Conversations in Literacy

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Fluency Matters

My friend, Tammy, over at Forever in First has a great post on first graders and fluency. Fluency is such an important part of good reading. It is something that some readers continue to struggle with. Students need be able to read quickly with meaning, but not so fast that they are just spitting out the words as fast as they can go. Reading needs to be about comprehension. We teach our young readers to read to sound like talking. The younger readers are usually all for using expression and making the reading sound more interesting. I love hearing them practice reading with expression- they put all their effort into making it sound just like the character is talking through them. Tammy calls it using your storytelling voice. 🙂

But when students get older, their fluency, or lack there of, may keep them from being able to get through the material. The older, struggling reader is less likely to feel comfortable using expression when they read. They (the struggling reader) tend to rush through the material with the end goal of just get it read and done. 

 Timothy Rasinski has a lot of ideas for students who need to work on fluency. One tried and true method for me that I learned from him is the repeated readings. I model a small passage to the students so they can hear a fluent reading. They they go to different areas of the room and practice trying to sound like me as they read. After they practice at least 3 times, they can come back to me and read for me to see how they do. The key seems to be hearing a fluent read first and then practicing out loud so they can hear how they sound. Tying fluency with the purpose that it improves our comprehension of the story is important too, so they understand it isn’t just about the speed. 

What ideas do you use to help fluency in either the young reader or the older reader?  I would love to hear about them!

Comments

  1. Tammy says

    Thanks Lori for mentioning me. I'm thankful for a wonderful blogging buddy like you! Rasinski…I know that name but can't place where I've heard it. Is The Fluent Reader one I should read or is there something else he's written that you'd recommend even more?

    Tammy
    Forever in First

    Reply

  2. lorivines4 says

    Rasinski is the fluency guru. 🙂 I have The Fluent Reader and it is great. I posted the other book because I think it is an updated version of the one I have. I did my action research paper in my master's classes on building fluency. His idea of repeated readings work!

    Reply

  6. Ashley says

    Lori,

    I will have to check out the book above. Fluency was a big force at my old school! And by the way, I have picked you to be next in a game of tag going around in blogland. Head over to my blog to check it out!

    Ashley
    Live2Learn

    Reply

  8. lorivines4 says

    The Bubble Gum Tree: I am very jealous that you are getting to go to a workshop by Rasinski!! You will have to post some great ideas from it. Would love to be there!

    Reply

  9. lorivines4 says

    Cynthia: you should have a button on your blog (small picture of part of your blog banner) and a code to go with it. People can use this button (grab your button) when they post about you on their blog or if they want to put your blog button on their blog roll. I don't remember when I was on your blog if you had one or not. But that is what it is for. 🙂

    Reply

  12. lorivines4 says

    Thank you, Bonnie, for stopping by my blog and for the kind words! I follow you too. 🙂
    I agree, fluency with the young reader is about finding that balance.

    Reply

  19. lorivines4 says

    Barbara, repeated readings definitely work. 🙂
    Mrs. Schatz, I stopped by your blog too- thank you!
    Melly, thank you for commenting on my blog also!

    Reply

  21. Kelly says

    Thanks for stopping by my blog! Reading with expression and fluency is something that my kinders are just starting to learn. For really low readers, I read one sentence/page at a time and have them repeat immediately. Then, we go through the book again together, and finally they read it independently.

    Kelly
    "Kindergarten Kel

    Reply

  23. lorivines4 says

    Kelly, I do the same thing with my struggling kindergarten readers and then do lots of familiar reading with the books they now know. I appreciate you taking the time to comment!

    Reply

  27. Mona says

    Hi Lori,
    I'm glad you found me! Thank you for your encouragement! My problem at this point is trying to turn things into PDF files…I tried the CutePDF but it didn't load correctly or something? Any advice or another program to try?
    Thanks for your support!

    Kindergarten Bus

    Reply

  30. lorivines4 says

    Mona, are you trying to post something for others to be able to use? I upload my document to Google docs and link to that after posting the picture of the document. Is this what you were needing?

    Reply

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