Fluency/ Oral Reading

1. Fluency/ Oral Reading What is it? The ease or “naturalness” of reading -National Center for Education Statistics -U.S. Dept. of Education

2. Goal of Fluency Instruction is:“not fast reading… but fluent and meaning-filled reading.”

3. For Most Students Fluency Develops by Third Grade! However, we do have some students post third grade needing fluency work.

4. Key Elementsof Oral Reading • Fluency: (The flow of a reader’s delivery) • Rate: (The speed and pattern a reader follows) • Expression: (The use of tone, inflection, speed, and fluency) • Self-Monitoring: (The management of strategies for accuracy and appropriateness)

5. Increased Reading Fluency comes as a result of repeated readings.So, how do we motivate students to reread familiar text?

6. Strategies to Build Fluency • Read Alouds: Models Fluent Reading • Poetry Performances • Readers’ Theatre • Curriculum-Based Readers’ Theatre • Paired Reading, Choral Reading, Echo Reading

7. Read Alouds • Models the connection between fluent reading and meaningful reading • After reading aloud with expression, do some think alouds with how you read and why? • Metacognition: Allows students to see that meaning is not only carried in the words, but also in the way they are presented to the reader.

8. Read Alouds (Cont’d) • More difficult text, expository or unfamiliar texts forces us to slow down our reading rate for understanding • Reading these more challenging materials to students and discussing their understandings helps students to see that good readers adjust their reading rate.

9. Poetry Performances • Rhyming poetry is ideal for reading fluency instruction. • Turns poetry into performances • Builds fluency when students work to get their oral reading “just right”. • Causes students to do rereadings in a natural and purposeful way

10. Poetry Performances Cont’d • Here’s how it works. • A poetry party day is selected. • Students choose a poem to perform and practice continues for a few days prior to the party. • On the party day, lights are dimmed, a lamp is lit on the teacher’s desk, hot apple cider and popcorn is served and students take turns performing their poem. • Students use expressive and interpretive reading

11. Readers’ Theatre • Natural and authentic way to promote repeated readings • No costumes, movement, props, or scenery to express meaning, only the performers and their expressions • Reading rate as well as expression, and overall fluency improves

12. Curriculum-Based Readers’ Theatre • Use when fiction is not an integral part of the curriculum to be taught. Time is the issue. • Use the text or factual information as the basis for the script. • Younger students can contribute ideas as the teachers puts together the script. • Older students can be given this job, one stipulation, it cannot be boring. Give page, fact sheet, a story, set of instructions build the script

13. Paired, Echo, Choral Reading • Parent reading as partners, First, the parent reads the short passage, poem to the child. Then the child and parent reread it a number of times. Finally, the child reads it to the parent. • Buddy reading: Pair a third grader with a second grader. The third grader must practice the passage from the second grade reader before meeting with the younger student.

14. Assessing Fluency • Read aloud for one minute and record miscues • Find wpm • Reread same text in a number of weeks to see if rate and / or accuracy improved. • Tape recording a read aloud will help to assess the expression piece to oral reading.