Week 6: Assignment 2: Reading Fluency

Reading fluency is a key part in the ultimate goal of teaching students to be proficient in reading comprehension.  Defined as the ability to read text correctly and quickly, fluency certainly has a critical role in a person’s ability to read and understand.  Research supports that a student who can read with fluency will spend less time decoding words and meanings and pay more attention to comprehending the sentence, passage or story.  Conversely, a reader struggling with fluency will need to devote more attention to unfamiliar words or phrases and will therefore have less concentration on the meaning and context of the story.

While debate continues about how to best increase the reading fluency of students, there appears to be agreement that it is indeed an important link to comprehension.  Academic research and anecdotal experience connects the ability to read text accurately and efficiently with appropriate phrasing and meaningful expression to an effective reading experience that is both educational but enjoyable.

One thing that I learned for the first time is the term prosody which can simply defined as expression and phrasing in reading.  While objective assessment of prosody can be tricky, I can see the importance of prosody in helping a reader understand what is being read.  Scales and checklists provide tools to assess students in prosody but the subjectivity can remain high.  Other, more measurable, assessments focus on reading speed and accuracy through a words correct per minute (WCPM) score.  This can be done throughout a school year to identify early baselines and measure progression towards increasing each student’s WCPM.

While assessment can also take place when students read aloud, the real value can be realized when such activities take place.  The teacher should provide a model of well-paced, expressive reading and provide students timely feedback on their reading performance.  Teachers should also encourage parents to do the same at home.  Noting the need to improve on my son’s reading comprehension, I have begun reading with him to improve his fluency.  By reading grade-level text aloud with appropriate pacing with prosody, I am providing my fourth grade son a model for him to replicate.  I’m also able to check his understanding of phrases, clarify definitions of unfamiliar metaphors and assess his comprehension.

In addition to student read alouds modeled with good pacing and phrasing, teachers can utilize other techniques to increase fluency.  I would incorporate choral reading where students read aloud with the teacher.  For students who struggle more than others, they can follow along silently until they build the confidence to participate through small group or even individual instruction.

For more advanced text or perhaps a relatively mature subject, I would utilize cloze reading where the teacher takes the lead in reading aloud to the class.  On a more regular basis, partnered reading can be effective for both stronger readers and those who are less skilled.  I would also have students read silently while I provide individual help for students who need it.  These activities and others are essential to building the reading skills students need to develop crucial reading comprehension proficiency.