Fluency and Writing Fluency and Writing ModuleModule

Fluency and Writing Fluency and Writing ModuleModule

January 2009January 2009

Grade Level Breakout Session

First Grade: Teri Pearce

Goals and ObjectivesObjectives and Outcomes

• Examine the building blocks of fluency: phonemic awareness and the alphabetic principle, sound-spelling correspondence (phonics), and practice with connected, decodable text.

• Engage in activities to reinforce the importance of these components of literacy.

Questions to Explore:

1) What is Reading Fluency?2) Why is it important?3) What is the relationship of Fluency

to Comprehension?4) How can we assess Fluency? Who

needs support beyond OC/HM?5) What can we do to develop fluency?

• Moderately struggling readers• Seriously struggling readers

Why Is Fluency Important? Four Reasons:

1) Bridge to Comprehension while reinforcing decoding

2) Pleasure Principle~ fun/ease = more likely to practice

3) Practical Principle~ finish your homework grades 5-12

4) Best Overall Measure of Reading Growth in Grades 1-6

Building Comprehension: the

BIG Picture

Vocabulary/Prior Knowledge

Comprehension Strategies

Improved Comprehensio

n

Decoding/Fluency

Fluency• The Dictionary of Reading Related

Terms (Harris and Hodges, 1981) defines fluency as “freedom from word identification problems.”

• Jeanne Chall, Stages of Reading Development, defines fluency as the student becoming “unglued from print,” that is, word recognition becomes easy and no longer serves as a barrier to acquiring meaning.

Oral Fluency NormsGrade Level

Beginning of Year

Mid Year End of the Year

1st _ (Approx one word per 2-3

seconds)

60 wcpm(one word

per second)

2nd 70 wcpm 80 wcpm 95 wcpm

3rd 95 wcpm 105 wcpm 115 wcpm

Automaticity

• Before fluency practice is appropriate, students need to have developed some level of automaticity, that is, knowing how to do something so well that you don’t have to think about it. That “something” is decoding.

• When decoding is an issue, students should be reading in “connected text.” This is text that highlights the phonics elements being taught.

Dimensions of Fluency• Accuracy in

word decoding

• Automatic processing

• Prosodic reading

Automatic Processing

Accuracy in Word

DecodingP

rosod

ic

Read

ing

Fluency vs. Automaticity

“The term automaticity refers to the goal of rapid word recognition, whether these words are in passages or not.

Fluency, on the other hand, refers to a smooth and relatively rapid

reading of a text.

For fluency to be achieved, most words in that text must be read

with automaticity.”Carlisle & Rice (2002)

Improving Reading Comprehension

Processing Information

“Unlike banking, in which individuals can spend more than they possess by borrowing, human information processing does not permit debt. If a task requires more effort or attentional energy than is available, either the task does not get done or a strategy must be devised to overcome the problem.”

Samuels, et. al., 1992Reading Fluency: Techniques For Making Decoding Automatic

Step 1: Assessing Reading Fluency

(Finding Students Who Need Fluency Intervention)

• Give an Oral Fluency Assessment to all students at the beginning, middle and end of each school year

• Listen to students read aloud (individually) a grade level passage and time their fluency for one minute.

• As students read, mark any words read incorrectly.• At the end of one minute, mark the last word read

aloud• Calculate the words read correctly in one minute

(WCPM)

Analyze an OTR

Step 2: Interpret Students’ Oral Fluency

Scores • Using the IUSD Fluency Benchmarks for

each grade level, compare each student’s score to Oral Reading Fluency Norms.

• You can tell parents and administrators exactly how each student’s fluency measures against your grade level benchmark (Oral Fluency Norm).

Using Assessment Data to Guide Instruction: Plan Differentiated Interventions to Match Student

Needs

Rank Order Students on Benchmark Performances – 3 Groups

Reading Intensive Care Out Patient Clinic Regular Check UpsIntensive Strategic Benchmark

YIKES! No time to waste!

Significant intervention

needed!

Moderate risk. Some

direct support & in

class modifications

At or above grade level. On track to

meet or exceed

standards

“Students must also be directly taught what is necessary for them to become fluent.”

Charles H. Clark, 1995Teaching Students About Reading: A fluency Example

Direct Instruction

Elements of Reading Worthy of Fluency

Work(Guided Oral Repetition)

• Phonemic Segmentation: “count the sounds in /run/”

• Letter Sound Associations: /t/ /s/ /a/

• Word Families: cat – sat – bat – that – flat

• Sight Words: come, the, saw (both regular & irregular)

• Sight Phrases: come with me

• Sentences in connected text• Passages in connected text

Fluency Techniques• Smooshing - Teaching students that in oral

speech there are no breaks between words.• Return Sweep Eye Movement - The long

eye movement from the end of one line to the beginning of the next.

• Eye-Voice Span (EVS) - The distance between the eyes and voice during oral reading.

Charles H. ClarkIdeas from Teaching Students About Reading: A Fluency Example

Smooshing

…is teaching students that in oral speech there are no breaks between words.

