Fluency for Secondary Students

Fluency for Secondary Students

What is fluency?

Fluency is the ability to read text effortlessly with accuracy, speed, and expression. It is also described as the rate of reading in a particular time frame. Fluent readers have developed the ability to chunk words into phrases and to skillfully use these chunks to read materials quickly.

Research with average, struggling, and learning-disabled students indicates that teachers should take the following steps:

• Model fluent oral reading (Blevins, 2001; Rasinski,2003) using teacher read-alouds and as part of repeated

reading interventions (Chard et al., 2002).

• Provide direct instruction and feedback to teach decoding of unknown words, correct expression and

phrasing, the return-sweep eye movement, and strategies that fluent readers use (NICHD, 2000;

Snow et al., 1998).

• Provide oral support and modeling for readers (Rasinski, 2003) using assisted reading, choral reading,

paired reading, audiotapes, and computer programs.

• Provide students with plenty of materials at their independent reading level to read on their own

(Allington, 2000).

• Offer many opportunities for practice using repeated readings of progressively more difficult text (Chard et

al., 2002; Meyer & Felton, 1999; Rasinski, 2003; Samuels, 1979).

• Encourage prosody development through cueing phrase boundaries (Rasinski, 2003; Schreiber, 1980).

Why is reading fluency important for secondary struggling readers?

·  Reading fluency is an important ability for secondary (middle and high school) students because of the large quantities of text they must read for class assignments.

·  The reading demands of adolescents are high; causing students with poor reading fluency to fall behind in text reading.

·  When students do not recognize words with automaticity, they spend time on struggling through materials that could be devoted to comprehending text.

·  Students with poor reading fluency read less in a given amount of time, reducing the amount of material read overall, which has a negative impact on both developing vocabulary and learning the content.

What are some instructional guidelines for building reading fluency?

·  Students should read text that is at their instructional/independent reading level.

·  Materials that are age-appropriate and written at a student’s independent level are recommended.

·  Students should possess the following prerequisite skills:

o  Sound/symbol correspondence,

o  recognition of phonetically regular consonant-vowel-consonant words,

o  recognition of some sight or high frequency words.

(adapted from Council For Learning Disabilities Infosheet: Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities in Reading: Developing Reading Fluency

Fluency Instruction

Rationale

One of the most important tools in building fluency is the read-aloud, yet as students get older, they are less likely to be read to. In fact, many would say that reading aloud to a high school student is a waste of time. However, the read-aloud concept offers several benefits even to the older student. In his book The Fluent Reader, Rasinski cites studies to underscore two of these benefits: expanded vocabulary and improved comprehension. He adds that the read-aloud also improves fluency as students come to understand that meaning is not only words but the interpretation of words. Perhaps most importantly, the read-aloud fosters a motivation to read. Another study which Rasinski cites says that “a well-planned read-aloud program, even for older students, can stimulate interest in books and introduce students to quality literature in various genres, well beyond their reading level.”

Materials

·  Engaging authentic literature in a variety of genres, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama. These pieces may be chosen for whole-class instruction in the elements of literature, or they may be chosen to stimulate interest in reading. Entire pieces or memorable passages will be excerpted for reading aloud.

·  Reader’s Theater and Plays are a good way to practice fluency.

·  Read-aloud activities designed to be used with the whole class or with small groups of less fluent readers. These activities are designed as mini-lessons requiring five to ten minutes; however, student performance of polished pieces may require additional time. All of the following are taken from or adapted from The Fluent Reader by Timothy V. Rasinski;

Direct Instruction

1.  The teacher will explain why it is important to read fluently. He/she will emphasize that good reading is more than reading fast and calling words correctly. Fluent reading helps to convey meaning through appropriate expression, phrasing, and pace.

2.  The teacher will model by reading a passage without fluency(—no intonation, word-by-word—) and then by reading a passage fluently.

3.  Have students discuss or QuickWrite the difference in the sounding of the 2 passages

Modeling

The teacher demonstrates, perhaps several times, how to read the passage with expression and appropriate phrasing. Often, s/he will use the read-aloud as an opportunity to think aloud about how a good reader constructs meaning. Students then practice in small groups to build confidence before performing in front of the whole group.

(See suggestions I have provided.)

Guided Practice Options

1. Reader’s Theater is an authentic, entertaining, and educationally powerful way to read and communicate meaning. When implemented properly, it offers many opportunities for students to practice reading in multiple and meaningful ways. Reader’s Theater yields improvements in students’ word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. (Rasinski, p.105). Monitor the students’ practice of their scripts. When a student makes an oral reading mistake that changes the meaning of a text, the teacher should direct the student’s attention to clues about the word’s pronunciation or meaning. Ask the student to re-read the sentence that contains the word. This helps the student to assimilate the correction and recover the meaning of the sentence.

2. Radio reading. Radio reading is a variation of Readers Theatre for older students that adds sound

effects to make the performance sound like an old time radio show. Groups of students can create

recorded versions of their “radio shows” that can become listening center readings for their classmates.

Students can even generate questions topose to listeners at the end of the recording. Radio

reading reinforces the importance of prosody, because so much information from the story must be

communicated through vocal variation. National Public Radio has an old-time radio show called

Theatre of the Mind. From these radio shows, an instructional program called Read-Along Radio

Dramas was developed. This program includes a recording of a radio play with full cast and sound

effects, a word-for-word read-along script, an annotated script of the original story, and a variety of

student activities.

3.Assisted reading methods

There are several effective methods for improving fluency through assisted reading with fluent

models. For example, echo reading is a technique in which the teacher reads a phrase or

sentence and the student reads the same material just behind him or her. In unison reading, the

teacher and student read together, and in assisted cloze reading, the teacher reads the text and stops

occasionally for the student to read the next word.

4.Using a Grade Level Reading Passage. During the reading of a passage, a teacher can listen to the student’s inflection, expression, and phrase boundaries. The following is a simple checklist of oral reading prosody observation:

1. Student placed vocal emphasis on appropriate words.

2. Student’s voice tone rose and fell at appropriate points in the text.

3. Student’s inflection reflected the punctuation in the text (e.g., voice tone rose near the end of a question).

4. In narrative text with dialogue, student used appropriate vocal tone to represent characters’ mental states,

such as excitement, sadness, fear, or confidence.

5. Student used punctuation to pause appropriately at phrase boundaries.

6. Student used prepositional phrases to pause appropriately at phrase boundaries.

7. Student used subject–verb divisions to pause appropriately at phrase boundaries.

8. Student used conjunctions to pause appropriately at phrase boundaries.