1. What is Fluency?
Quotes Activity

2. What is Fluency? Speed + Accuracy = Fluency
Reading quickly and in a meaningful way (prosody)
Decoding and comprehending simultaneously
Freedom from word identification problems
Fluency is derived from the Latin word fluens which means “to flow”
Smooth and effortless reading

3. Indicators of Fluency Reading with expression Recall/Retelling
Words per minute

4. Some Factors that Inhibit Fluency...
Unfamiliarity with text
Limited vocabulary
Difficulty with syntax
Decoding breakdown

5. Keep in Mind… All three areas of reading fluency are intertwined
Working on one area will most likely improve the others
Attention to a single aspect of fluent reading such as rate does not preclude teaching attention to prosody and meaning.

6. Improving Prosody Reading with recordings Partner reading
Reader’s Theatre

7. Reading Decodable Text and Phrases
The bad cat
The bad cat sat.
The mad cat sat.
The mad cat’s hat
The sad cat’s black hat
The black cat’s sad dad

8. To develop fluency, students need to:
Develop a high level of accuracy in word recognition
Maintain a rate of reading brisk enough to facilitate comprehension
Use phrasing and expression so that oral reading sounds like speech
Transform deliberate strategies for word recognition and comprehension into automatic skills

9. The challenge of continuing growth in fluency becomes even greater after third grade
4th, 5th, and 6th graders encounter about 10,000 words they have never seen before in print during a year’s worth of reading
Furthermore, each of these “new” words occurs only about 10 times in a year’s worth of reading
Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to correctly guess the identity of these “new words” just from the context of the passage

10. Closing the gap in middle and high school: the fundamental challenge
Each year, the demands of text become more challenging
New words appear for the first time
Sentences become longer and more complex
Correct interpretation requires a broader range of knowledge
Here are some of the big ideas from the book
The length of what you are expected to read increases
How do you “close the gap” when the requirements for “grade level proficiency” increase every year?

11. If they are to continue growing in their ability to fluently read passages at higher levels of difficulty, children must add large numbers of words to their “sight vocabulary” every year.
Thus, its important to have reliable decoding strategies to improve the accuracy with which “new” words are identified when they are first encountered in text.

12. Knowledge and Strategies for Linguistic comprehension
Word reading fluency and accuracy X
Knowledge and Strategies for Linguistic comprehension X
Motivation and interest =
Reading Comprehension

13. Because reading in middle and high school is “thinking guided by print,” helping students meet grade level standards in reading is a job for all teachers, not just “reading teachers.”

14. It’s at least as much about building content knowledge, vocabulary, and thinking skills as it is about helping struggling readers learn to read accurately and fluently