Chapter 10 Fluency Instruction By Melissa Stephenson

What? Methods for Building Fluency Independent Silent Reading Good readers can do this with minimal guidance or feedback. Poor readers, however, need connected text with adult feedback daily. Assisted Reading Helps the students “hear” a fluent reader model the text. Can be done with teacher-assisted, peer assisted, and audio-assisted reading. Repeated Oral Reading Rereading a given text until the desired level of fluency is attained. Choral reading, audio-assisted, partner reading, or Readers Theatre are all sufficient practices. Integrated Fluency Instruction This method contains all the above. This is best used with a Core Reading Program. See the graph on page 366 for a example implementation.

What? Choosing the Right Text Text Length and Genre Text Content Use passages between 50-200 words. Passages should be short so multiple readings aren’t tedious. Vary in genres (short stories, articles, biographies, songs, poems, etc). Text Content The topic should keep the students’ interest and motivation. Stories should share a common theme-based vocabulary to ensure the transfer of fluency. Level of Text Difficulty Struggling readers should have text that is one or more grade levels below their actual grade. The text difficulty will increase over time.

What? Determining Text Difficulty Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Using informal and formal assessment data pick short passages (100+ words) that are at students’ level. Step 2 Have the student read the first 100 words keep track of errors. If there are a lot of errors, select an easier passage. Step 3 Calculate the number of words that were read correctly. Step 4 Calculate the percent of accuracy. Step 5 Compare accuracy to level of difficulty (ex: 97% means independent level).

–National Reading Panel, 2000. Why? “Students who are low in fluency may have difficulty getting the meaning of what they are reading.” –National Reading Panel, 2000. Reading fluency will not necessarily come naturally, especially for struggling readers. Instead, direct instruction in how to read and plenty of opportunities to read works best. There is a strong correlation between reading fluency and comprehension. Fluent readers do not have to focus so much on decoding, therefore, they can pay attention to the content and meaning of the text.

When? Assessments will determine the student’s weakness and then establish their need for fluency instruction. Skills that focus primarily on word recognition, rate, prosody or a combination of all three. K-2 should hear text read aloud daily. 1st grade should reread familiar texts. 2nd grade daily reread aloud with corrective feedback.

When?-continued 3rd-5th grades is when reading fluency contributes to over reading comprehension along with vocabulary and background knowledge. Need daily rereading with corrective feedback. Beyond 6th grade, students need sufficient amounts of reading practice with a wide range of texts. The number content-specific words expands when the student moves into middle and high school. See Chart on pg 373 “When to Teach Fluency.”

How? Time Repeated Oral Reading Partner Reading An intervention that is most important for slow but accurate reader. The student needs more practice to increase their ability to be more automatic. Similar to timed readings used to assess ORF. It is designed for struggling readers with the purpose of building student’s oral reading fluency at the student’s instructional level. Partner Reading Motivational way for students who need extra assistance while reading. They are paired as a higher- and lower-performing student. Students will read a passage at their instructional level. This model is based upon Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (Vanderbilt University).

How? Phrase-Cued Reading Readers Theatre Fluent readers are able to chunk and phrase words into meaningful units. A phrase-cue text is marked with boundaries to help students become aware of sentence structure. For students 1st -3rd it helps improve reading comprehension. Readers Theatre This method is a group presentation that is rehearsed and read aloud instead of a memorized script. The emphasis is on prosodic reading, but it also helps a student with ORF. The sample model is based on Millin and Rinehart (1999), but can be adapted for other scripts using appropriate reading level.

How?-Time Repeated Oral Reading (pg 374-383) Prepare Select appropriate text. Enter student info on a graph (pg 376). Teach/Model- 1st Timed Reading Preview the passage. Listen to the student read. Review student’s performance. Calculate the ORF score. Introduce the progress graph and enter student data (pg 379). Teach/Model- Repeated Timed Reading Same as above. Determine whether the passage reading goal was met. Celebrate and move on.

How? –Partner Reading (pg 384-390) Set-Up Partner Reading Gather Student Data Oral reading fluency. Instructional reading level. Rank-Order Students Pair Students Assign partners. Partner seating arrangements. Select Appropriate Text

How?-Partner Reading continued Implement Partner Reading Direct Explanation Teach/Model- Partner Behavior Teach/Model- Identifying and Correcting Mistakes Saying the wrong word. Getting stuck on a word for more than 4 seconds. Skipping a word. Adding an extra word. Practice Partner Reading

How? –Phrase-Cued Reading (pg 391-397) Introduce Phrasing Select and Mark the Text Day 1- Model Reading Marked Text Preview the text. Explain the marks. Teacher modeling. Whole-group choral reading. Day 2- Model and Practice with Marked Text Partner reading. Day 3- Practice with Marked Text Whole-group choral reading. Individual or partner reading. Day 4- Practice with Unmarked Text Repeat same as Day 3. Day 5- Assess Phrase-Cued Reading

How?-Readers Theatre (pg 398-399) Prepare Group Students Select the Script Day 1 Teach/Model- Read Aloud and Discuss Story Elements Teach/Model- Prosody and Punctuation Partner Practice Day 2 Listen to a Recording Choose Parts Group Practice Day3 Individual Practice Group Practice Practice for Homework Day 4 Rehearse the Script Individualized Practice Day 5 Perform the Script

Conclusion Fluency Instruction What? Why? When? How? To develop fluency, we need teacher-directed lessons in which children spend the maximum amount of time engaged in reading connected text. –Stahl & Kuhn, 2002 Why? Students who are low in fluency may have difficulty getting the meaning of what they are reading. –National Reading Panel, 2000 When? The development of oral reading fluency…is a gradually developing, complex skill. –Speece & Ritchey, 2005 How? Time repeated oral reading, partner reading, phrase-cued reading, and readers theatre are all excellent ways to instruct fluency.