CURR 511 WIKI By: Amanda Paganin, Elizabeth Depue, Brendan Crowley, Amber Allenbrandt

Fluency has three main components:  Speed  Accuracy  Prosody

 Speed is the rate at which a student reads text. A struggling reader might sound choppy while reading. They would have many pauses while decoding words and not be able to read at a constant rate.

 Reread text Students can choose a paragraph from a story they are reading each day, and for 5-8 minutes they reread it until they can read smoothly, accurately, and with expression.  Practice common sight words and high-frequency words Introduce about 5 words a week to the whole class and spend the week having the students make connections and finding them in the different texts.  Adjust and apply different reading rates to match text This concept can be explained to students by using the shifting gears on a car analogy.

 Automatic word recognition  Skills to sound out unfamiliar words Readers struggling with accuracy: make frequent mistakes, have poor word recognition, skip words, substitute similar- appearing words, and struggle with unfamiliar words.

 Cross Checking – Do the Pictures and/or words look right? Do they sound right? Do they make sense? Teach student to stop at the end of sentence when it doesn’t make sense, highlight unknown words and ask these questions to determine the meaning.  Use the Picture – Do the words and pictures match? Every time a book is read teachers can model the importance of looking at the pictures and noticing how the picture relate to the text.  Use beginning and ending sounds Having students highlight beginning and ending sounds on words they don’t know repeatedly will raise their awareness so they can take their time and not make a guess.  Blend Sounds; Stretch and reread Students can use a large rubber band and stretch it out as they say the sounds of each letter in the words.

 Flip the sound Students flip the different sounds a letter can make until they find a word that makes sense.  Chunk letters and sounds together Students can use frames that will outline different sounds in parts of words.  Skip the word, then come back Students are taught to skip a word that they do not know but have to be sure to come back and determine what the word was.  Trade a word/Guess a word that makes sense Instead of skipping a word altogether students can insert another word that makes sense.

 Prosody is the refers to being able to read with expression. It is the stress and intonation of speech.  Prosody is important to make the story ‘come alive’.

 Reread text Students can choose a paragraph from a story they are reading each day, and for 5-8 minutes they reread it until they can read smoothly, accurately, and with expression.  Use punctuation to enhance phrasing – use commas and end marks as a guide to cluster words together Modeling this repeatedly while reading aloud to the students can help them to understand the spoken patterns in the English language.

 Compared to other components of reading such as comprehension, fluency is considered easier to measure and assess.  Common methods of assessment: ◦ Curriculum-Based Measurements (CBMs) ◦ Dynamic Indicator of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)

 CBMs measure oral reading fluency by calculating number of words read correctly in one minute.  They were originally designed to be a quick, inexpensive, and easily-administered alternative to standardized tests of general reading ability.  They evaluate readers on passages chosen directly from their curriculum to give teachers more meaningful information about reading ability as it relates to curricular materials.

 DIBELS is the most commonly used method of fluency assessment.  The program is based on belief that accuracy and automaticity in oral reading are indicators of general reading ability.  Like CBMs, DIBELS also measures number of words read correctly in one minute.  The program provides timelines and benchmarks for skill development that teachers can use to track student progress.

 Most current assessment methods only measure accuracy and automaticity.  Despite recognizing prosody as a component of fluency, it is not assessed by either CBMs or DIBELS.

 Materials: sample text (1 copy for each student), audio recordings of sample text (one fluent reader and one non-fluent reader)  Purpose: Students will identify characteristics of fluent reading and develop their own criteria for good oral reading.  Play non-fluent audio sample for students and have students take note of any errors they heard.  Allow students to share their ideas with a partner and generate some rules for good oral reading (with a focus on expression, rate, use of punctuation, etc.).  Play fluent audio sample for students. Ask students to share what makes the reader a fluent reader.  Encourage students to make changes or additions to their list of rules based on the sample of fluent reading.  Give students the opportunity to utilize their list of rules by orally reading one sentence of the sample text.

 Materials: readers theater scripts (or a text from which students can create their own scripts)  Purpose: Students will practice reading with automaticity and prosody.  Introduce the parts of a script (characters, stage directions, and dialogue).  Review students’ criteria for fluent reading and model how to include appropriate expression into script dialogue.  Distribute parts and allow students to rehearse their lines.  Perform the script as a whole or small group.  After performing the script once, allow students to provide feedback to each other before reading the script a second time.

 Materials: video recorder, research materials (newspapers, websites, etc.)  Purpose: Students will demonstrate fluent reading by delivering a news report.  Review characteristics of fluent reading.  Watch video clips of news reporters and brainstorm characteristics of effective reporting.  Assist students in writing a brief news article based on local, national, or world news that they will perform as a news reporter.  Give students time to practice reading their articles. Encourage students to consider how to match their tone, expression, and rate of reading to the content of their article.  Record students’ presentations of their news reports.  Allow students to watch their own reports and self-assess based on their characteristics of fluent reading.

 Boushey, G. & Moser, J. (2009). The CAFE book: Engaging all students in daily literacy assessment and instruction. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.  Kuhn, M.R., Schwanenflugel, P.J., Meisinger, E.B. (2010). Aligning theory and assessment of reading fluency: Automaticity, prosody, and definitions of fluency. Reading Research Quarterly, 45(2),  Madden, M. & Sullivan, J. (2008). Teaching fluency beyond the primary grades. New York: Scholastic.