SKILL AREA: FLUENCY

Definition

Fluency is reading text meaningfully with appropriate speed, accuracy, and expression.

“My child is below benchmark in Oral Reading Fluency (ORF).

What does this mean, and what do I do?”

1. What to look for: Correct Letter- Sound Recognition - Students who have correct letter sound recognition are able to read more accurately and thus fluency increases.

Parent Tip: When your child is reading to improve accuracy and stumbles on a word, look at the word to determine which part of the word is the difficult part. Help your child with the unknown part. Encourage her to apply known phonic rules and then reread the entire sentence fluenty.

2. What to look for: Automatic recognition of letter and sounds.

Parent Tip: Practice isolated recognition of letters over and over.

Flash cards: Go through flash cards of the letters and sounds connected to those letters. Keep doing this until skill is automatic. At first have letter connected to a picture so child says the name of the letter, a connecting picture and the sound. For example B, Baseball, /b/.

In Print: Use a highlighter or small piece of colored plastic to highlight the sound the child is practicing within a word. Give feedback on the correct pronunciation of the sound. Point out that sound in words as you read.

Alphabet Game: As you drive, one person says the sound the other person finds the letter to go with the sign, and another person might read the sign. For example mom says /m/, child points to sign, Dad says McDonalds

Go Fast: Use a stopwatch or second hand as you play a game to see how fast you can name letters, words, or objects in a given category. For example, words that start with /g/ as in gate. (go, guess, give, gift, gas, gone, etc.)

3. What to look for: Automatic recognition of sight words and automatic words

Parent Tip: Your child’s teacher or the Literacy teacher has a list of words that should be automatic or words that “don’t play fair” and don’t follow the rules of decoding. With a red marker write sight words (unfair words) on flash cards and write automatic words on flash cards written in green or another color. The red will remind your student they will only know this word by sight. Start with 5 of these words and keep building the pile until all the words are mastered.

4. What to look for: Repeated Reading of Letter Patterns and Words - Examples of word patterns include: c=consonant, v= vowel - cvc (cat), cvvc (coat), cvce (came), irregular and regular high frequency words. Experience with words and consistent practice are necessary to develop word reading skills.

Parent Tip: Play rhyming word games that start easy and become harder: Do yes and no rhyme? Do yes and guess rhyme? Tell me a word that rhymes with…..

5. What to look for: Fluency in Reading

Parent Tip: (Many of these tips will sound similar with just a slight twist – the important thing is to have your child practice reading a lot.)

Read Series: There are many series where readers can get familiar with the author’s style of writing. This way they can read different books, but they will be so similar the text will remain familiar. If you need recommendations, ask Karen Cottrell in the Library.

Assisted Reading - Assisted readings are used to increase fluency through the accuracy of text. Feedback through repetition in "sticky spots" is an important component of this strategy.

Practice the same text several times. Break the passage into pieces small enough to build success (sometimes 1 sentence). Use your finger to force their eyes across the page at a faster and faster rate. Always cover words with your finger in phrases, not word-by-word. Check for their understanding of the main idea of the passage.

Repeated Re-readings with Feedback on Independent Level Text - Repeated readings are used to increase fluency through the accuracy of text by having the student practice reading a text several times. Feedback focused on accuracy is the important component of this strategy.

Do all steps on a small passage: 1) you read aloud while they follow along with finger 2) you both read aloud together and follow with finger 3) child reads silently alone and asks for help if needed 4) child reads aloud alone - should be accurate and smooth

Together, you and the child read aloud at a fast pace. Read into the child's ear as you slide your finger, in phrases, under the words being read. Start with short, easy passages and move to more difficult ones.

Text Segmentation - Text segmentation provides a scaffold for readers by having the teacher organize the text ahead of time to provide practice with appropriate pausing. The visual cues provided by segmentation can take several forms, including: segmenting by line, segmenting by line and indentation, segmenting by slashes, or segmenting by spaces. Segmentation practice is shown to improve the reading performance of struggling readers at all levels, and even helps regular ability readers in high school and college.

Model reading with expression for your child. Poems, newspaper articles, road signs, cartoons from the newspaper, picture books with characters, invitations, and educational texts are all good sources. Another suggestion is to have the student take over the bedtime reading for a younger sibling.

Unable to read with your child? Make a tape of his favorite story or tape record his reading lesson for school. Listening and following along in the text makes a great connection with your child and helps with reading fluency. Get relatives who live far away in on the activity, also. Or, you could ask your child to make a tape of a book or short story for a grandparent, sick friend or someone at a nursing home.

Practice expression and pacing.

Repeated Reading of Independent Level Text - Repeated readings result in faster reading pace with fewer hesitations. Choose short selections (about 50 -100 words) and have your child reread the passage five times. Time how long it takes to read the passage each time and celebrate when the speed increases.

Provide books on tape or computer for your child to listen to as they follow along. (There are many of these books at the library.) After several readings, stop occasionally and have the child locate a specific word within the text they just read. This will help discipline your child to sit and read as well as support fluency goals.

Repeated Re-readings - Practicing 5 stories repeatedly. Break passages to be practiced into smaller chunks to build success. The children practice the text alone, only receiving help with the words they can't decode on their own. They practice the section as many times as they feel they need to be able to read it quickly and smoothly with no mistakes and proper expression. The practice should be done aloud so they can hear themselves read. Finally they read the section aloud to you.

Reader's Theater Significant gains in rate, retelling, and expressiveness have been achieved with this strategy. This is an interpretive activity where students repeatedly read a story based script. It provides oral rehearsal in preparation for reading performance.

Read a play or another piece of literature that can be read by different characters. You read for certain characters and the student reads for other characters.

Karaoke: practice singing along with the words to the music

Movie reading: Read along with the captions on a favorite movie. Turn down the volume and have your family do the reading of the show.

READING TO YOUR CHILDREN

HAVING YOUR CHILD READ TO YOU
HAVING YOUR CHILD READ SILENTLY- BUT WITH YOUR MONITORING

Are the most important activities you can do to improve fluency!