Improving Fluency

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Improving Fluency

• Citrus
• Literacy, Learners, Leaders
• Developed by Becky Smith, Debbie Stanley, and
  David Jackson

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Literacy is

• Listening
• Viewing
• Speaking
• Thinking
• Reading
• Writing
• Expressing

using multiple symbol systems
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Daily Non-negotiables
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What is fluency?Reading with

• Pace
• Accuracy
• Prosody

resulting in automaticity
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Why is fluency important?

• Fluent readers have better comprehension
• Fluent readers perform better in content areas
• Fluent readers score higher on FCAT
• Fluent readers read for fun

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FCRR Study
The Florida Center for Reading Research recently
conducted a study of the FCAT to answer several
important questions
What are the reading, language, and cognitive
abilities that are most important in explaining
individual differences in performance on the FCAT
at 3rd, 7th, and 10th grades?
What kinds of skills and knowledge are
particularly low in students who struggle on the
FCAT?
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Fluency
60
Verbal Abilities
Non Verbal
Memory
50
40
7th Grade
51
Percent of variance accounted for
30
43
20
22
10
5
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What skills are particularly deficient in level 1
and level 2 readers at 7th grade?
Skill/ability
FCAT Performance Level
1 2 3 4 5
WPM on FCAT
88 113 122 144 156
Fluency percentile
7th 25th 45th 82th 95th
Phonemic decoding
27th 53rd 53rd 74th 84th
Verbal knowledge/ reasoning
34th 45th 64th 88th 93rd
SAT9 percentile
31st 51st 68th 86th 94th
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Fluency and comprehension

• Shinn (1992), reviewing twenty-eight studies,
  found a median correlation of 0.82
• Fuchs (1988), focusing on middle school, found a
  correlation of 0.91

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How do we assess fluency?
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Basic Procedures for WCPM

• Provide two copies of a grade-level text
• Mark the place after one minute
• Mark errors / (skipped words, mispronunciations,
  substitutions, reversed order, struggles lasting
  three seconds)
• Count the Words Correct Per Minute
• Dont count self-corrections, insertions, or
  correct repetitions as errors.

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How do we improve fluency?
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Partner Reading Practice

• Pair students
• Provide appropriate text
• Read for one minute
• Chart results

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Matching student with text

• Independent gt 94 accuracy
• Instructional 90-94
• Frustration lt 90
• Lexile match / Fountas Pinnell

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3-2-1 Evaluation