FLUENCY
What is it?
Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. Their reading is smooth and has expression. |
Punctuation Dance
4th-6th Grade Fluency Phrases
Video of Fluency Lesson
5 Strategies of Fluency
5 Surefire Strategies for Developing Reading Fluency
Give students the practice to read with ease and confidence, and watch accuracy and understanding soar.
By Lisa Blau
Have you ever watched students struggle with what you know to be a great book, just perfect for their age and development? Without fluency, the world of imagination, humor, and drama contained in the finest books is no more than a tangle of words.
One definition of fluency is the ability to read aloud expressively and with understanding. When fluent readers read aloud, the text flows as if strung together like pearls on a necklace, rather than sounding halting and choppy.
Here are some strategies to help second through fifth graders make important gains in this area. Before you use these techniques, however, you should assess your students and determine their needs. If several students need help, you may want to create whole-class lessons based on choral reading or reader's theater. If there are only a few students, you may decide to work with them in small groups.
1. Model Fluent ReadingIn order to read fluently, students must first hear and understand what fluent reading sounds like. From there, they will be more likely to transfer those experiences into their own reading. The most powerful way for you to help your students is to read aloud to them, often and with great expression. Choose selections carefully. Expose them to a wide variety of genres including poetry, excerpts from speeches, and folk and fairy tales with rich, lyrical language — texts that will spark your students' interests and draw them into the reading experience.
Following a read-aloud session, ask your students: "After listening to how I read, can you tell me what I did that is like what good readers do?" Encourage students to share their thoughts. Also, ask your students to think about how a fluent reader keeps the listener engaged.
2. Do Repeated Readings in ClassIn their landmark book, Classrooms That Work, Patricia Cunningham and Richard Allington stress the importance (and I agree) of repeated readings as a way to help students recognize high-frequency words more easily, thereby strengthening their ease of reading. Having students practice reading by rereading short passages aloud is one of the best ways I know of to promote fluency.
For example, choose a short poem to begin with, preferably one that fits into your current unit of study, and transpose it onto an overhead transparency. Make a copy of the poem for each student. Read the poem aloud several times while your students listen and follow along. Take a moment to discuss your reading behaviors such as phrasing (i.e. the ability to read several words together in one breath), rate (the speed at which we read), and intonation (the emphasis we give to particular words or phrases).
Next, ask your students to engage in an "echo reading," in which you read a line and all the students repeat the line back to you. Following the echo reading, have students read the entire poem together as a "choral read." You will find that doing group readings like these can be effective strategies for promoting fluency because all students are actively engaged. As such, they may be less apprehensive about making a mistake because they are part of a community of readers, rather than standing alone.
3. Promote Phrased Reading in ClassFluency involves reading phrases seamlessly, as opposed to word by word. To help students read phrases better, begin with a terrific poem. Two of my students' favorites are "Something Told the Wild Geese" by Rachel Field, and "Noodles" by Janet Wong. (See resources below.)
After selecting a poem, write its lines onto sentence strips, which serve as cue cards, to show students how good readers cluster portions of text rather than saying each word separately. Hold up strips one at a time and have students read the phrases together. Reinforce phrased reading by using the same poem in guided reading and pointing to passages you read as a class.
4. Enlist Tutors to Help OutProvide support for your nonfluent readers by asking tutors — instructional aides, parent volunteers, or older students — to help. The tutor and the student can read a preselected text aloud simultaneously. By offering positive feedback when the reader reads well, and by rereading passages when he or she struggles, the tutor provides a helpful kind of one-on-one support. The sessions can be short — 15 minutes at most. Plus, if you provide tutors with the text that you plan to use in an upcoming group lesson, you can give your nonfluent readers a jump start prior to the next lesson.
5. Try a Reader's Theater in ClassBecause reader's theater is an oral performance of a script, it is one of the best ways to promote fluency. In the exercise, meaning is conveyed through expression and intonation. The focus thus becomes interpreting the script rather than memorizing it.
Getting started is easy. Simply give each student a copy of the script, and read it aloud as you would any other piece of literature. (See script resources below.) After your read-aloud, do an echo read and a choral read of the script to involve the entire class. Once the class has had enough practice, choose students to read the various parts. Put together a few simple props and costumes, and invite other classes to attend the performance.
For the presentation, have readers stand, or sit on stools, in front of the room and face the audience. Position them in order of each character's importance. Encourage students to make eye contact with the audience and one another before they read. Once they start, they should hold their scripts at chest level to avoid hiding their faces, and look out at the audience periodically.
