Teaching Adults to Read: Fluency

2008 Minnesota Summer Institute

August 6, 2008

Sponsored by the

National Institute for Literacy www.nifl.gov

Facilitated by

Kathy St. Johnkatlit2003@yahoo.com

Kaye Beallkaye_beall@worlded.org

Workshop Objectives

By the end of the workshop, participants will have:Defined fluencyExplored the findings and the implications of

reading research for fluencyUsed tools for assessing reading skills in fluencyDemonstrated effective strategies for teaching

fluency

Fluency

Research

Assessment

Instruction

Fluency

What is Fluency?

The ability to read smoothly and with expression, at an adequate rate, without making errors in pronunciation.

The Three Aspects of Fluent Reading

SpeedAccuracy in word identificationPhrasing and expression (prosody)

Findings: Fluency

ResearchFluency can be taught to adults.Teaching fluency increases reading

achievement.Strategies for fluency instruction include

repeated oral readings of text to improve accuracy, rate, and rhythm.

Findings: Fluency (continued)

ResearchPractice: Teach fluency using repeated

readings.Effective K–12 strategy: guided repeated

oral reading– Also useful for those with reading problems– Motivational (leads to quick success)

Why is Fluency Important?

Fluency is required for comprehension. Accurate and efficient word identification allows the reader to pay attention to meaning.

Fluent reading is comprehensible because it sounds like speech.

Who Needs Fluency Instruction?

Most adult beginning readers and many others

Assessment of Fluency

Fluency Assessment

Mastery vs. Automaticity Mastery: the ability to perform a skill reliably without

obvious deliberate effort but with some obvious conscious application of underlying skills needed to accomplish a task

Automaticity: the ability to perform a skill with ease, accuracy and speed and without the conscious application of underlying skills needed to accomplish a task

Fluency Assessment (continued)

1. Oral Reading RateWhy do we need to measure oral reading rate?

It is a measure of word recognition automaticity. It is the first step in an informal assessment of fluency.

Fluency Assessment (continued)

1. Oral Reading RateHow do we measure reading rate?

words per minute = (number of words in passage ÷ reading time (in seconds) x 60

Oral Reading Rate Formula Practice

“It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might now infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet…”

100 wpm; 200 wpm; 250 wpm; 300 wpm

Frankenstein from Diagnostic Assessments of Reading (1992). Riverside: Itasca Oral Reading passage, Level 8

Rapid Automatized Naminga s d p a o s p dd a p d o a p s oo s a s d p o d as p o d s a s o pa d p a p o a p s

=/<18.9 seconds not a processing problem; 21.3 borderline disabled; 26.3 disabled

Felton, R.H., Naylor, Cecile E., & Wood, F. B. 1990. Neuropsychological profile of adult dyslexics. Brain and Language, 39, 485–497.

Fluency Assessment (continued)

2. Reading AccuracyAre words read correctly?

Does the reader pay attention to the punctuation?

Scoring Oral Reading Accuracy

Real Errors– Mispronunciations—count only first time

the error is made– Substitutions – Insertions – Omissions – Supplied words

Scoring Oral Reading Accuracy (continued)

Not Real Errors– Self-corrections– Repetitions– Errors in word endings: –ing, –ed, –s – Pronunciation errors in proper nouns

Assessing Oral Reading Accuracy

A type of drawing of a person that we often see in newspapers is a caricature. A caricature portrays someone so that he or she can be recognized, but looks peculiar or funny. Usually the people who are drawn are famous politicians or public figures.

“Caricature” from Diagnostic Assessments of Reading, (1992). Riverside: Itasca Oral Reading passage, Level 5

Assessing Oral Reading Accuracy (continued)

A type of drawing of a person that we often see in a newspapers is a caricatures. A caricatures 1 portrays someone so that he or she can be recognized, but looked peculiar or funny. Usually the people who are drawn are (famous) funny political or public figures. 1

“Caricature” from Diagnostic Assessments of Reading, (1992). Riverside: Itasca Oral Reading passage, Level 5

Assessing Oral Reading Accuracy (continued)

One of the secrets of caricatures is to take part of the person’s face which is in real life rather striking (a big nose, perhaps) and use that feature as the basis for the drawing. Very few of us have regular faces with everything of standard size, and perhaps if you look in the mirror, you will find something that is specially you.“Caricature” from Diagnostic Assessments of Reading, (1992). Riverside: Itasca Oral Reading passage, Level 5

Assessing Oral Reading Accuracy (continued)

One of the secret(s) of the caricatures is to take 1 part of (the) a person’s face which is in real life rather striking (a big nose, perhaps) and use (that) the (feature) future as the base(is) for the 3 drawing. Very few of us have regular face(s) (with) which everything of standard size, and perhaps if 1 you looked in the mirror, you will find something that is specially in you.” 1

Total real errors for the passage: 8

“Caricature” from Diagnostic Assessments of Reading, (1992). Riverside: Itasca Oral Reading passage, Level 5

Fluency Assessment (continued)

3. Reading ProsodyDoes the reader chunk words into phrases bringing a rhythm to the text and some evidence of comprehension?

Prosody Pause Scale

3 Smooth reading, with pauses occurring at appropriate points and few (if any) repetitions

2 Fairly steady reading, but with pauses occurring sometimes within phrases and/or some repetitions

1 Uneven/choppy reading, with frequent repetitions and/or lapses in phrasing and/or sounding out of words

0 Labored, word-by-word reading,with continual repetitions, frequent stopping, and/or sounding out of words

Prosody Pause Scale (continued)

We don’t know when or where it started—the fusion of African and European elements that made possible the uniquely American music called jazz. We don’t even know where the strange four-letter word itself really came from—its etymology is as obscure as the origins of the music.

“Jazz” from Diagnostic Assessments of Reading, (1992). Riverside: Itasca Oral Reading passage, Level 9/10

Prosody Pause Scale (continued)

…We do know that the music with the odd name, bred in the most humble circumstances, has become the first truly global art alongside the other form intrinsic to the twentieth century, the motion picture. The message of jazz, direct and immediate, speaks to the heart, across cultural, linguistic, and political barriers.

“Jazz” from Diagnostic Assessments of Reading, (1992). Riverside: Itasca Oral Reading passage, Level 9/10

Instruction in Fluency

Fluency Instruction

Research-based TipsUse a fluency measure with (at least)

beginning and intermediate-level readers.Use guided, repeated oral reading

techniques to build reading fluency.

Guided Repeated Oral Reading Techniques

Reading to the teacher or tutorEcho readingDyad or choral readingPaired or partner readingTape-assisted readingPerformance readingCross-generational reading

Fluency Instruction Practice

Echo reading: Time Machine passageDyad reading: Huckleberry Finn passage

Fluency Instruction Practice

Echo reading: Time Machine passageDyad reading: Huckleberry Finn passage

Other Issues inFluency Development

Appropriate difficulty of materials– Easier text for speed and phrasing– More difficult text for accuracy (decoding practice)

Audiotapes or CDsTeacher guidance

– Limit interruptions

Silent reading (before oral)

An Online Fluency Resource

Reading Skills for Today’s Adults

on the Marshall, Minnesota website:

www.marshalladulteducation.org

An Online Fluency Resource

www.marshalladulteducation.org/ reading_skills_home.htm

An online collection of stories and articles for reading practice across a wide range of readability levels

Oral readings users may access for each selection (readings at three different speeds)

A timer that users may download to time their own readings

A downloadable chart students may use to record their timed readings

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