Adapted from Charles H. Clark (1995)Teaching Students About Reading: A Fluency Example

Eye-Voice Span (EVS)

…is the distance between the eyes and voice during oral reading.

Adapted from Charles H. Clark (1995)Teaching Students About Reading: A Fluency Example

…the long eye movement from one end of the

line to the beginning of the

next. Adapted from Charles H. Clark (1995)

Teaching Students About Reading: A Fluency Example

Return-Eye Sweep

Teacher’s Role in Fluency Practice

• Orchestrates the learning experience

How do you provide practice?

• Makes judicious use of his or her professional expertise

Who needs direct instruction in fluency practice?

• Subdivides learning tasks so that each can be undertaken by the learner without undue difficulty

Word grids for automaticity versus

connected text for phrasing.

Charles H. Clark

Teaching Students About Reading: A fluency Example, p.254

Teachers Can Do Three Things

1. Motivate students to read so they keep practicing long enough to become accurate, and then automatic in decoding;

2. Help students acquire useful decoding strategies through Direct Instruction of needed phonics skills.

3. Provide students with enough reading practice for them to become automatic.

Practice is the key to building automaticity.

Samuels, et. al., 1992Reading Fluency: Techniques For Making Decoding Automatic

“Is sustained silent reading an effective way to build fluency?

Going through the evidence, very carefully, we were not able to find evidence to support that

reading off by your self, silently, helps children to read more fluently or to read

better in any other way.”

Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D.National Reading Panel Video

Sustained Silent Reading

As Fluency Practice

Effective ClassroomFluency Practices

• Repeated guided readings• HFW word grids/minute dash• Echo reading• Paired Partner Reading• Direct Instruction• Phrased Cued Reading

Four Elements That Must Be Present to Effectively Build

Fluency

It Must Be Guided Oral RepeatedReading at Student’s Instructional Level

• Guided – Teacher, CD, Tape• Oral – Not silent• Repeated – usually 3 - 4 times• Instructional Level – in their “zone”

(90 – 100% accuracy)

Repeated Readings

In first grade repeated reading can happen in several ways and in a variety of formats:

Small group Whole Group One-on-oneParent Volunteer

Effective Repeated Readings

• Occurs everyday• Varies the focus of the rereading based on the three

dimensions of fluency • Methods of practice have been directly taught• Applies the six Principles of Effective Practice• Provides corrective feedback• Text is appropriate to student’s reading level

PALS Structure(Peer Assisted Learning Strategies)

Partner via Alternate Ranking for Literacy

Pair by Alternate Ranking:1 Paired with 112 Paired with 123 Paired with 13Roles:

– Reader & Coach – More skilled reader reads first – models

– Coach corrects errors, gives points– Reader reads again– Coach rereads same passage (switch roles)– Text at instructional level of lower reader

One Minute Dash5 x 5 Grid

the a to you he

a he you to the

to you he the a

you the a he you

he to the a he

One Minute Dash5 x 5 Grid

m t c f a

t f a m c

a m f c t

c a m t f

f c t a m

• During winter /, this town makes room for new friends. //• The circus visits! //• Sunshine and beaches / makes circus people want to stay

and play.• Days get hotter. //• This means / they can practice and play outside.

Phrased-Cued Reading

General Instructional Recommendations for

Students with Moderate Needs

• Use of Music (K-1) – Sing the Sounds

• Avoid Round Robin Reading!• Structured Partner Reading• Books on Tape (read with a model)• Choral Reading & Re-Reading• Reader’s Theater

Now Showing!

Daily Fluency Practice

Video Discussion• At your tables, generate any

questions you may have regarding the fluency practice you just observed.

• Share at your tables other things you have seen or discussed at your school site that have helped you build fluency.

Fluency Practice

When you are just learning, you will be awkward, you will make mistakes, and you will need to think about letters and words.

The only way that humans become automatic at something

is through practice. Good readers are fluent because they are automatic at all of the lower-

level aspects of the task.Charles H. Clark (1995)

Teaching Students About Reading: A Fluency Example

Match and Discuss

Please find a partner and check your new fluency knowledge.

Packet Resources• Repeated Guided Readings using

Anthology selections• Repeated readings using HM

summaries • Choral Reading phonics library• HFW grids• Reader’s Theatre/plays selections

that support the themes.

Effective Programs for Students with Intensive

Fluency Needs

• Read Naturallywww.readnaturally.com

• Great Leapswww.greatleaps.com

• Fluency Formula –Scholasticwww.scholastic.com

Writing Instruction

Writing Instruction

At your tables discuss these points:What is working in your writing instruction and what is frustrating?What questions do you have?

There is no quiz at the end…..

Writing Instruction

Writing Applications Shared & Interactive Writing (K-1) Reading-Writing Workshop (1-6)

Writing Conventions Letter Formation Sound-Spelling Links Grammar, Usage, and

Mechanics

Breaking it Down

“The brain is a limited capacity processor.”

• Only so much attention is available at any one time.

