Literacy Strategies Building a Bridge from Fluency to Comprehension

True or False? There’s more to fluency than just rate & accuracy. A student can be “fluent” and still struggle with comprehension.

Fluency is the ability to… read accurately and quickly Recognize words automatically Group words quickly to make meaning Read aloud effortlessly and with expression Level 1 – word by word Level 2 – 2 word phrases Level 3 – 3 or 4 word phrase groups Level 4 – larger, meaningful phrase groups

Fluency can be our bridge if we go beyond rate and accuracy. Fluency gets us to the text. Prosody helps us understand the text.

3 Components of Fluency Automaticity (accuracy & rate) – gets you through the text Prosody (expression) – carries the meaning of the text & allows you to understand the text Thought (fluidity of thought) – allows us to glean concepts from text, pull it together, and apply it Turn and Talk – How do each of these components help with comprehension?

Just My Thoughts Strategy

Just My Thoughts Read the article excerpt Without discussing, write a thought you have about what you read on your group’s chart. Move to a new group. Read others’ thoughts, and add your thought about one of their thoughts. Turn and Talk – How could you use this strategy with your students?

Read Aloud Strategy

Yo! Yes? By Chris Raschka Turn and Talk – What are other ways you could use this text to model prosody? What other mentor texts have you used to model prosody?

Silly Sentences Strategy

Silly Sentences Turn and Talk – How do each of these components help with comprehension? Models the power & meaning of punctuation Provide sentence with no punctuation Groups rewrite the sentence 3 times, adding punctuation differently each time to give each sentence a different meaning, due to prosody. They went in the old house

Punctuation Matters!

Reader’s Theater & Choral Reading Strategy

Choral Reading Models fluent reading for struggling readers Gives all readers practice and a chance to read fluently Strong support for memory of sounds in words Students practice prosody with the stress points and push & pull of rhythmic language in poetry Turn and Talk – What did you notice about the different interpretations of the poem?

What strategies can you take back to use with your 3 rd graders? Click here to share.here