After the performance, have students state their names and the part that they read. You might also want to videotape the performance so that you can review it with students later. In doing so, you will show them that they are, indeed, fluent readers.
Give students the practice to read with ease and confidence, and watch accuracy and understanding soar.
By Lisa Blau
- Grades: 3–5, 6–8
Have you ever watched students struggle with what you know to be a great book, just perfect for their age and development? Without fluency, the world of imagination, humor, and drama contained in the finest books is no more than a tangle of words.
One definition of fluency is the ability to read aloud expressively and with understanding. When fluent readers read aloud, the text flows as if strung together like pearls on a necklace, rather than sounding halting and choppy.
Here are some strategies to help second through fifth graders make important gains in this area. Before you use these techniques, however, you should assess your students and determine their needs. If several students need help, you may want to create whole-class lessons based on choral reading or reader's theater. If there are only a few students, you may decide to work with them in small groups.
1. Model Fluent ReadingIn order to read fluently, students must first hear and understand what fluent reading sounds like. From there, they will be more likely to transfer those experiences into their own reading. The most powerful way for you to help your students is to read aloud to them, often and with great expression. Choose selections carefully. Expose them to a wide variety of genres including poetry, excerpts from speeches, and folk and fairy tales with rich, lyrical language — texts that will spark your students' interests and draw them into the reading experience.
Following a read-aloud session, ask your students: "After listening to how I read, can you tell me what I did that is like what good readers do?" Encourage students to share their thoughts. Also, ask your students to think about how a fluent reader keeps the listener engaged.
2. Do Repeated Readings in ClassIn their landmark book, Classrooms That Work, Patricia Cunningham and Richard Allington stress the importance (and I agree) of repeated readings as a way to help students recognize high-frequency words more easily, thereby strengthening their ease of reading. Having students practice reading by rereading short passages aloud is one of the best ways I know of to promote fluency.
For example, choose a short poem to begin with, preferably one that fits into your current unit of study, and transpose it onto an overhead transparency. Make a copy of the poem for each student. Read the poem aloud several times while your students listen and follow along. Take a moment to discuss your reading behaviors such as phrasing (i.e. the ability to read several words together in one breath), rate (the speed at which we read), and intonation (the emphasis we give to particular words or phrases).
Next, ask your students to engage in an "echo reading," in which you read a line and all the students repeat the line back to you. Following the echo reading, have students read the entire poem together as a "choral read." You will find that doing group readings like these can be effective strategies for promoting fluency because all students are actively engaged. As such, they may be less apprehensive about making a mistake because they are part of a community of readers, rather than standing alone.
3. Promote Phrased Reading in ClassFluency involves reading phrases seamlessly, as opposed to word by word. To help students read phrases better, begin with a terrific poem. Two of my students' favorites are "Something Told the Wild Geese" by Rachel Field, and "Noodles" by Janet Wong. (See resources below.)
After selecting a poem, write its lines onto sentence strips, which serve as cue cards, to show students how good readers cluster portions of text rather than saying each word separately. Hold up strips one at a time and have students read the phrases together. Reinforce phrased reading by using the same poem in guided reading and pointing to passages you read as a class.
4. Enlist Tutors to Help OutProvide support for your nonfluent readers by asking tutors — instructional aides, parent volunteers, or older students — to help. The tutor and the student can read a preselected text aloud simultaneously. By offering positive feedback when the reader reads well, and by rereading passages when he or she struggles, the tutor provides a helpful kind of one-on-one support. The sessions can be short — 15 minutes at most. Plus, if you provide tutors with the text that you plan to use in an upcoming group lesson, you can give your nonfluent readers a jump start prior to the next lesson.
5. Try a Reader's Theater in ClassBecause reader's theater is an oral performance of a script, it is one of the best ways to promote fluency. In the exercise, meaning is conveyed through expression and intonation. The focus thus becomes interpreting the script rather than memorizing it.
Getting started is easy. Simply give each student a copy of the script, and read it aloud as you would any other piece of literature. (See script resources below.) After your read-aloud, do an echo read and a choral read of the script to involve the entire class. Once the class has had enough practice, choose students to read the various parts. Put together a few simple props and costumes, and invite other classes to attend the performance.
For the presentation, have readers stand, or sit on stools, in front of the room and face the audience. Position them in order of each character's importance. Encourage students to make eye contact with the audience and one another before they read. Once they start, they should hold their scripts at chest level to avoid hiding their faces, and look out at the audience periodically.
