Focus on Fluency

A Meaning-Based Approach

Nancy Cecil, Nancy L Cecil

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138078055
• eBook ISBN: 9781351814522
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

This valuable book is written for preservice and inservice teachers who are searching for best practices with which to promote fluency in reading and writing. Fluency is one of the primary building blocks for creating successful readers and writers, and the practical discussions and activities found here will help teachers develop effective ways to promote fluency and to engage and motivate children, while always remembering that the essential purpose of reading is to gain meaning from text and that of writing is to convey meaning through text.

Preface

1 FLUENCY DEFINED

Why is Fluency Important?

Defining Fluency

Rate

Accuracy

Prosody

A Brief History of Fluency Instruction

Current Practices for Teaching and Assessing Fluency

What Can be Done to Improve Fluency?

REFERENCES

2 ORAL READING AND FLUENCY

The Value of Repeated Readings

Repeated Reading Activities

activity FLUENCY DEVELOPMENT LESSON

activity REVISED RADIO READING

Poetry and Fluency

activity POEM IN MY POCKET

activity POETRY RECONSTRUCTION

Poetry Readings

Singing and Fluency

activity CLASSROOM SING-ALONGS

Modeling Fluent Reading

SUMMARY

REFERENCES

3 CHORAL READING AND FLUENCY

How to Initiate a Choral Reading

activity CREATING A CHORAL READING

Teaching Typographical Cues

activity MINI-LESSON ON TYPOGRAPHICAL CUES

Five Choral Reading Formats

Unison Reading

Echoic Reading

Verse and Refrain Reading

Cumulative Reading

Antiphonal Reading

Especially for Early Readers

Multimedia Extensions

Art

Drama

Music

SUMMARY

REFERENCES

4 DRAMA AND FLUENCY

Reading Commercial Plays

Performing Readers Theatre

Selecting Literature for Scripts

Adaptations

activity ADAPTING STORIES TO READERS THEATRE

Creating Original Drama

SUMMARY

REFERENCES

5 ASSISTED READING AND FLUENCY

Teacher-Directed Assisted Reading Techniques

The Neurological Impress Method

Echo Reading

Use of Phrase Markings

activity USING PHRASE MARKINGS TO INCREASE FLUENCY

Skimming and Scanning

Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction

activity USING FLUENCY-ORIENTED READING INSTRUCTION

Oral Recitation Lesson

activity INITIATING AN ORAL RECITATION LESSON

Tape-Assisted Reading

Student- and Parent-Assisted Fluency Techniques

Dyad Reading

Parent Partners

Teachers and Peers as Fluency Coaches

The Teacher

Student Tutors

SUMMARY

REFERENCES

6 INDEPENDENT SILENT READING AND FLUENCY DEVELOPMENT

Fostering Independent Reading in Class

Developing a Classroom Climate That Fosters Autonomy

Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction

In-Class Silent Reading

Fostering Independent Silent Reading at Home

Incentives

Communicating with Parents About Fluency

Recorded Texts

Closed-Caption Television

Real World Reading Activities

activity BIKE REPAIR

activity ANIMAL FACTS

activity CAREER QUEST

activity ENVIRONMENTAL PRINT

SUMMARY

REFERENCES

7 FOSTERING WRITING FLUENCY

The Writing Process

Prewriting

Drafting

Revising

Editing

Publishing

Fostering Writing Speed

Speedwriting

activity SPEEDWRITING

Story Retelling

activity RETELLING A STORY

Generating Ideas for Writing

Prompts

Dialogue Journals

Automaticity in Writing

Teacher Modeling of Automaticity in Writing

Spelling Concerns and Writing Fluency

Especially for Early Writers

Allowing for Developmental Differences

Interactive Writing

Morning Message

SUMMARY

REFERENCES

8 FLUENCY AND TECHNOLOGY

Choosing Software

Interactive Reading and Writing: Electronic Books

The Reader Rabbit Series

Illuminatus 4.5

Start-to-Finish^TM

Guidelines for Choosing Electronic Books

Supplemental Programs Focusing on Repeated Readings

Read Naturally

Great Leaps Reading Program

Programs Offering Feedback and Support

Soliloquy Reading Assistant

Computer Programs to Enhance Writing Fluency

Tools to Increase Reading Rate

AceReader

Reading Speed Drills

Mechanical Devices

SUMMARY

REFERENCES

9 FLUENCY AND ASSESSMENT

Formative Assessment

Summative Assessment

Assessing Reading Rate

Assessing Accuracy

Assessing Prosody

Self-Evaluation of Reading Fluency

Formal Standardized Assessments

Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy (DIBELS)

The Gray Oral Reading Test, Fourth Edition (GORT-4)

Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE)

Assessing Writing Fluency

SUMMARY

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

appendix A CHILDREN’S LITERATURE RESOURCES

Children’s Literature for Oral Reading

Books for Poetry and Choral Reading

Songbooks

Plays and Readers Theatre

appendix B READING INTEREST INVENTORY

appendix C ELECTRONIC RESOURCES TO INCREASE FLUENCY

Author and Title Index

Subject Index

Across the United States, fluency has become an important topic. In 2000, the National Reading Panel presented fluency as one of the five building blocks to successful reading. Soon after that, educators in every state began to grapple with the issue of how to create more fluent readers and writers. Journal articles discussed how to increase fluency and professional literacy conferences soon devoted major strands to instruction in fluency. Despite this increased attention on fluency, however, discussions continue about what exactly is meant by the concept fluency.

Fluency in literacy is commonly defined as the ability to read and write accurately and rapidly and, in the case of reading, with appropriate expression. Too often, however, fluency instruction is operationalized in classrooms through having children endlessly practice reading passages as fast as they can or having them reread material they have just read without giving them any real reason to do so. Focus on Fluency: A Meaning- Based Approach is designed to ensure that meaning and fluency remain fully intertwined. We must teach children, especially when they are learning to read fluently, that the essential purpose of reading is always to gain meaning from the printed page.

This book is a supplementary text for preservice and inservice teachers searching for best practices with which to promote fluency in their K-6 learners. It will help educators develop effective ways to promote fluent reading and writing, thereby engaging children in meaningful experiences with text and motivating them to read. Such experiences create a wonderful cycle of practice leading to more fluent reading, and more fluent reading leading to a desire to read more—and thus more practice!

The contents and organization of this book reflect the belief that teachers will not own a method or procedure—that is, will not fully incorporate a practical activity into their repertoire of teaching methods— unless they understand the reason behind the technique and see how it fits into the larger goal of creating literate human beings. In addition, preservice and practicing teachers studying the art and science of teaching need real examples of classroom practice that make sense to them. In this book, educators will find explanations and clear purposes for each instructional activity and step-by-step examples of how the activity might be used in the classroom setting.

Children can experience difficulty with fluency at any point in their literacy development. Children for whom English is a second language may experience difficulties, but so may those who are native speakers. To assist teachers working with culturally diverse children at a variety of skill levels, I have included instructional activities easily modified for grade levels from primary through middle school as well as activities appropriate to English learners.

SPECIAL FEATURES

To go beyond techniques to foster rereading, the most commonly accepted way to increase fluency, this book includes the follo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents