Fluency: Importance, Instruction and Assessment Aaron, Amy, Destiny, Jamie, and Keshia

Why is Fluency Important? The ultimate goal of reading is the construction of meaning. Fluent reader Shift from intentional decoding to automatic word recognition Focus changes from decoding to comprehending

What is Fluency? Fluent reading is more than just reading words accurately and automatically. Fluency is reading in phrases with appropriate intonation and prosody. Reading with expression Poor readers often struggle with prosody. comprehension

Carver’s Causal Model for Reading Achievement Reading Efficiency Accuracy Level Rate Level Verbal Knowledge Level Pronunciation Knowledge Level Cognitive Speed Level Teach/ Learn Age Verbal Aptitude Pronuncia tion Aptitude Cognitive Speed Aptitude

Instruction: Repeated Readings Timed repeated reading- student reads material at his/her instructional level for 1-2 minute timed period results are graphed, reading is repeated and results are graphed, following session repeat the process with the same passage (4 reads total in 2 sessions)

Instruction: Repeated Readings Rasinski disagrees- all repeated reading should be passages read as practice with the end purpose of performance Reader’s Theater Song of the Day Poetry Speeches Read to “Buddy” (provide feedback during practice)

Instruction: Fluent Model Teacher read aloud Books on Tape Listening Center Echo Reading

Instruction: Silent Reading Strategies to select appropriate material Accountability Reading response Conference with teacher “Rap”

Assessment: Fluency Traditional reading inventories focused on the ability to read isolated words at a given grade level. Although accuracy is important to reading, it has not been proven to be sufficient evidence to predict reading comprehension. “Fluency combines accuracy, automaticity, and oral reading prosody, which, taken together facilitate the reader’s construction of meaning. It is demonstrated during oral reading through ease of word recognition, appropriate pacing, phrasing, and intonation. It is a factor in both oral and silent reading that can limit or support comprehension” -Kuhn, Schwanenflugel, & Meisinger, (2010)

Assessment: Accuracy While accuracy is important to reading, it has not been proven to be sufficient evidence to predict reading comprehension. Accuracy combined with comprehension will help determine a student’s reading level. Oral Reading Accuracy measures: Leveled passages Missed words Self corrections Meaning change errors

Assessment: Automaticity As automaticity develops, performance is not only accurate but also increases speed. Effortlessness: Fluent readers do not struggle and are able to recognize most words. Most fluent readers are able to decode text while comprehending. Flash Timed Untimed Spelling Student’s word knowledge Word recognition-timed is a superior method in predicting oral reading rate across grade levels.

Assessment: Prosody Prosody is the act of reading with appropriate expression connected to text English language learning students will not stress words in the same way that native English speaking students do, because stress patterns vary throughout different languages. Current research is vague as to whether prosody is a reliable reading assessment.

Assessment Overview We can gather significant data through a wide range of assessments. Above all, readers need to be truly fluent instead of fast. Disfluent readers are always aware of steps needed to decode words within text, which slows the reader down; whereas fluent readers are automatic and can identify most of the words without effort. Accuracy alone is not strongly correlated to reading comprehension, so reading should be measured by three components, accuracy, rate and comprehension.

Final Thought “…fluency is but a stage name. Rate and Accuracy may be at the microphone, but the true voice is Comprehension. That’s real reading.” --Barclay Marcell

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