follow along with the recording of the reading so that know how to say the words correctly. Students are then going to read the story several times to become fluent.
Reading Fluency
Reading Fluency is a researched based app that helps students become more fluent readers and meet grade level expectations for reading. In this app, students start off at basic speeds and slowly progress once they master that level. This app also provides audio so students are able to hear a fluent model before or after reading.
K12 Timed Reading
This app offers more than 250 short engaging stories for students to read that are both fiction and nonfiction. When reading these short stories, students start to develop fluency and will begin to read quicker. This app is not only good for students but also for teachers because it automatically times the student and calculates their wcpm.