Fluency

What is fluency? Fluency The rate and accuracy at which a person reads. It provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension. Fluency Expression Accuracy Rate

Reading with Expression ABC. DEF? G! HI. J, KLM. NO! PQR. S, TUV. WXY? Z! A! BCDE. FGH? IJK. L, MNO. PQRS? TU? VWX. YZ!

Look for the Signals is a strategy that helps students to see how punctuation and other typographical signals (e.g., punctuation marks, large and bold print, underlining, italics) affect meaning and help readers better understand an

Signal What it Conveys Example Comma Need to pause Placement affects meaning Mary, my daughter is as tall as you. Mary, my daughter, is as tall as you. Period Need a longer pause The clouds look strange. Exclamation Point Need to read with emotion It was a wonderful party! Underlined, enlarged, bold or italicized Need for special stress This is what I said. Question Mark Need to raise intonation at the end of the sentence Did you sleep well last night? Combination Used to show meaningful units The coach said, “I am SO proud of how all of you played this game!”

Dialogue A Conversation on the Edge of War I am a loyal British child, a subject of the King. And I would not be otherwise. No. Not for anything. You’re a spineless little Tory. You’re a brainless as a flea- too gutless to want freedom You’re a traitor to your country without proper loyalties. You speak of “independence”, We are British colonies. Tax us! Tax us! Please, dear King. Deny us every right. But do not be surprised, dear King, If we’re prepared…. To fight!

Phrasing The way in which words are chosen and grouped in speaking and writing. Reading in thought units Using slashes or extra spaces to mark thought units in material to be read Ex.) Fred and Mary were on their way to the movies.

Chunking A similar technique to phrasing in which the student is encouraged to read phrases of language that represent meaning rather than separate words. It focuses on reading phrases of text that represent a thought. Chunking facilitates comprehension and fluency by using thought units rather than word-by-word reading.

Clouds and Fog Little drops of water come together in the sky to make clouds. Clouds get bigger and bigger as they soak up water from oceans and lakes. There are many kinds of clouds. How high a cloud is in the sky and its color tells you if it is going to rain or snow. Fog is a cloud that is close to Earth. Fog and clouds are formed in the same way. When the weather is foggy, you really are inside a cloud. If you have ever been in a fog, you know it is hard to see inside a cloud.

Try on your own In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe was a young woman living in a little town in Maine. She had been concerned for a long time about slavery. She believed it was immoral, and she couldn’t understand why everyone else did not agree with her. Over the years, she had gone to many lectures about the need to give slaves their freedom. She had read many newspaper articles saying the same thing. But the lectures and articles always annoyed her. They were dry and hard to read, using complex legal arguments.