Fluency has become a widely discussed topic in education today. There are many opinions among educators and researchers on what fluency means, and how it should be addressed in a classroom setting. I researched four articles from respected journals, and in this paper I will attempt to define fluency and measurement tools. I will also discuss Repeated Reading as a viable strategy for teaching Fluency in the second grade classroom. I chose this particular topic, because I felt it would be most beneficial in influencing my own literacy instruction. Fluency has been recognized by the National Reading Panel Report in 2000 (NRP; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000) as being an essential component for success in learning to read. “If children do not acquire the fundamentals of reading, which is based largely on reading fluency, at a young age it places them at a considerable disadvantage in their future academic pursuits.” The primary grades are the essential point to begin fluency instruction. Fluency can be defined as the ability to read text fluently, automatically, and with proper expression, resulting in comprehension. Carnine, Silbert, Kame”ennui &Tarver, 2004 (as cited by Therrien & Kubina, 2006, p.156) state that, “Fluency serves as a bridge between decoding words and comprehension.” Therefore, fluency is not just reading quickly, but involves comprehension and prosodic features. Reading fluency has been shown to be a better predictor of comprehension than the use of other methods such as questioning, retelling, and cloze. In an article by Nichols, Rupley & Rasinski (2009), they cite the work of Chall (1996), where he proposes that there are developmental reading stages for children pres... ... middle of paper ... ...graders learning fluency techniques. Fluency must become a vital part of a primary reading program. Research has shown that the struggling reader often has less time to practice fluency, when if fact, they would benefit most from additional instruction. Dowhower’s study (as sited by Roundy & Roundy (2009), p.6) claims, “The effects of repeated reading are so strong that it should be woven into the fabric of daily literacy instruction.” Also in the same paper it is stated, ”Ultimately, akin to a domino effect, as students improve their fluency they will improve their comprehension, increase their reading level, increase their reading-oriented self-confidence and expand their understanding and enjoyment of language.” (Roundy & Roundy, 2009) Repeated reading is too important to not be included in every literacy curriculum for every child.
Sroufe, Alan L., Cooper, Robert G., DeHart, Ganie B. (1992). Child Development, Its Nature and Course (2nd edt.). New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Finding a definition of literacy is not as easy as it sounds. The Webster definition says that to be literate is to be” able to read and write.” But to some researchers, this definition is too simplistic, leading to multiple models of literacy. Most Americans adhere to the autonomous model, which falls closest to the standard, dictionary definition. Believers in this form say that literacy is a cognitive activity that students learn like any other basic skill. It has a set of proficiencies that one must master in order to be capable of decoding and encoding text (Alvermann, 2009; SIL International, 1999). A competing theory is the ideological model, which claims literacy is intrinsically linked to culture, and therefore what constitutes a “literate” individual is ever-changing. Society is the largest influence on literacy, according to this thought, and it is affected by politics, religion, philosophy and more (Alvermann, 2009; SIL International, 1999). These two are just the tip of the iceberg. For example, some studies recognize “literacy as competence,” which is a “measure of competence to do a given task or work in a given field,” (SIL International, 1999) such as being computer literate. Although more researchers are recognizing and exploring multiple literacies, the one that most influences American schools is the autonomous, cognitive model – the ability to read and write. For many, it seems a simple task, but millions of adolescents are struggling or reluctant readers, and there are many reasons why young readers have difficulty with reading. XXXXXX------NEED HELP WITH THESIS STATEMENT HERE PLEASE—(This paper will focus on the effects of low reading skills, some of the possible causes of reluctant and struggling readership...
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn the more places you'll go.” This quote by Dr. Seuss explains the importance of reading. Knowing how to read is very important to be successful in life. In 2009,a nationwide study by the National Center for Educational Statistics recorded that sixty-seven percent of 4th grade students, seventy-five percent of 8th grade students, and seventy-four percent of 12th grade students were not reading at a proficient level. This will cause many problems as the child progresses through life and later on to adulthood. According to the National assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), forty-three percent read at the lowest 2 literacy level ("Who Needs Phonics"). They will not be able to apply to jobs, stigmatized in society, and may result in their children being illiterate also. In order to decrease the alarming rate of seven million illiterate children and give them a chance to have a better life is by integrating a method to teach them how to read better.