After the performance, have students state their names and the part that they read. You might also want to videotape the performance so that you can review it with students later. In doing so, you will show them that they are, indeed, fluent readers.
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/5-surefire-strategies-developing-reading-fluency
Fluency Worksheets
How and Why to teach Fluency
How and Why to Teach FluencyJune 15th, 2009 | Mark Pennington, MA Reading SpecialistGoto commentsLeave a comment
How to Teach Fluency
First of all, let’s get on the same page about what we are trying to teach when we talk about fluency.
What Fluency Is Not
Fluency is not the ability to read fast. A fluency score does not determine grade level reading. A high fluency score is not a guarantee of good reading comprehension. Fluency practice does not consist of a read-around or popcorn reading.
What Fluency Is
Fluency is a measure of the reader’s competence at decoding and recognizing sight words with automaticity at a specified reading level. Fluency is also a measure of how well the reader attends to punctuation and the inflection of words in the manner that the author intended. Students need both oral and silent fluency instruction until mastery has been achieved.
Why Should We Teach It and How Much Time Should We Spend On It?
High levels of reading fluency are positively correlated with high levels of comprehension. Although not a causal connection, it makes sense that a certain degree of effortless automaticity is necessary for any reader to fully attend to meaning-making.
The amount of time spent on direct fluency instruction and practice should correspond to the diagnostic fluency levels of the readers. In short, students with higher fluency levels should have less fluency practice than those with lower fluency levels. I suggest three days a week of 15-20 minutes fluency practice for elementary school readers and the same amount for middle school and high school remedial readers.
A good guideline that is widely used for acceptable fluency rates by the end of the school year follows.
2nd Grade Text 80 words per minute with 95% accuracy
3rd Grade Text 95 words per minute with 95% accuracy
4th Grade Text 110 words per minute with 95% accuracy
5th Grade Text 125 words per minute with 95% accuracy
6th Grade Text 140 words per minute with 95% accuracy
Instructional Fluency Strategies
1. Modeled Repeated Readings- Repeated readings of high-interest passages at diagnosed student reading levels, along with modeled readings. Ideally, the modeled reading would be a teacher or instructional assistant, reading at a rate 20-30% faster than the students’ fluency rate with 95% accuracy. A second choice, and usually more practical alternative, would be modeled readings on tapes or CDs.
Program Materials
Read Naturally® is the largest publisher of fluency passages and accompanying modeled readings. The program’s Brief Oral Reading Screening does a good job of quickly assessing student reading levels and the teacher can certainly adjust levels of difficulty with the graded reading passages. The passages do come with a few comprehension questions; however, comprehension is not the focus of these reading intervention materials. The passages are high interest and only one page in length. The program comes with fluency timing charts to help students measure improvement of “cold”(unpracticed) and “hot” (practiced) timings. Gimmicky, but motivating, although the students always inflate their timings unless directly supervised.
Teaching Reading Strategies provides another affordable option for fluency practice. A diagnostic fluency assessment gives the teacher a baseline for each student. Each high-interest passage is an expository article on an animal-its habitat, description, role in the food cycle, family characteristics, and endangered species status. Uniquely, each article begins with two paragraphs at the third grade reading level, followed by two paragraphs at the fifth grade reading level, and concluding with two paragraphs at the seventh grade reading level. This organization helps readers “push through” to higher reading levels through repeated practice. Another unique feature of this program is the accompanying YouTube fluency passages. Each passage is read at 90, 120, and 150 words per minute. These levels provide optimal reading practice for the challenge rate of 20-30% higher than the baseline rates. Lastly, a comprehensive reading comprehension program for expository reading is tied into and uses the same fluency passages. Using the SCRIPcomprehension strategies, students learn to internally monitor and improve reading comprehension. Three vocabulary words per passage are also featured with context clue strategy sentence practice. Three levels of fluency timing charts to help students measure improvement of “cold”(unpracticed) and “hot” (practiced) timings. The price of the Teaching Reading StrategiesProgram is certainly more affordable to that of the Read Naturally® program.
2. Choral Reading with Modeled Repeated Readings- Students feel comfortable reading along with their peers. Led by the teacher, choral reading can be an effective means of fluency practice if student fluency rates are roughly the same. Plays, poetry, literature, and readers theater are all good sources for choral reading.
3. Fluency Groups with Modeled Repeated Readings- Students are divided into, say, four groups based upon similar fluency baselines. Along to tapes or CDs, the teacher, parent, instruction aide, tutor, or fluent peer leads repeated readings. Timings are taken whole class and students chart their progress. See the complete article on differentiated fluency instruction for complete details and the behavioral management plan.
