Building Fluency in Reading

The new academic year has begun and one of our most important priorities as educators is to hear each child in our class read. We need to quickly get a sense of how fluently a child can decode a text and how well they can comprehend what has been read.

The Simple View of Reading
There will be many children who are apt decoders however are unable to construct meaning from what has just been read. They may read with little expression or sense of phrasing. On the other hand, there will be children who struggle to decode words, reading text effortfully word-by-word, even syllable-by-syllable but, when the same text is read to them, can enthusiastically employ a range of comprehension skills in discussion. The Simple View of Reading (see below) is a handy way to plot where children initially sit on this continuum.

What is fluency and why is it important?

According to researchers Rasinski and Padak1, reading fluently has three main components. Fluent readers read with accuracy and automaticity. This frees the reader’s finite cognitive capacity ‘to work on comprehending the text – making predictions, asking questions, creating mental images.’ The third component is prosodic reading; reading with a sense of pace, expression, knowing when to pause, when to change pace and volume. It is important to note here that fluency is not about how fast a child can read but rather reading in a way that bolsters understanding. A useful tool in assessing all aspects of fluency is the Multidimensional Fluency Rubric2 (see below). If a child scores 10+, they are making good progress.

There is no doubt that during lockdown, many children will have had little or no access to the printed word. The closure of libraries across the country will have accentuated this dilemma, therefore direct and explicit fluency instruction is clearly an important part of any catch-up and recovery curriculum. Here are some classroom strategies that will be sure to support this.

We should take this moment to acknowledge the fantastic book, From Phonics to Fluency by Timothy V. Rasinski and Nancy D. Padak where these strategies originate, also the fabulous Closing the Reading Gap by Alex Quigley. Check these books out for further reading!

Strategies to Support Fluency

Model reading and reading behaviours. It is vital that everyday children hear you read. They need to listen to you exemplify fluent reading with expression. To enhance this, have the text you are reading in front of children or on the visualiser so they can follow along. Questions like these will help them comment on your reading, “What did you notice about my voice? How did my voice help you pay attention and understand? How did I use my voice to show happiness…?”

Reduce/repair strategies3. Part of reading behaviours is to model recognising/monitoring when something doesn’t make sense and how to stop and correct mistakes, like how we might make deliberate mistakes in maths. These strategies include:

• Skimming (reading rapidly for a general overview of the text);
• Scanning (reading rapidly to find specific information);
• Slowing down;
• Rereading;
• Reading back through the text;
• Checking the index, glossary or scaffolds;
• Asking questions;
• Summarising;
• Noticing patterns and text structures; and
• Reading related texts 

Modelling a range of these strategies to children as we read aloud will support them develop healthy reading behaviours and reading resilience.

Repeated reading. Research shows that allowing children multiple opportunities to read the same piece of text helps develop fluency. However, to avoid this getting tedious, it is useful to choose text that can build toward a performance, genres like poetry, song lyrics, riddles and nursery rhymes, patterned texts, speeches, jokes are great for this purpose. Why not have an “Open Mic Friday” or “Fluency Friday” where children can perform? Snacks and drinks could be given out and dim, lamp lighting will help create a café setting. You could go as far as playing some smooth jazz in the background.

Repeated reading also allows you and children’s peers to give feedback on each other’s readings. Comments like, “I really liked your second reading as you paused between sentences,” will foster this constructively.

Audiobooks and subtitles. Build time at the end of the week to listen to an audiobook and, if possible, allow children to see the text as its being read. Children could even record themselves reading, creating their own audiobook which could be sent to other members of staff or to younger classes. This is a fun variation on reading buddies. Furthermore, when watching a programme in the classroom, make sure the subtitles are turned on so children can follow text (this is also great advice for parents).

Reading Theatre. There are a lot of books and websites with great ideas for the Reading Theatre approach. This usually begins with the teacher or TA reading a story which the children can then turn into scripts and cut out. They practise reading their part of the story through the week, taking it home, and then perform this in front of an audience. It is important to note that they do not need to memorise the script or to be in costume or have props but rather simply read it. For ideas and further assessment tools check out, Building Fluency with Reading Theatre by Anthony D. Fredricks.

Reading in varied ways. It is important to vary the ways that children read text. They need to hear you read every day but also, they need to take part in choral reading, partner reading, reading part of a text in groups. Keep things varied and fresh!

Words to phrases. We need to support children in chunking phrases and clauses when reading rather than just reading word-by-word. Ways we could so this is by giving children a passage from a text which they can highlight in segments, placing a dash where they should pause. They can reread the text the following day without the phrase markings to see if this supports them with pace. Also, instead of just teaching words explicitly from a text in word banks, teach phrases and have phrase banks also.

The Fluency Development Lesson (Rasinski et al. 1994). The FDL can be a fun way of starting a school day and should take no longer than 15 minutes. Teachers have a short section from the class text, poem, or speech available for children and follow this pattern4:

• The teacher introduces a new short text and reads it to the students two or three times while the students follow along.
• The teacher and students discuss the nature and content of the passage.
• Teacher and students read the passage chorally several times. Antiphonal reading and other variations are used to create variety and maintain engagement.
• The teacher organizes student pairs. Each student practices the passage three times while his or her partner listens and provides support and encouragement.
• Individuals and groups of students perform their reading for the class or other audience.
• The students and their teacher choose 3 or 4 words from the text to add to the word bank and/or word wall.
• Students engage in word study activities (e.g. word sorts with word bank words, word walls, flash card practice, defining words, word games, etc.)
• The students take a copy of the passage home to practice with parents and other family members.
• Students return to school and read the passage to the teacher or a partner who checks for fluency and accuracy.
   

We hope these strategies can be adapted and integrated into your weekly timetable and guided reading sessions to support all children in developing as lifelong readers.

References

1, 2. From Phonics to Fluency, Timohy V. Rasinski and Nancy D. Padak. 

3. Closing the Reading Gap, Alex Quigley 

4, From Phonics to Fluency, Timohy V. Rasinski and Nancy D. Padak.

Posted in: Curriculum | Home Learning