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FLUENCY
Ryan Phelps
Fluency by defintion is the ability to speak easily and smoothly, and or the ability to do
something in a way that seems very easy.
Reading Fluency is the ability to read phrases and sentences smoothly and quickly, while
understanding them as expressions and ideas.
While being able to read with ease and fluidity is a priority,
comprehension is a key component in education today. Becoming a fluid reader will bridge the path for student comprehension.
What is Fluency? 
Reading Fluency is the ability to read phrases and sentences smoothly and quickly while understanding them as expessions and ideas. Fluent reading is commonly referred to as a bridge to comprehension. Most researchers go more in depth with a greater number of characteristics defining a fluent reader, such as good prosody. Prosody refers to the melody in our speech and the ability to express it. Consider the following statement.
Watch out! You were almost hit by the bus.
(repeat with prosody)
What was the difference in the statement? Did the second reading help you to understand more quickly the meaning of the statement? In other words, reading with good prosody will aid in comprehension on a basic level. This is why fluent reading is referred to as a "bridge" to comprehension.
Benefits of Fluent Readers
Lets take a look at a few of the Benefits of developing fluent readers; - The relationship between fluency and comprehension is closely linked.
- There are numerous studies that have examined students’ fluency and their subsequent comprehension. Asstudent fluency increased, there was an equal increase in comprehension.
- Students who read fluently will choose to read more independently.
- When reading is not laborious, students often choose to read for pleasure.
- Vocabulary building and acquisition of increased knowledge
- Better able to complete assignments and homework.
Is Reading Fluency Really that Important?
With reading fluency being so greatly emphasized as a single component to literacy in education, you may ask yourself why is it that important. As the focus is moving to Response to Intervention (RTI), fluency is being the main component used to assess student reading profficiencies. Progress is monitored (generally weekly) to determine their rate improvement and if the teachers instructional interventions are proved to be effective. This allows the teacher to modify their instruction on a short term basis finding what works for each child. With the ability to "decode" text and passages quickly and efficiently, the reader can better recognize the words with automaticity, which allows the brain to focus more specifically on the content of the text. This Automaticity Theory (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974) is based on the conjecture that students can process one component of reading at a time. The key to understanding this theory surrounds the idea that reading requires more attention than children can handle, which means they are unable to complete these tasks simultaneously. Early readers are confronted with a “cognitive overload,” as they are focusing all of their efforts and attention on the decoding of the text, which impacts their ability to recall what they have just read and/or fully understand its meaning. Experienced readers are able to decode words naturally and with automaticity, which provides additional understanding with the ability to recall the information. It is also important to note that this theory supports the scaffolding system. This system surrounds the idea that children need to first master letter sounds before they are able to effectively blend and view words in a more holistic manner. Once students can decode text at a fluent level, they are more apt to apply multiple strategies in order to successfully comprehend what they are reading. This developmental process will enable students to become more efficient readers through repeated and modeled reading
Can Fluency be "taught"?
The buzz is all about fluency, but can you really teach a struggling reader to be a fluent reader, and if so how? Not without alot of work from everyone involved can you create a fluent reader, however every reader can improve their fluency rate and here's where to start!
Whole Class Context
- Discussions of the meaning of texts
- Listening to books on audio
- Shared reading of a common enlarged text
- Partner reading of texts
- Choral reading of poems
- Memorization of poems
- Voluminous reading of easy materials
- Demonstrate rereading to gain fuller understanding
Small Group Contexts
- Appropriate text levels
- Avoidance of texts that are too difficult
- Repeated Reading of texts
- Self-Evaluation of fluency and phrasing
- Attention to text features such as boldface, capitals and italics
- Attention to punctuation
- Incorporation of choral reading in guided reading lessons
- Read-aloud of sections to provide evidence for discussion
Individual Contexts
- Reading without finger pointing
- Prompting for fluency and phrasing
- Prompting for use of punctuation
- Repeated Readings
- Reading Easy texts
- Using a card to guide the eyes or showing phrases with mask or fingers
- Attending to dialogue and refrains.
As you may have noticed teaching for fluency in all instructional contexts involves some type of repetition or memorization,this loosely translates to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!
*Check This Out *
Here are some helpful links to demonstrate techniques to improve of fluency in the classroom.
Resources
Fountas, Irene C., and Gay S. Pinnel. Teaching for Comprehension and Fluency. Portsmyth: Heineman, 2006. Print
www.scholastic.com
www.readinghorizons.com
www.learnersdictionary.com
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