4. White Noise Read Alouds- John Sheffelbine, professor at California State University at Sacramento, advocates having the whole class read individually and out loud with six inch voices, each at his/her own pace. This produces a “white noise,” which permits individual concentration. Repeated readings could certainly be added to this fluency practice.
5. Silent Reading Fluency- A number of techniques to support better silent reading fluency are found at these articles: Eye Movement Read-Study Method Poor Silent Reading HabitsSilent Reading Speed
Mark Pennington, MA Reading Specialist, is the author of the comprehensive reading intervention curriculum, Teaching Reading Strategies. Designed to significantly increase the reading abilities of students ages eight through adult within one year, the curriculum is decidedly un-canned, is adaptable to various instructional settings, and is simple to use—a perfect choice for Response to Intervention tiered instructional levels. Get multiple choice diagnostic reading assessments , formative assessments, blending and syllabication activities, phonemic awareness, and phonics workshops, comprehension worksheets, multi-level fluency passages recorded at three different reading speeds and accessed on YouTube (Check these fluency passages out!), 390 flashcards, posters, activities, and games.
Also get the accompanying Sam and Friends Phonics Books. These eight-page decodable take-home books include sight words, word fluency practice, and phonics instruction aligned to the instructional sequence found in Teaching Reading Strategies. Each book is illustrated by master cartoonist, David Rickert. The cartoons, characters, and plots are designed to be appreciated by both older remedial readers and younger beginning readers. The teenage characters are multi-ethnic and the stories reinforce positive values and character development. Your students (and parents) will love these fun, heart-warming, and comical stories about the adventures of Sam and his friends: Tom, Kit, and Deb. Oh, and also that crazy dog, Pug.
Everything teachers need to teach a diagnostically-based reading intervention program for struggling readers at all reading levels is found in this comprehensive curriculum. Ideal for students reading two or more grade levels below current grade level, English-language learners, and Special Education students. Simple directions and well-crafted activities truly make this an almost no-prep curriculum. Works well as a half-year intensive program or full-year program, with or without paraprofessional assistance.
How to Teach Fluency
First of all, let’s get on the same page about what we are trying to teach when we talk about fluency.
What Fluency Is Not
Fluency is not the ability to read fast. A fluency score does not determine grade level reading. A high fluency score is not a guarantee of good reading comprehension. Fluency practice does not consist of a read-around or popcorn reading.
What Fluency Is
Fluency is a measure of the reader’s competence at decoding and recognizing sight words with automaticity at a specified reading level. Fluency is also a measure of how well the reader attends to punctuation and the inflection of words in the manner that the author intended. Students need both oral and silent fluency instruction until mastery has been achieved.
Why Should We Teach It and How Much Time Should We Spend On It?
High levels of reading fluency are positively correlated with high levels of comprehension. Although not a causal connection, it makes sense that a certain degree of effortless automaticity is necessary for any reader to fully attend to meaning-making.
The amount of time spent on direct fluency instruction and practice should correspond to the diagnostic fluency levels of the readers. In short, students with higher fluency levels should have less fluency practice than those with lower fluency levels. I suggest three days a week of 15-20 minutes fluency practice for elementary school readers and the same amount for middle school and high school remedial readers.
A good guideline that is widely used for acceptable fluency rates by the end of the school year follows.
2nd Grade Text 80 words per minute with 95% accuracy
3rd Grade Text 95 words per minute with 95% accuracy
4th Grade Text 110 words per minute with 95% accuracy
5th Grade Text 125 words per minute with 95% accuracy
6th Grade Text 140 words per minute with 95% accuracy
Instructional Fluency Strategies
1. Modeled Repeated Readings- Repeated readings of high-interest passages at diagnosed student reading levels, along with modeled readings. Ideally, the modeled reading would be a teacher or instructional assistant, reading at a rate 20-30% faster than the students’ fluency rate with 95% accuracy. A second choice, and usually more practical alternative, would be modeled readings on tapes or CDs.
Program Materials
Read Naturally® is the largest publisher of fluency passages and accompanying modeled readings. The program’s Brief Oral Reading Screening does a good job of quickly assessing student reading levels and the teacher can certainly adjust levels of difficulty with the graded reading passages. The passages do come with a few comprehension questions; however, comprehension is not the focus of these reading intervention materials. The passages are high interest and only one page in length. The program comes with fluency timing charts to help students measure improvement of “cold”(unpracticed) and “hot” (practiced) timings. Gimmicky, but motivating, although the students always inflate their timings unless directly supervised.