The causes of reading difficulties often arise because of learning disabilities such as dyslexia, poor preparation before entering school, no value for literacy, low school attendance, insufficient reading instruction, and/or even the way students were taught to read in the early grades. The struggles that students “encounter in school can be seen as socially constructed-by the ways in which schools are organized and scheduled, by assumptions that are made about home life and school abilities, by a curriculum that is often devoid of connections to students’ lives, and by text that may be too difficult for students to read” (Hinchman, and Sheridan-Thomas166). Whatever the reason for the existence of the reading problem initially, by “the time a [student] is in the intermediate grades, there is good evidence that he will show continued reading g...
The first article, Improving Fluency in At-Risk Readers and Students with Learning Disabilities by Allinder, R., Dunse, L., Brunken, C., and Obermiller-Krolikowski, H. Allinder et. al. described fluency, what it is and how being a fluent reader is such an important skill to have because non-fluent readers use the majority of their brains decoding words, which prevents them from comprehending anything they just read. This article included information that being a fluent reader is necessary to comprehend what is read, but also that being able to comprehend what you read will increase the reader’s fluency (pg. 49). I cho...
This literature review was compiled to investigate the question: what effective strategies in reading can be utilized by parents to second grade students to assist and improve their children’s reading fluency? When a child was a baby, both mother and father read aloud short story, poetry and nursery rhymes to make them feel the spirit of learning to reading. According to Lawson (2012), “The parental practice of readi...
The National Reading Panel identifies alphabetics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension as four literacy essentials. These fundamentals are what make up readers, without these skills students’ cannot progress in reading. In order for each individual student to thrive teachers must diagnose and implement appropriate reading content. There are many ways to assess each student in the classroom. A favored methodology among classroom teachers is Informal Reading Inventory.
In Watson, Fore & Boon, the authors take in consideration the early problems of early decoding for reading fluency. When teaching beginning readers, oral deco...
After reading about fluency and word identification case studies. My selection was Nathan a fourth grader who has a difficult time in reading. He likes reading, able to recognize sight words, and decode one syllable words. Lately Nathan attitude has change because of the task in reading he cannot master. “Skills in decoding words assists students in developing spelling skills” (Wilde, 1997). Nathan will as a goal decode 2nd and 3rd grade level text, running records with a 75% accuracy as measured by assessments, assignments, and observation. Nathan will decode 10 multi-syllabic words adding high frequency words to build up his vocabulary. Nathan reads 55 words a minute. His second goal is to have him reading 80 words a minute to bring him
Reading fluency is a very common issue due to a child's upbringing. More than likely, this means that early in the child's life, they were not properly taught and instructed adequately enough on how to write and orally show they understand the words being communicated to them. A poor ability to demonstrate this will reflect in their reading comprehension because they cannot translate words onto paper, therefore will never know their spelling or proper meaning. (Vacca, 2015).
Scott, T. M., & Shearer-Lingo, A. (2002). The effects of reading fluency instruction on the academic and behavioral success of middle school students in a self-contained E/BD classroom. Preventing School Failure, 46, 167-173.
Solley, J. (2014, February 18). Literacy for the 21st century: fluency. [Presentation] Powerpoint presented during in-class lecture. Davie, FL.
It is a “reading world” we live in and students should be guaranteed every opportunity to succeed in this information driven society. Children today are overwhelmed with more reading material than ever before on billboard, television, the Internet and at school, causing reading to become a relevant and essential need in the life of every child (Lumpkin 1972). Being able to read has become the core of our information driven society. Yet, reading difficulties continue to plague the foundation of our education system creating a problem that only seems to be escalating. Hasselbring affirms that reading difficulties are a serious concern to our nation’s students claiming that, “as many as 20 percent of 17 year olds... [are] functionally illiterate and 44 percent of all high school students…[are] described as semi-illiterate”(2004). This is a harsh reality to face – a reality that stems from difficulties developed at the elementary level where reading complications arise and usually go unchecked. These reading difficulties are carri...
Reading and writing is a key part of everyone’s life. There has been some encouraging levels of reading development in primary school assessments. According to the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy report (2015), 95.5% of students achieve at or above the national minimum standard of reading. It is important to know effective ways to teach reading so children can become active problem solvers to enable them to read for meaning or for fun. Over the years, there has been a big amount of research into the most effective ways to teach reading skills to students. There are some systematically taught key skills and strategies that help achieve these levels of reading. Some of these skills include phonological awareness, phonemic awareness,
Reading Fluency: The ability to read written text with accuracy, appropriate rate, expression and phrasing .