Developing Fluency: Theory, Research and Practice

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Developing Fluency Theory, Research and
Practice

• Georgias Reading First
• Presentation prepared by
• Dr. Sharon Walpole
• Dr. Michael McKenna

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Get a Buddy!
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What do you know about fluency?
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Game Plan Well be answering these questions
throughout the day

• What is fluency?
• Why is it important?
• How does it fit within models of reading and
  reading development?
• How can we measure it?
• How can we address it during whole-class and
  needs-based instruction?

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Where does fluency fit in the big picture of
reading instruction?
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5 Pillars of Reading

• Phonological Awareness
• Phonics
• Fluency
• Vocabulary
• Comprehension

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Phonological Awareness
Decoding
Sight Word Knowledge
Fluency Context
Cognitive Model
Automatic Word Recognition
Language Comprehension
Reading Comprehension
Strategic Knowledge
Cognitive Model
General Purposes for Reading
Specific Purposes for Reading
Knowledge of Strategies
Print Concepts
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Exactly what is Fluency?
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How do you think teachers most commonly define
fluency?
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• After it is fully developed, reading fluency
  refers to
• a level of accuracy and rate where decoding is
  relatively effortless
• where oral reading is smooth and accurate with
  correct prosody
• and where attention can be allocated to
  comprehension.
• Wolf, M., Katzir-Cohen, T. (2001). Reading
  fluency and its intervention. Scientific
  Studies of Reading, 5, 211-239.

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Fluency
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How do we know fluency is important?
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Automaticity Theory

• Two requirements of reading
• Automatic word recognition
• Construction of meaning
• The more energy spent with decoding, the less
  remaining for meaning construction
• Laberge Samuels (1974). Toward a theory of
  automatic information processing in reading.
  Cognitive Psychology, 6, 293-323.

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Automaticity TheoryLaberge Samuels (1974)
Energy Scale
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Automaticity TheoryLaberge Samuels (1974)
Word Recognition
Construction of Meaning
Energy Scale
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Lets look at the developmental levels of fluency.
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Fluency requires the child to use phonics and
spelling knowledge automatically (DIBELS LNF,
ISF, PSF, NWF)
Phonemes, Letters, Early Phonics Skills
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Fluency requires the child to automatically
integrate phonics and spelling knowledge to
recognize entire words (DIBELS ORF)
Automatic and Accurate Word Recognition
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Prosody
Fluency requires the child to link recognized
words into natural phrases, with appropriate
enunciation and emphasis (DIBELS ORF)
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Fluency in Connected Text (textual)
Fluency at the Word Level (lexical)
Fluency within Words (sublexical)
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Sequential Design for Instruction in the
Five Dimensions of Reading K-3  
  ? Direct Instruction ? Instruction done
through Read Alouds  
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(No Transcript)
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How do I know who needs Fluency instruction?
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Reading Rates (WPM)not correct words per minute
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Fluency Norms WCPM
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Oral Reading Fluency Spring Benchmarks
from Various Research
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Fluency
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NAEP Oral Reading Fluency Scale
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Talk to you buddy about
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The Fluent Reader

• Now, lets look at strategies for assessing and
  remediating word recognitions errors
• Pages 180-197

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The Fluent Reader

• Lets look at the use of repeated readings for
  building automaticity Turn to page
• In your group, divide the different strategies
  for repeated reading, read your part, summarize
  and share.

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Sum It Up
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Fluency
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The Fluent Reader

• Lets look at Readers Theater
• Page 113-136

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• One thing is certain . . . readers develop
  reading fluency through reading practice.

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Sum It Up How can we support fluency
development within our classrooms?
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How to Calculate and Set Fluency Goals

• Find handout 4

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Automaticity (or Rate)

• Assess it!
• Chart it!
• Give them a target!

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Michael

• Lets say we have a student that is reading 31
  words correct per minute(WRC) at the beginning of
  second grade as evidenced by DIBELS.
• There are 30 weeks of school remaining.
• The GPS end of year goal is 90 WRC per minute.