Teaching Reading Strategies provides another affordable option for fluency practice. A diagnostic fluency assessment gives the teacher a baseline for each student. Each high-interest passage is an expository article on an animal-its habitat, description, role in the food cycle, family characteristics, and endangered species status. Uniquely, each article begins with two paragraphs at the third grade reading level, followed by two paragraphs at the fifth grade reading level, and concluding with two paragraphs at the seventh grade reading level. This organization helps readers “push through” to higher reading levels through repeated practice. Another unique feature of this program is the accompanying YouTube fluency passages. Each passage is read at 90, 120, and 150 words per minute. These levels provide optimal reading practice for the challenge rate of 20-30% higher than the baseline rates. Lastly, a comprehensive reading comprehension program for expository reading is tied into and uses the same fluency passages. Using the SCRIPcomprehension strategies, students learn to internally monitor and improve reading comprehension. Three vocabulary words per passage are also featured with context clue strategy sentence practice. Three levels of fluency timing charts to help students measure improvement of “cold”(unpracticed) and “hot” (practiced) timings. The price of the Teaching Reading StrategiesProgram is certainly more affordable to that of the Read Naturally® program.
2. Choral Reading with Modeled Repeated Readings- Students feel comfortable reading along with their peers. Led by the teacher, choral reading can be an effective means of fluency practice if student fluency rates are roughly the same. Plays, poetry, literature, and readers theater are all good sources for choral reading.
3. Fluency Groups with Modeled Repeated Readings- Students are divided into, say, four groups based upon similar fluency baselines. Along to tapes or CDs, the teacher, parent, instruction aide, tutor, or fluent peer leads repeated readings. Timings are taken whole class and students chart their progress. See the complete article on differentiated fluency instruction for complete details and the behavioral management plan.
4. White Noise Read Alouds- John Sheffelbine, professor at California State University at Sacramento, advocates having the whole class read individually and out loud with six inch voices, each at his/her own pace. This produces a “white noise,” which permits individual concentration. Repeated readings could certainly be added to this fluency practice.
5. Silent Reading Fluency- A number of techniques to support better silent reading fluency are found at these articles: Eye Movement Read-Study Method Poor Silent Reading HabitsSilent Reading Speed
Mark Pennington, MA Reading Specialist, is the author of the comprehensive reading intervention curriculum, Teaching Reading Strategies. Designed to significantly increase the reading abilities of students ages eight through adult within one year, the curriculum is decidedly un-canned, is adaptable to various instructional settings, and is simple to use—a perfect choice for Response to Intervention tiered instructional levels. Get multiple choice diagnostic reading assessments , formative assessments, blending and syllabication activities, phonemic awareness, and phonics workshops, comprehension worksheets, multi-level fluency passages recorded at three different reading speeds and accessed on YouTube (Check these fluency passages out!), 390 flashcards, posters, activities, and games.
Also get the accompanying Sam and Friends Phonics Books. These eight-page decodable take-home books include sight words, word fluency practice, and phonics instruction aligned to the instructional sequence found in Teaching Reading Strategies. Each book is illustrated by master cartoonist, David Rickert. The cartoons, characters, and plots are designed to be appreciated by both older remedial readers and younger beginning readers. The teenage characters are multi-ethnic and the stories reinforce positive values and character development. Your students (and parents) will love these fun, heart-warming, and comical stories about the adventures of Sam and his friends: Tom, Kit, and Deb. Oh, and also that crazy dog, Pug.
Everything teachers need to teach a diagnostically-based reading intervention program for struggling readers at all reading levels is found in this comprehensive curriculum. Ideal for students reading two or more grade levels below current grade level, English-language learners, and Special Education students. Simple directions and well-crafted activities truly make this an almost no-prep curriculum. Works well as a half-year intensive program or full-year program, with or without paraprofessional assistance.
http://penningtonpublishing.com/blog/reading/how-and-why-to-teach-fluency/
Fluency- Accuracy/Phrasing
Apps that Assess Fluency
ELL Students and Fluency
Themed fluency activity for ELL students.
ELLs and Reading Fluency in English
By: Karen Ford (2012)
Fluency is the ability to read words accurately and automatically with expression. Because fluent readers do not have to slow down in order to concentrate on decoding the individual words in a text, they can focus their attention on the text's meaning. In this way, fluency acts as a bridge between word recognition and comprehension, and this relationship is reciprocal. That is, when a student understands the meaning of the text he/she is reading, it is much easier to read that text with expression.
