Competency 008: Reading Fluency

What is oral reading fluency?

The ability to read connected text quickly, accurately, and with expression.

A second-grade student scores well above the 50th percentile benchmark for fluency on the midyear benchmark assessment. However, the teacher notes that the student reads the text word-by-word in a choppy, disjointed manner and has difficulty answering comprehension questions afterward. Which of the following strategies would be most important for the teacher to include in an intervention designed to address the student's assessed needs?

-A. engaging in a systematic review of phonics elements that should be mastered by the middle of second grade -B. engaging in silent wide-reading of books written at the student's independent reading level -C. engaging in oral reading following teacher modeling using texts that are phrase-cued to approximate speech -D. engaging in buddy reading and choral reading with another student who reads at the same level Option C is correct because the description of the student's reading suggests difficulty with prosody, one of the key indicators of reading fluency. Students who read "word-by-word in a choppy, disjointed manner" will likely have difficulty understanding what they read. One feature of prosody is reading with proper phrasing, to capture the meaning of the text and/or the author's intent. To scaffold prosodic reading, the teacher can draw swoops under phrases in a section of a text to represent speech-like phrasing. The teacher can then model how to read the phrase-cued text with appropriate intonation, pitch, and expression that conveys the meaning expressed by the words. Options A and B are incorrect because these two strategies are designed to promote students' decoding accuracy and automaticity, respectively. Since the scenario states that the student "scores well above the 50th percentile benchmark for fluency on the midyear benchmark assessment," this suggests that the student's difficulty with prosody is not based on deficits in decoding. Option D is incorrect because it does not provide the student with explicit instruction designed to improve the student's prosody.

Several students in a first-grade class have progressed from the partial-alphabetic phase of word-reading development to the full-alphabetic phase. Which of the following instructional activities would be most appropriate for promoting these students' word-reading accuracy and automaticity?

-A. having the students practice reading simple closed-syllable words in isolation and in decodable texts -B. modeling the use of contextual strategies to read unfamiliar words -C. increasing the amount of time the students spend practicing reading irregular high-frequency words -D. supporting the students in reading predictable texts in a variety of genres Option A is correct because students in the full-alphabetic phase of word-reading development need multiple exposures to explicitly taught syllable types to consolidate their learning and develop automaticity, an essential component of reading fluency. Students in the earlier, partial-alphabetic phase of word reading read words by forming partial connections between the more salient sounds in a word and the sounds' graphemes, or letter representations. Students at this stage primarily rely on predicting words from their initial letters and context. Students advance to the full-alphabetic phase when they can form complete connections between graphemes and phonemes. Students at this stage sound out closed-syllable words into individual sounds by using their phonemic segmentation and blending skills and their growing phonics knowledge. At first, students will sound out and blend each letter-sound of a word. However, when they are given opportunities to sound out words multiple times, they can accumulate words they have decoded and begin to recognize them automatically. Having the students practice reading simple closed-syllable words in isolation and in decodable text supports this process and allows students to recognize an increasing number of words automatically by sight, while orthographic knowledge continues to accumulate. According to L.C. Ehri's research (2014), once a word has been stabilized in memory through repeated exposures, the mere sight of the word's spelling immediately activates its pronunciation and meaning (automaticity). Options B and D are incorrect because modeling contextual strategies to read unfamiliar words or using predictable texts misdirects students from the essential practice they need decoding explicitly taught phonics patterns (syllable types) again and again to develop automaticity. Option C is incorrect because memorizing irregular high-frequency words does not help students become more automatic with regular closed-syllable words (one of the essential foundational building blocks of orthographic knowledge in English).

Before assigning students a new science or social studies text, a third-grade teacher introduces important Tier Three terms from the text. As part of the introduction, the teacher leads students in applying morphemic analysis skills to the words and also discusses new concepts related to the words. The teacher's actions best reflect an understanding of which of the following factors that can disrupt reading fluency and affect comprehension?

-A. lack of automaticity in decoding grade-level words -B. unfamiliarity with a text's content -C. unfamiliarity with complex grammatical structures -D. limited phonics knowledge or skills Option B is correct because the teacher's actions in leading students in applying morphemic analysis skills to key Tier Three words in the text and discussing new concepts related to the words demonstrate the teacher's awareness that vocabulary knowledge and concept development are closely interrelated—discipline-specific vocabulary development involves concept learning and concept learning supports academic vocabulary development. Convergent research has shown that reading fluency and reading comprehension break down if the reader is unfamiliar with too many words in a text. Tier Three terms are vocabulary words that are specific to a discipline or subject matter. Often informational texts have a great density of Tier Three terms, and students would benefit from strategies to analyze the words' structure into morphemes. Morphemic analysis allows students to begin to recognize common Greek and Latin roots and affixes that make up many science and social studies vocabulary words (e.g., demographic, democracy, democratic). Meanwhile, concept learning reinforces their academic-vocabulary development. Options A, C, and D are incorrect because the teacher's instruction in the scenario is clearly designed to promote students' development of background knowledge related to the text, including relevant vocabulary and concepts. The instruction is not focused on promoting decoding and automaticity, teaching complex grammatical structures, or improving phonics knowledge or skills.

Name a few strategies for fluency instruction.

-Opportunities to hear and practice fluent reading -Choral reading, manipulated reading, re-reading texts -Assessment of fluency (includes running records...listening to student read, noting speed, accuracy, and prosody...accompanied by questions)

What is choral reading?

Reading aloud in unison with a whole class or group of students/ It helps build students' fluency, self-confidence and motivation.

What reading level should teachers use for small groups?

The instructional level.