Fluency
Fluency
Fluency is the ability to read a word or sentence at an appropriate rate, with accuracy, and prosody. Rate is the speed of a reader. Accuracy is the amount of words a reader says correctly while reading. Prosody is the ability to phrase text, use punctuation, and read with expressions. According to the University of Oregon "Fluency is reading words with no noticeable cognitive or mental effort. It is having mastered word recognition skills to the point of over learning. Fundamental skills are so "automatic" that they do not require conscious attention". An example of fluency would be a student that is able to read from a passage with little to no pauses (except when the pauses are necessary), at a fast rate, and using expressions to describe the situations within the text.
Fluency Phrasing
2nd-3rd Grade
In this activity students will be placed in groups. There will be multiple sheets such as the one above along with a timer on each table. The sheets will be placed face down in a pile between all of the students who are working together. One student will start off by picking up the top card on the pile. The student begins by reading the first line, then the second, and so on. While one student is reading the card, the other students start the timer. The goal is for the student to read through the entire page as fast as they can. The only thing is... the students must say each and every word correctly. If the student misses a word or messes up on a word they must start back at the first line. The goal of this activity is to have the students read the passage with accuracy as well as at an appropriate rate.
The reason I chose for the students to be in groups is because of the benefits of group work. According to Edutopia, "getting along with others, being able to see another's point of view, and managing one's own emotions help students stay on task and maintain positive peer relationships to achieve group goals."(Munro, O'Brien, Payton). Group work can help students achieve these goals.
https://www.edutopia.org/common-ground
http://www.fcrr.org/documents/sca/G2-3/2-3Fluency_3_Phrases.pdf
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http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/103316/chapters/Readiness~Phonemic-Awareness.aspx
Word part race
2nd-3rd Grade
The past few days the class has been discussing word endings. An example of this would be -ate, -ing, -unk, and etc. This activity will work on the accuracy and rate of words that have already been introduced.
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For this lesson, students will pair up. Each pair will have a car cut out as well as multiple strips of paper that have the ending of words on them. Each pair of students will also have a timer set at 1 minute. One student will begin by putting the strip in the slot on the car. Starting at the top, the student will read each ending word. The timer will be set to 1 minute. When the student is done reading all of the words on the first strip, they will move to the next until the timer is up. However, if the student misses a word, they must start back at the beginning of the strip while the timer is still running.
This activity works on the students accuracy as well as their rate as they read words.
One thing that I would change about this activity as shown in the picture above, is that I would make sure that all of the words are ending parts of words.
One reason this activity is important is because the ability to look at parts of words is important. According to Tankersley, "Teaching children to manipulate the sounds in language helps all types of readers learn to read". The ability to read parts of words accurately and at a good rate is important for students and their ability to say an entire word with the same accuracy and rate.