Fluency StrategiesLearn more in Reading 101 for English Language Learners.
Prosody is a term that is frequently heard in discussions of fluency. Prosody refers to the appropriate use of intonation and phrasing in reading. Prosodic reading involves paying attention to punctuation signs like commas and periods, assigning appropriate stress to individual words within a sentence, and raising or lowering voice intonation to match the meaning of the text (e.g., raising the voice at the end of a question). Paying attention to the elements of prosody allows us to quantify and measure what we refer to as "reading with expression."
How fluency relates to ELLsInstruction in fluency can be particularly beneficial for English language learners because activities designed to enhance fluency in reading can also contribute to oral language development in English. As students practice reading English text accurately, automatically, and prosodically, they are gaining valuable information about the sounds and cadences of spoken English, and they are also developing vocabulary skills that can contribute to oral language fluency, as well as reading and listening comprehension.
Assessing reading fluencyAs with any type of instruction, fluency instruction depends upon ongoing assessment to identify individual students' strengths and needs. Effective fluency assessment must include measures of all three components of fluency: reading accuracy, automaticity, and prosody. It is important to note that the accuracy percentages and the reading rate ranges described in this article are based on research conducted in English and should not be applied to reading in other languages. Even languages that use the same alphabet differ in such characteristics as phonetic regularity, syntactical complexity, and even average word length, all of which can affect reading accuracy and rate. Additional research is needed to determine appropriate accuracy and rate ranges for other languages.
Assessing reading accuracyAccuracy refers to the percentage of words a reader can read correctly in a given text. Measuring accuracy allows teachers to choose texts at an appropriate difficulty level for each student. In order to improve their reading, students need texts that are difficult enough to require them to practice using the reading strategies they are learning without being so difficult that the student is overwhelmed.
In talking about text difficulty, reading teachers often refer to three functional reading levels, which represent the amount of difficulty that a particular level of text presents for a student. Text that is at a student's independent reading level is text that he/she can read with 98-100% accuracy. That is, the student misses no more than two words out of every 100 words of text. At this level, the student can read independently with no support from the teacher. Text that is at a student's instructional reading level is text that the student can read and comprehend, but only with some assistance from the teacher. The accuracy range for instructional-level text is 90-97% for Primer-level text and above and 85-97% for Preprimer-level text. Text that is at a student's frustrational reading level is text that he/she can read with less than 90% accuracy (less than 85% at Preprimer level). At this level, the student would have difficulty reading and comprehending the text, even with the support of the teacher.
Functional Reading LevelsIndependent Level98-100% accuracyInstructional Level90-97% accuracy
(85-97% for Preprimer)Frustration LevelBelow 90% accuracy
(Below 85% for Preprimer)Teachers should target a student's instructional reading level for classroom reading instruction. When students read text that they can read with 90-97% accuracy, they encounter enough challenges to require them to practice the strategies they are learning, but the text is not so difficult that students are overwhelmed. Independent-level text is good for independent reading and for practicing reading speed and prosody. Frustration-level text can be great for comprehension instruction, but only when the teacher is doing the reading! Students should never be asked to read text that is at their frustration level.
Here is a quick way to measure reading accuracy:
200 – 14 = 186 words read correctly
186 ÷ 200 = .93
The student read the passage with 93% accuracy, which is within his/her instructional reading range.
Assessing automaticityAutomaticity is usually measured as reading rate, or the number of words a student reads per minute (WPM). You can measure rate at the same time that you assess a student's reading accuracy. Here's what you do (you'll need a stopwatch):
2 minutes x 60 seconds each = 120 seconds
120 + the remaining 32 seconds = 152 seconds
(200 x 60) ÷ 152 seconds = 79 words per minute (wpm)
Many different researchers have suggested guidelines for how many words per minute students should be reading at particular stages of their reading development. Although there is no one accepted scale, the following ranges, developed by Dr. Darrell Morris at Appalachian State University, can be used as guidelines:
Average End-of-Year Reading Rate Ranges (Grades 1-8)GradeOral rates (wpm)Silent rates (wpm)145-8550-90280-12095-145395-135120-1704110-150135-1855125-155150-2006135-160160-2107145-160170-2208145-160180-230Source: Morris, D. (2008). Diagnosis and correction of reading problems. New York: Guilford.
Note: Reading rate is not assessed until students are reading in Primer-level text and above. Students reading below primer level are still reading word-by-word, focusing all of their attention on decoding the text.
