Fluency

“You can’t read to learn until you first learn to

read.”

-Rod Paige, US Secretary of Education

FluencyGrades 1-5

Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly (automaticity).

(Samuels, 1994)

Fluency is the ability to read text with accuracy at an appropriate rate, and with appropriate expression/phrasing (prosody).

Research says…Repeated and monitored oral reading improves fluency.

Repeated reading can benefit most students throughout elementary school, as well as struggling readers at higher grade levels.

Fluency is key to reading achievement. (Chard, Vaughn, & Tyler 2002)

It develops because students are given opportunities to practice reading with a high degree of success. They should be reading books at their independent reading level with 95% accuracy. (Allington 2001)

Fluency

Fluent readers use decoding skills to quickly read through material to achieve comprehension. They have good vocabulary and they continually make connections with the text and their own background knowledge.

(Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn 2001)

Fluency continued…Fluent readers focus on and can devote attention to comprehension.

Non-fluent readers focus on decoding.

Fluency is important because it provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension.

Fluency develops from practice it is not developmental. It can change depending on vocabulary and the background knowledge the student has. Students need to read and re-read appropriate books at their independent level.

Fluency can be very motivating to students.

Fluency continued…Students must hear fluent readers model reading and must be coached to become smooth, expression-filled readers.

To determine if a book is the correct level for a student they should be able to read a 100 word passage with 95% accuracy, meaning that they have less than 7 errors in the passage.

“Round Robin” reading is not effective. Students only read a small amount of text, only read it once, not the best use of time.

(Eldridge, Reutzel and Hollingsworth 1996)

Assessing Fluency

DIBELS or AIMSweb

3 Minute Reading Assessments: Word Recognition, Fluency & Comprehension (2205) by Timothy Rasinski & Nancy Padak

Just use instructional situationsAny passage of about 125-150 words

Grade Fall Winter Spring

1

2

3

4

5

6

0-20

40-60

60-90

90-110

95-115

105-125

20-40

50-80

70-100

100-120

110-130

120-140

40-60

70-110

90-120

110-130

120-140

135-155

Oral Reading Rate Norms

Source: Adapted from Hasbrouck and Tindal (2006)

Techniques for Developing Reading Fluency

Repeated Reading of books with conversationPartner ReadingRadio readingEcho Reading, Choral ReadingChunking

For beginning readers put phrase slash marks

Tape-Assisted ReadingReaders’ TheaterTimed ReadingRead Alouds

Websites for Fluency

http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/units/fluency.htmhttp://www.time4learning.com/readingpyramid/index.htmhttp://www.readinga-z.com/guided/fluency.htmlhttp://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/reading_first1fluency.htmlhttp://www.fcrr.org/publications/pub...uency_2005.pdf

How Much Growth?Fuchs, (1993)

Grade Realistic Goals Ambitious Goals

1 2.0 words per week 3.0 words per week

2 1.5 words per week 2.0 words per week

3 1.0 words per week 1.5 words per week

4 .55 words per week 1.1 words per week

5 .5 words per week .8 words per week

6 .3 words per week .65 words per week

Monitoring Progress

2-3 passages at GOAL or Instructional Level

WCPM goal at this time

Weekly goal- 2 words a week

Goal Period- 10 weeks

Draw “aim line” and begin instruction

This compares students to themselves rather than grade norms

Let’s Have Some Fun!

http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/carrick/

Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too

Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too, Went for a ride in a flying shoe, "Hooray!" "What fun!" "It's time we flew!" Said Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.

Ickle was captain, Pickle was crew, And Tickle served coffee and mulligan stew As higher And higher And higher they flew, Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.

Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too, Over the sun and beyond the blue. "Hold on!" "Stay in!" "I hope we do!" Cried Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.

Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too Never returned to the world they knew, And nobody knows what's happened to Dear Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too. Written by Shel Silverstein (1930-1999)