• If attention resources are used up on lower level skills, there will be little attention left for higher level reasoning.

If skills are automatic, more focus can be on composition!”

L. Moats (2004)Adapted from LETRS

Letter Formation Do you have direct instruction in handwriting?

0

Teach lettersDirectly &

Systematically

• Handwriting should be accurate and automatic.

• Teach letters with their names and sounds.

L. Moats (2004)LETRS

• Write the whole alphabet in a set amount of time

• One letter per second• 20 seconds to write the alphabet

in cursive L. Moats (2004)

LETRS

Writing Fluency Goals

Writing Conventions: Lower Level Skills

Letter Formation Sound-Spelling

Links

Alphabetic Principle

The ability to recognize that spoken words are made up of discrete sounds and that those sounds can be manipulated

The principle that there is a relationship between sounds and the letters that represent them in alphabetic writing systems

Knowledge of the shapes and names of letters

+

Letter KnowledgeKnows some letter

names

Phonemic Awareness Little to none

evidenced in spelling

Louisa Moat’s Writing Analysis

Prephonetic Writing

Letter Knowledge

Understands letters represent sounds

Phonemic Awareness

Awareness of speech soundsSpelling includes initial and final

consonants

Early Phonetic Spelling

Letter KnowledgeOne letter represents one sound

Phonemic Awareness Spellings reflect their phonological judgments (vowels are present, but

frequently incorrect)

Later Phonetic Stage

Letter Knowledge

Uses concepts of orthography, but

over generalizes patterns

Phonemic Awareness

All sounds represented, though

some spellings are inaccurate

Transition Stage

Student Writing Samples

Let’s look at some student samples together and make a diagnostic plan for the next steps you would do for these students using the stages we just learned.

Diagnosis and Interventions

• Elkonin • Cut-up Sentences• Sentence Fluency• Guided journal writing• Choosing a Topic• Dictation

Share with a partner

• What have you learned or what would like to say to your table partner about writing so far?

Writing Conventions

Letter Formation Sound-Spelling Links Grammar, Usage, and

Mechanics

Adding GUMS

“When we turn our backs on instruction in writing mechanics, we are essentially turning our backs on many diverse learners. Without doubt, there exists an endless array of examples of poor - even terrible - writing skills sheets. That does not mean, however, that thoughtful educators, informed by research on composition, cannot find effective ways to teach mechanics and integrate them smoothly into composition activities.”

Kame’enui and Carnine (1998)

1. To build dictation as a classroom routine, select 4-6 words from the weekly Spelling lesson.

2. At every opportunity, check and touch the Sound/Spelling Cards!

3. Dictation is NEVER a test, it is a learning opportunity. Therefore, when needed provide more scaffolding by thinking-aloud so that students can hear from you the logic behind making correct choices when spelling.

4. Have students sound out the words as they write it.

Scaffolding Instruction

Dictation1. Dictation supports spelling and the use of the sound spelling cards.

2. It helps model the use of GUMS.

3. It helps with the lower levels of writing and supports mastering sharing their own ideas more fluently and with more accuracy.

Good Teaching Counts!

“The major prevention strategy for [struggling students] is

excellent instruction.”

National Research Council (1998)

“Practice Makes Permanent”

“Intensive students need instruction that is more systematic, explicit, focused, and accelerated.”

A. Furry (2004)

Differentiating

Share your thinking with a partner.

How do you differentiate ?

Writing Applications Shared & Interactive

Writing (K-1) Reading-Writing

Workshop (1-6)

First Grade Standards in Writing

Do you know what the first grade standards in writing are?

Writing a good sentence is foundational to every other writing standard.

Sentence Formation Practice

Given word Practicing punctuationSanta-Maria DLP pagesUsing the Project Read FrameUsing the GLAAD strategyHearing good sentences orallySorting sentences: fragment? whole? Varying sentences

Help Me!

What are your struggles with the Reader’s Writer’s Workshop?

Purposes:

Guides students through the writing process

Instructs students in specific writing genres

Applies foundational writing strategies, applications, and conventions

Reading-Writing Workshop

Personal Narrative Theme 5: Scaffolding Ideas• Mini lesson ideas: journals• GUMS focus: morning message• Planning backwards: • writing process earlier/language • 6 traits lessons• Conventions vs. application

lessons• Scaffolds for this genre

Leveled Instruction:

Level 1Teacher models writing process.

Level 2Teacher provides highly structured practice.

Level 3Teacher provides guided practice.

Level 4Students practice independently.

Helpful TipsDistributing Practice Throughout the Theme

Mini- Lessonsin Personal Narrative

SAMPLES IN PACKETChoosing a TopicTypes of Leads and ConclusionsHigh frequency word storiesAdjective Mini-ChartSentence or Fragment?

Descriptive Narrative RWW:

Theme 6• Mini-lessons for describing words• Samples in packet

Reflection Time

What are your personal NEXT steps in modifying your writing instruction?

Thank you

If you have any questions email me :tpearce@iusd,org