Assessing prosodyTeachers often use rubrics to assess whether students are reading with appropriate pitch variation, intonation, phrasing, and expression. One such rubric is the Oral Reading Fluency Scale created for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). To use this rubric, simply have a student read a short passage of text, and assign a score of 1-4, based on the descriptions below.
NAEP Oral Reading Fluency ScaleFluentLevel 4Reads primarily in larger, meaningful phrase groups. Although some regressions, repetitions, and deviations from text may be present, these do not appear to detract from the overall structure of the story. Preservation of the author's syntax is consistent. Some or most of the story is read with expressive interpretation.Level 3Reads primarily in three- or four-word phrase groups. Some small groupings may be present. However, the majority of phrasing seems appropriate and preserves the syntax of the author. Little or no expressive interpretation is present.NonfluentLevel 2Reads primarily in two-word phrases with some three- or four-word groupings. Some word-by-word reading may be present. Word groupings may seem awkward and unrelated to larger context of sentence or passage.Level 1Reads primarily word-by-word. Occasional two-word or three-word phrases may occur – but these are infrequent and/or they do not preserve meaningful syntax.SOURCE: U.D. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2002 Oral Reading Study.
Comprehension caveatEven though fluency instruction is important, teachers must remember that many ELLs can be deceptively fast and accurate while reading in English without fully comprehending the meaning of the text they are reading. That is because reading comprehension depends upon a variety of complex skills that are not as important to word reading. These include deep vocabulary knowledge, syntactical knowledge, and background knowledge of the subject discussed in the text. For this reason, it is always important to pair fluency instruction with good instruction in comprehension.
By: Karen Ford (2012)
Fluency is the ability to read words accurately and automatically with expression. Because fluent readers do not have to slow down in order to concentrate on decoding the individual words in a text, they can focus their attention on the text's meaning. In this way, fluency acts as a bridge between word recognition and comprehension, and this relationship is reciprocal. That is, when a student understands the meaning of the text he/she is reading, it is much easier to read that text with expression.
Fluency StrategiesLearn more in Reading 101 for English Language Learners.
Prosody is a term that is frequently heard in discussions of fluency. Prosody refers to the appropriate use of intonation and phrasing in reading. Prosodic reading involves paying attention to punctuation signs like commas and periods, assigning appropriate stress to individual words within a sentence, and raising or lowering voice intonation to match the meaning of the text (e.g., raising the voice at the end of a question). Paying attention to the elements of prosody allows us to quantify and measure what we refer to as "reading with expression."
How fluency relates to ELLsInstruction in fluency can be particularly beneficial for English language learners because activities designed to enhance fluency in reading can also contribute to oral language development in English. As students practice reading English text accurately, automatically, and prosodically, they are gaining valuable information about the sounds and cadences of spoken English, and they are also developing vocabulary skills that can contribute to oral language fluency, as well as reading and listening comprehension.
Assessing reading fluencyAs with any type of instruction, fluency instruction depends upon ongoing assessment to identify individual students' strengths and needs. Effective fluency assessment must include measures of all three components of fluency: reading accuracy, automaticity, and prosody. It is important to note that the accuracy percentages and the reading rate ranges described in this article are based on research conducted in English and should not be applied to reading in other languages. Even languages that use the same alphabet differ in such characteristics as phonetic regularity, syntactical complexity, and even average word length, all of which can affect reading accuracy and rate. Additional research is needed to determine appropriate accuracy and rate ranges for other languages.
Assessing reading accuracyAccuracy refers to the percentage of words a reader can read correctly in a given text. Measuring accuracy allows teachers to choose texts at an appropriate difficulty level for each student. In order to improve their reading, students need texts that are difficult enough to require them to practice using the reading strategies they are learning without being so difficult that the student is overwhelmed.
In talking about text difficulty, reading teachers often refer to three functional reading levels, which represent the amount of difficulty that a particular level of text presents for a student. Text that is at a student's independent reading level is text that he/she can read with 98-100% accuracy. That is, the student misses no more than two words out of every 100 words of text. At this level, the student can read independently with no support from the teacher. Text that is at a student's instructional reading level is text that the student can read and comprehend, but only with some assistance from the teacher. The accuracy range for instructional-level text is 90-97% for Primer-level text and above and 85-97% for Preprimer-level text. Text that is at a student's frustrational reading level is text that he/she can read with less than 90% accuracy (less than 85% at Preprimer level). At this level, the student would have difficulty reading and comprehending the text, even with the support of the teacher.
