The three components of fluency are accuracy, reading speed, and prosody. From reviewing my Literacy Reference project from TE 301 and the Tompkins book, I have remembered and learned more about effective approaches for assessing these components. I find it hard to choose one approach that best asseses all components; it seems like many have specific foci.
Running records help to assess word identification and fluency. Teachers calculate the percentage of words students read correctly and analyze the miscues. This is most effective for reading accuracy.
I've never used Informal Reading Inventories (IRIs), but they help to assess accuracy and prosody. The test consists of two parts: word lists and passages. Unlike running records, this also assesses comprehension as well as fluency because of the types of questions that are asked.
These two approaches of assessment do not address reading speed. However, the DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills): Oral reading fluency subtest, along with Fluency Checks, do address reading speed. DIBELS is used solely to measure reading speed. Students read aloud for one minute and teachres mark errors. The reading rate is then the number of words they read correctly.
Fluency checks assess comprehension, as well as reading speed, accuracy, and prosody. Although it assesses all of them, I dont know that it is the most effective for all. Students read for one minute (as with DIBELS), but teachers mark errors, calculate reading speed, and rate phrasing and expression from strong to weak.
I think I would really like to try this last one. If we can effectively assess all components of fluency in one minute, I feel this would be the best approach to use.
In my field placement, I unfortunately haven't noticed too much about students' development in word identification and fluency. My CT does DRAs, but I haven't had the opportunity to view them over time. When I go in next week, I will see if she will let me compare for progress. Although my CT reads with much expression, most of the students show none at all. I feel that this is an area where they could benefit from explicit instruction. I wonder if she will get there now because she just went to a three day conference with Anita Archer (http://www.explicitinstruction.org/), which she loved and has already started to put some of her suggestions and approaches into action. I can definitely say that I have noticed progress in a few specific students' word identification. One of the students just started in the Spanish immersion program this year and had so much trouble at the beginning of the year, since she had no prior knowlege of even the spanish alphabet. Now, she is almost caught up with her classmates in identifying words and pronouncing them accurately.
PART B:
The book I am reading for my book club is "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes." The following is an outline of a lesson plan for a mini-lesson on fluency using this book.
-Target area and rationale:
Using Fluency Checks to target all three components of fluency
Rationale: I want to be able to see how students do with all three components in relation to each other. I like the idea of using the same assessment for all three. This also checks for their comphrension of the book. I would like to give a greater focus on prosody, since I feel like my students do not read with any expression or emotion.
-Objectives:
R.FL.01.02 use punctuation cues (periods and question marks) when reading aloud with intonation, pauses, and emphasis.
R.FL.01.03 read aloud unfamiliar text with a minimum of 90% accuracy in word recognition at an independent reading level.
-Materials/Supplies:
"Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" (Coerr) - Copies for teacher and for student
Pre-made copy of the words in Chapter 2 of the book to use as a score sheet (similar to that of the running records example on page 87).
Timer
-Key events
- Introduce students to the book
- Ask students to pay attention to teacher's expression and phrasing. Give explicit explanation of what these mean.
- Read aloud to student the Prologue and Chapter 1. This gives students background before attempting to read it themselves. It also lets them follow along to observe how the teacher reads.
- Instruct student to begin reading Chapter 2, thinking about showing expression when they read.
- Keep track of reading (accuracy) errors, prosody, and then at the end count number of correct words for reading speed.
-Closing summary
As a closing summary, I would ask the student comprehension questions.
"What do you think is going to happen in the rest of the book?"
"What was Peace Day?"
"What happened in Japan that made people die or become very sick?"
-Ongoing assessment
The Fluency Check is what would be used as an assessment. Then, as an ongoing assessment, I could do the same assessment for the next books that they read. I could also have students form book groups (as we have in class right now).
Kristina, like you I have trouble picking just one approach to address all three components of fluency. I agree with you that running records are useful for accuracy, but I also think that they address speed and prosody based on what I read on page 216 of Tompkins. They address speed because the teacher times the student reading. They also evaluate prosody because the teachers evaluate the phrasing and expressiveness of the students’ reading. So really, running records address all of the components of fluency pretty well.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned that Informal Reading Inventories assess accuracy and prosody, but I think that they also assess speed. The teacher times how long it takes the students to read the passage and use it to calculate their reading rate, so that definitely addresses speed. I think both would be comprehensive assessments of fluency.
My students are in 5th grade so they all are already fluent readers. I never hear the students read out loud, but they are reading novels individually and discussing them in literature circles to improve comprehension. They also spend about 15 minutes a day doing silent reading every day. About once a month, they do sustained silent reading. The last time they did it for about 90 minutes. They can read whatever book or magazine they want during this time, so it helps them to enjoy reading and to develop reading stamina.
Mini Lesson Outline:
o Learning goal: develop prosody
o Objective: R.WS.05.06 fluently read beginning grade-level text and increasingly demanding text as the year proceeds.
o Materials: Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs
o Intro: We will be learning to increase our fluency today. We will be focusing on being able to read with expression. What do you think that means? (pause for response. If you don’t get all of the following, say it.)This means being able to stop in the right places and take breaths in the right places while reading. It also means reading with emotion and using different voices when different characters are saying something.
o Key Events:
o Today we will try to chunk paragraphs and sentences so that we know where to stop and take a breath when we are reading out loud.
o I read Pg 14 paragraph 2 out loud. We work as a group to chunk the last sentence on the board. It should look like this:
Our little brother,
Chuy,
Ran to open the door for her,
His eyes big as our empty plates,
Ever hopeful
For a miracle of loaves and fishes.
o The students pick partners to work with to chunk the last paragraph on page 31. It should look like this:
The bus was pulling up.
I had told myself
that I wasn’t going to look back
at the village,
but I couldn’t help it.
When I did,
I felt as weak
as an old cornstalk
rattling in the winds of winter.
o Then we read the last paragraph on page 31 as a choral reading.
o I have them try to chunk paragraph 3 on page 44 by themselves. Then I have someone come up to the board and write up how they chunked it. We correct it as a class, then read it as a choral reading.
o Assessment: Have the students chunk these sentences on a piece of paper and turn it in: “I landed, but the train yard was too dark and everything was moving too fast. The ground seemed to fly up. It hit me hard, and I blacked out” (Hobbs 48). If time, take each student aside individually and have them read the sentence out loud. Pay attention to where they pause.
o Conclusion: Tell the students that chunking is a good strategy to practice now so that when they are reading, they know where to pause and take a breath without taking away from the meaning of the story.
I remember doing these fluency tests for my TE 301 focus student. It was really neat to me to see how he grew through the year and how over time his scores improved. One thing that I thought of when you said you hadn’t had the opportunity to view the DRAs was the differences between my placement school this year verses my placement school for TE 301. In 301 a reading specialist teacher took all the students out one at a time and gave these tests to all the students in the school. At my placement this semester, my CT is required to do them all for the students while she is supposed to be taking care of all the other students in the class. Both schools are in Lansing.
ReplyDeleteI like your lessons, too, and how you talked about the importance of using the same assessment for all three components of fluency. Doing them with the same book each time will be beneficial as well. I also liked the idea of using the same assessments again and again with different books through out the year. Especially if the books are gradually getting harder, if students’ scores are staying the same or improving, you know they are becoming more fluent in the terms of what’s being assessed.