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Lets determine his weekly goal to achieve his
end of the year goal of 90 WRC/minute

• Determine the total number of words Michael needs
  to improve to reach the end of the year goal.
• 90 (End of year goal) 31 (WRC)
  59( of words needed to reach goal)

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• Determine the number of words Michael needs to
  improve each week to reach his end of the year
  goal of 90 WRC.
• 59( of words needed to reach goal) 30( of
  weeks 1.96 or 2wds remaining in school)

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• Set a goal for Michael to reach in 6 weeks.
• 6( of weeks) 2 ( of words needed to
  improve each week) 12( of words to
  improve in 6 weeks)
• 31 (WRC) 12( of words to improve)
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• Michaels six week goal!

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What level of text is best for fluency work?

• Talk to your buddy. What do you think?

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With your Buddy, answer these questions

• How will you determine what kinds of text a child
  should use to develop fluency?
• Will it be grade level?
• Will it be instructional level?
• Will it be independent level?
• Under what circumstances should any of these be
  used?

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With your Buddy, answer these questions

• At what stage in a childs reading development
  should s/he begin fluency work?
• Is it ever too early?

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From Research We Have Learned that

• Increasing the amount of text that children read
  orally improves fluency.
• Ensuring that the text is at the correct level of
  difficulty improves growth of fluency development
  

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• Traditionally, we have used independent level
  text for fluency practice.
• Fluency practice should be done with independent
  level text if students are working without
  support.

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From Research We Have Learned

• The correct level of difficulty should include
  instructional level, if we
• support students with their initial encounters
  with challenging texts
• provide immediate corrective feedback

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From Research We Have Learned that

• Children may be supported in reading challenging
  materials through
• Repeated readings of the same text

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From Research We Have Learned that

• Effective approaches monitor childrens reading
  and provide guidance during repeated and assisted
  reading
• Listening to audiotapes is effective when
  children are held responsible for reading what is
  on the tape

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Sum It Up
How can we increase the amount of reading within
each of our classes?
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What can teachers do to increase practice
opportunities during small group?
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Guided Oral Reading

• But why cant we just do what weve always done?
• Round Robin Oral Reading

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Continuum of Support
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Bumpy vs. Smooth Reading
Taken from a presentation by Jo Robinson,
Conyers, GA , 2008

• Model for children the difference between bumpy
  and smooth reading
• Select phrases from the upcoming story to put on
  personal lines of print cards
• All are known wordsthis is only for fluency, not
  recognition
• Give each child a different line of print to
  read
• Model bumpy again then have children read bumpy
  then have them read smoothly
• Have them pass their phrase to the next person
  say, Read it in your brain, now read smoothly
• Praise one or two children after each reading

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Personal Lines of Print Fry Phrases
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What can teachers do with the whole class?

• Distributed Practice
• Fluency Development Lesson
• Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS)
• Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (FORI)
• (For reviews of supplemental fluency curricula,
  consult http//fcrr.org and http//oregonrea
  dingfirst.uoregon.edu/SIprograms. php)

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Confession time Weve all done it and some of us
are still doing it. Talk to your buddy about your
own use of Round Robin. Why do you think the
practice is so widespread?
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Distributed Practice

• Children developing phonemic awareness and the
  alphabetic principle need short, frequent,
  targeted practice sessions
• for overlearning to automaticity in those
  sublexical skills.
• What can we do in our classrooms to achieve
  this?

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What can we do to facilitate practice with those
skills previously taught? Have you seen any good
strategies for doing this? Or are there built-in
reviews in some of the programs you are using?
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Fluency Development Lesson

• 15 minutes 4 times per week
• 1. Teacher selects short text (100-200 words)
  and prepares two copies for each child
• 2. Teacher reads the text aloud several times
• 3. Class reads the text chorally several times
  with the teacher
• 4. Students work in pairs to reread the text 3
  times each
• 5. Teacher sends text home for work with parents
• 6. Several pairs perform for the class
• Rasinski, Padak, Linek, Sturtevant (1994).
  The effects of fluency development on urban
  second grade readers. Journal of Educational
  Research, 87, 158-164.