Functional Reading LevelsIndependent Level98-100% accuracyInstructional Level90-97% accuracy
(85-97% for Preprimer)Frustration LevelBelow 90% accuracy
(Below 85% for Preprimer)Teachers should target a student's instructional reading level for classroom reading instruction. When students read text that they can read with 90-97% accuracy, they encounter enough challenges to require them to practice the strategies they are learning, but the text is not so difficult that students are overwhelmed. Independent-level text is good for independent reading and for practicing reading speed and prosody. Frustration-level text can be great for comprehension instruction, but only when the teacher is doing the reading! Students should never be asked to read text that is at their frustration level.
Here is a quick way to measure reading accuracy:
- Find a short reading passage, and ask the student to read it aloud to you.
- Make note of any errors the student makes while reading. Errors include: substitutions (substituting an incorrect word or a nonsense word for a word in the text), reversals (reversing the order of two words in the text), omissions (leaving out a word), or words you have to provide to the student. If the student self-corrects after making a mistake, count the word correct.
- Divide the number of words the student read correctly by the total number of words in the passage. This number will be a percentage.
200 – 14 = 186 words read correctly
186 ÷ 200 = .93
The student read the passage with 93% accuracy, which is within his/her instructional reading range.
Assessing automaticityAutomaticity is usually measured as reading rate, or the number of words a student reads per minute (WPM). You can measure rate at the same time that you assess a student's reading accuracy. Here's what you do (you'll need a stopwatch):
- Select a short reading passage, and have the student read it aloud. Begin timing as soon as the student reads the first word of the passage, and stop the stopwatch as soon as he/she reads the last word. (To measure silent reading rate, let the student know that you will begin timing as soon as he/she looks down at the passage, and you will stop when he/she looks up at the end. Students should not be expected to read silently until they are reading at second-grade level).
- Convert the time on the stopwatch to seconds by multiplying the total number of minutes the student read by 60 and adding the number of additional seconds.
- Multiply the total number of words in the passage by 60, and divide by the student's reading time in seconds:
2 minutes x 60 seconds each = 120 seconds
120 + the remaining 32 seconds = 152 seconds
(200 x 60) ÷ 152 seconds = 79 words per minute (wpm)
Many different researchers have suggested guidelines for how many words per minute students should be reading at particular stages of their reading development. Although there is no one accepted scale, the following ranges, developed by Dr. Darrell Morris at Appalachian State University, can be used as guidelines:
Average End-of-Year Reading Rate Ranges (Grades 1-8)GradeOral rates (wpm)Silent rates (wpm)145-8550-90280-12095-145395-135120-1704110-150135-1855125-155150-2006135-160160-2107145-160170-2208145-160180-230Source: Morris, D. (2008). Diagnosis and correction of reading problems. New York: Guilford.
Note: Reading rate is not assessed until students are reading in Primer-level text and above. Students reading below primer level are still reading word-by-word, focusing all of their attention on decoding the text.
Assessing prosodyTeachers often use rubrics to assess whether students are reading with appropriate pitch variation, intonation, phrasing, and expression. One such rubric is the Oral Reading Fluency Scale created for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). To use this rubric, simply have a student read a short passage of text, and assign a score of 1-4, based on the descriptions below.
NAEP Oral Reading Fluency ScaleFluentLevel 4Reads primarily in larger, meaningful phrase groups. Although some regressions, repetitions, and deviations from text may be present, these do not appear to detract from the overall structure of the story. Preservation of the author's syntax is consistent. Some or most of the story is read with expressive interpretation.Level 3Reads primarily in three- or four-word phrase groups. Some small groupings may be present. However, the majority of phrasing seems appropriate and preserves the syntax of the author. Little or no expressive interpretation is present.NonfluentLevel 2Reads primarily in two-word phrases with some three- or four-word groupings. Some word-by-word reading may be present. Word groupings may seem awkward and unrelated to larger context of sentence or passage.Level 1Reads primarily word-by-word. Occasional two-word or three-word phrases may occur – but these are infrequent and/or they do not preserve meaningful syntax.SOURCE: U.D. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2002 Oral Reading Study.
Comprehension caveatEven though fluency instruction is important, teachers must remember that many ELLs can be deceptively fast and accurate while reading in English without fully comprehending the meaning of the text they are reading. That is because reading comprehension depends upon a variety of complex skills that are not as important to word reading. These include deep vocabulary knowledge, syntactical knowledge, and background knowledge of the subject discussed in the text. For this reason, it is always important to pair fluency instruction with good instruction in comprehension.