© 2012 by Steve Amendum. Please do not reproduce.

Elementary Literacy

NELA Literacy Workshop

Steve Amendum

Why is Fluency Important?

Fluency is currently discussed a lot in elementary school. What

are your experiences with fluency in your

schools/internships? How about with mClass Reading3D?

Relationship b/t Fluency and Comprehension

•No single answer

•Differences depend on age, development, difficulty of material

• In general, more fluency = better comprehension (only in primary grades)

•Easier, more familiar material can be read faster

Typical Reading Rates

• (Derived from Hasbrouck & Tindal, 2006; Bloodgood & Kucan, 2005)

Grade Level Oral Silent

First 45-85 50-90

Second 80-120 95-145

Third 95-135 120-170

Fourth 110-150 135-185

Fifth 125-155 150-200

Sixth 135-160 160-210

Issues with Fluency

•How fluency is assessed is important and controversial

• Rate

• Prosody

• Accuracy

•When is the “critical period” for fluency?

Reading for Fluency

•Designed to increase fluency and reading rate

•Adaptation of Repeated Reading (Samuels, 1979)

•The process can include a total of four readings of a familiar instructional level, or independent level text

• Wiki resource: Reading for Fluency

Reading for Fluency Procedures1. The student reads aloud an instructional level

text for one minute

2. The teacher records the number of words read accurately

3. The student and teacher plot this number on the graph

4. The student immediately rereads the text for one additional minute to improve his/her score

5. The process is repeated in the following session

Phrasing Practice

•Take a sentence out of a book the child just read. Write on a sentence strip and cut into each separate word.

•Arrange words into phrases, beginning with 2-word phrases and then making the phrases longer as the student improves.

Phrasing Practice

•Sentence: I went to the mall with my mom.

•2-word phrasing:

•I went

•to the

•mall with

•my mom.

Phrasing Practice

•3 word phrasing:

•I went to

•the mall

•with my mom.

Remember...

•Familiar Re-reads

•Use books with dialogue and repeated lines

•Reader’s Theater

•Move them down to easier text levels!

•There is such a thing as too fast.

What is Comprehension?

• John went to Vescio’s, his favorite Italian restaurant. He ordered lasagna. When the waiter brought it, John was so enraged that he left without leaving a tip. He even forgot his umbrella.

Comprehension and Response

•So comprehension isn’t just “getting the author’s meaning”

• It’s hard to define

Beginning Definitions...

• Comprehension is:

• Meaning CONSTRUCTING

• What you already know

• What an author supplies

• Interaction (between and among)

• Thinking and manipulating thoughts

• Reasoning

• Interpreting and evaluating

• Response is: bringing your own personal meanings to bear on what you read

Factors Related to Poor

Comprehension• Students who struggle with comprehension often seem not to...

• develop a clear focus or purpose for reading - especially before they start reading

• form a good hypothesis about the text’s meaning before they read

• make mental images about what they are reading

• monitor their comprehension to see that everything makes sense

• use their prior knowledge of similar information

• summarize as they read

• relate their reading to the immediate situation

• relate their reading to previous experiences (handout)

Children Learn By:•Relating new information to old

•Making lessons personally meaningful, or real

•Being actively involved in the learning process

•Using concrete manipulatives

•Using strategies to solve problems and organize information

Research-Based Comprehension

Strategies• Good readers:

• Search for connections between what they know and new textual information

• Ask questions of themselves

• Draw inferences during and after reading

• Distinguish important from less important information

• Synthesize information within and across texts

• Repair faulty comprehension

• Monitor the adequacy of their understanding

• Visualize and create images

RW Structure

•Minilesson

• Eye-to-eye, knee-to-knee (EEKK!)

•Time to practice

• Optional small group lessons (flexible grouping)

• Individual conferences

•Sharing

Organization

Using Schema

To record learning...

•Book Boxes

minilessons on RW

procedures

Comprehension Strategy Lessons

Engage Students...• Before reading

• Activate prior knowledge

• Teach specific vocabulary

• Engage students in the purpose for reading

• During reading

• Use a format to support readers and that makes guided reading/book clubs multilevel

• After reading

• Follow-up the purpose for reading

Wrap-Up

•Take-aways

•Big ideas

•Questions