Fluency
Fluency
1. Why is fluency important?
Students who read slowly or haltingly have difficulty keeping track of ideas developed across sentences and paragraphs. Because fluent readers are able to spend less time on decoding, they have more time to concentrate on comprehension and interpretation of text.
2. Do fluency skills need to be taught in a specific order?
No. The fluency skills selected in each story lesson reflect elements in the text children are reading. For example, after reading a realistic story with dialogue, children will practice reading dialogue with natural phrasing and expression, reading a character's words the way they imagine the character would say them.
3. How can I assess children's fluency?
Informally assess students' fluency by listening while they read aloud during guided reading and as they practice during fluency instruction. Is the child reading words and observing punctuation accurately? Is she reading smoothly? Naturally? Observation will reveal students' progress over time and indicate who needs help.
You may want to assess fluency more formally by keeping a record over time of the number of words a child reads correctly per minute and his accuracy. You may also want to write down observations about phrasing, expression, and stress.
4. How can I help children who are struggling with fluency?
Provide more modeling and additional practice. Work with a child independently, if possible. Read aloud a passage several times and then have your child read the passage aloud with you chorally. Have the child practice on his own. When he thinks he can read the passage fluently, have him read aloud to you. You can also have the child listen to and practice reading along with recordings on the CDs.
5. Are children expected to be fluent readers by the end of first grade?
Not with all text. Fluency depends on the difficulty of the text being read. Most adults would read a physics textbook slowly and haltingly. Similarly, a child's fluency depends on how familiar the vocabulary and concepts are in the text being read. Overall, though, children should show improvement in their fluency as they progress through Superkids.
