Chapter 7: Reading Fluency

Macy Bombard

Fluency: Reading easily and well. Ability to decode and comprehend at the same time. Less important aspects are accuracy and speed.

• 3 Dimensions:
  • Accuracy
    •  word decoding: sound out word in text with few errors
  • Automatic Processing (automaticity): 
    • Reader uses minimal effort in decoding, meaning more focus is on comprehension
  • Prosody: 
    • Intonation, pitch, stress, pauses, duration

Effective Fluency Instruction: 

1. Instruction should include the teaching of basic skills such as phonemic awareness and phonics. A model of what fluency looks and sounds like should be used
2. Practice should include some decodable text and other independent reading level texts. Strategies such as repeated readings, should be utilized
3. Assessment: assess all dimensions; accuracy, automaticity, and prosody

Automaticity: reader recognized or identifies words easily, accurately, and rapidly, all done with little mental energy. 

Prosody: Close with comprehension. Has to do with characteristics of oral reading that allow it to sound expressive.

Predictable Texts: Context or setting is familiar or predictable to most children. Pictures support the text. Language is natural and the storyline is predictable. Types:

• Chain or circular story: ending leads back to the beginning
• Cumulative story: when new event occurs, all previous events are repeated
• Pattern story: scenes are repeated throughout the story
• Question and answer: same or similar questions are repeated
• Repetition of phrase: word order in a phrase or sentence is repeated
• Rhyme: rhyming words, refrains, or patterns are used
• Songbooks: familiar songs with predictable elements

Strategies to Assist with Fluency: 

• Choral Reading: Reading aloud in unison with a whole class or group of students. After hearing the teacher read, students reread the text together
• Echo Reading: teacher reads a line and then the students echo by reading the same line back.
• Fluency Oriented Reading Instruction (FORI): The use of the basal.
• Reader’s Theater: Oral presentation of drama, prose, or poetry by 2 or more readers. Reader’s theater typically follows a program and is executed over the course of a few weeks.
• Repeated Readings: having a child read a short passage many times, each time with a different level of support
• Paired Repeated Readings: student selects their own passage. The passage should be about 50 words long. In pairs, students read their own passage silently  and then they read aloud to each other multiple times. Readers may ask their partner for help if they get stuck on a word.
• Fluency Development Lesson (FDL): 
  • Read text expressively to the class while students follow along silently with their own copies
  • Discuss content of text with attention on comprehension and vocab as well as expression teacher used while reading to the class.
  • Together, read the text chorally several times
  • Have class partner read multiple times
  • Have a brief word study 
  • Have volunteers perform the text as individuals, pairs, or groups
• Automated Reading: Listening while reading a text. Encourages simultaneous reading and listening. A child reads along with a recording of the story
• Oral Recitation Lesson (ORL): 2 components; Direct Instruction: incorporates comprehension, practice, and then performance, Indirect Instruction: practicing until mastery is achieved. 
• Support Reading Strategy:occurs over 3 days
  • Day 1: teacher reads a story in a fluent, expressive voice. Teacher stops throughout reading to ask the children to clarify what is happening in the story and to predict what will happen next. Teacher and children echo read the story
  • Day 2: teacher pairs the readers. Pairs reread the story, each reading alternating pages. Each pair is then assigned a short segment from the story 
  • Day 3: Individual children read to the teacher. Teacher monitors the reading by taking a running record 
• Cross-Age Reading: 
  • Teacher helps older student select an appropriate book
  • Older students practices text with repeated readings
  • Teacher works with the older student about how he or she will present the book. Older student meets younger student and reads the book to him or her
  • After reading, both students share their experience. Older students writes a reflection

What Parents Can Do At Home to Help Their Student Become a Fluent Reader: 

• Spend more time reading with the child. Encourage them to spend more time with print
• Read aloud. Parents should read aloud to their kids while the child watched the pages
• Reread familiar texts. Rereading favorite books helps children become fluent
• Echo Read. Parent reads a short segment and the child echoes it back to them
• Use predictable books. Read books with predictable, rhythmic patterns

Assessing Fluency: 

• Accuracy and Automaticity: Take timed samples of student’s reading and compare it to standards. Number of correct words per minute assesses both accuracy and automaticity
• Prosody: Use NAEP oral reading fluency scale. This is a 4 level scale that focuses on the level of skill a student demonstrates in phrasing and expression while reading alouds

Reading Rate: Number of words read per minute, standard measurement of fluency

WPM or WCPM: Words Correct Per Minute. Subtract total number of errors from total number of words read in 1 minute. 

Classroom Connection: Prior to reading this chapter I knew the basics of reading fluency but I didn’t know too much in depth detail. This chapter really explained everything thoroughly and helped me understand all the different dimensions and aspects of fluency in a very organized manner.