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The Fluent Reader

• See page 145-149 for a full description of the
  fluency development lesson.

Slide added by GARF Staff
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Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS)

• 3 times 35 minutes each week, high-low pairs
• Text is appropriate for weaker reader
• 5 minutes strong reader reads aloud
• 5 minutes weaker reader rereads
• 2 minutes weaker reader retells
• 5 minutes strong reader reads paragraph by
  paragraph, stopping at each to tell the main idea
• 5 minutes weak reader uses same summarization
  procedure
• 5 minutes strong reader predicts content of
  next half page, reads it aloud, and revisits
  prediction
• 5 minutes weak reader uses same procedure
• This procedure has been used with students
  in grades 2-6
• Fuchs, Fuchs, Mathes, Simmons (1996).
  Peer-assisted learning strategies in reading A
  manual. (Box 328 Peabody, Vanderbilt Univ.
  Nashville, TN 37203)

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Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (FORI)

• Redesigned whole-group basal lesson, grade 2
• Teacher reads story to children they discuss
• Echo and partner readings over the course of the
  week
• Rereadings at home as parent listens (15 minutes)
• Free reading (SSR) 15-30 minutes
• This procedure has been effective for second
  graders especially for those who began second
  grade at least at the primer level.

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What do all of the classroom programs that have
been found to be effective have in common?

• There is some form of modeling and assistance,
  either by the teacher or a peer
• Repetition is planned and organized
• There are varied performances over time

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Current Practices Whole-class fluency work

• What fluency strategies have you used or seen
  being used?
• Are they assisted or unassisted?
• How consistently are they used?
• What evidence do you have of their effectiveness?
• Where are teachers struggling?

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Common Classroom Practices that We May Need to
Rethink if We Want to Improve Fluency 21
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What kinds of strategies should we be using in
needs-based groups?

• Repeated Readings
• Assisted Readings
• Tutoring

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Paired Reading with a Tutor

• Child chooses a book
• Child and tutor begin to read chorally
• Child signals desire to read alone
• Tutor provides words that child miscalls
• Child and tutor reread sentence chorally
• Child continues reading alone

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What Do We Know about Fluency by Steve Stahl
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Assisted Reading
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What next?

• Consider Your Focus
• What do the available data tell you about
  childrens fluency achievement?
• What materials are available for use in fluency
  instruction?
• What do the available data tell you about your
  own fluency practices? Are your students as
  fluent as they need to be?

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What have you learned about fluency?
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From Research We Have Learned that
Slide added by GARF Staff

• Fluency is most important in first and second
  grades, with other aspects of reading gaining
  importance in third and higher.
• However, we know that the need to maintain gains
  in fluency continues into high school.

Stahl, S. The Voice of Evidence, 2004, eds.
McCardle Chabra. What do we know about
fluency Findings of the National Reading Panel
Brookes Publishing Baltimore
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Resources

• Quick Tip Sheet 18
• Phrases from the Fry Instant Word List 15

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Some Generalizations

• ORF programs and strategies work best within a
  specific developmental window late first grade
  through early third grade.
• Increasing the amount of childrens reading is
  what all approaches have in common.
• Different forms of assistance and modeling may
  make more difficult texts more easily readable
  (even grade-level selections.)

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PROSODY
COMPREHENSION
FLUENCY (Rate and Accuracy)
What Do We know about Fluency Findings of the
National Reading Panel, Steven A. Stahl, The
Voice of Evidence in Reading Research, 2004, eds.
McCardle Chhabra, Brookes Publishing Baltimore
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The Fluent Reader

• Last, but not least.
• READ ALOUDS-pg. 45

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• Questions
• Comments
• Concerns