HI Diana -- you raise the next important question (for anyone who is challenged by fluency - young and older readers) -- how can it be taught.
I think that guided repeated readings is the main way to develop fluency (much in the same way that a musician practices her or his music several times through, a nonfluent reader needs to practice his or her texts several times). Most fluency programs incorporate repeated readings - but the problem is THESE PROGRAMS HAVE KIDS DO REPEATED READINGS OF PRIMARILY INFORMATIONAL TEXT FOR THE PRIMARY PURPOSE OF READING IT FAST. Once a student achieves a certain rate they move on to the next text. I think this is rather mechanical, unauthentic, and ultimately boring approach that gives kids the idea that it is all about reading fast, and completely ignores prosody. I subscribe to the notion of repeated readings, but have a different slant on it. Rather than informational text, I look for texts that 1) are meant to be performed, and 2) have a sense of voice in them -- informational texts generally are low in both of these areas. Texts meant to be performed are meant to be rehearsed (aka repeated readings) and "voice' in written material converts very well to prosody when it is read orally-- if fact i think of voice in writing and prosody in reading as two sides of the same coin. Now what kinds of materials lend themselves to both of these features -- voice and performance? Here is where I come to what many of you have already been mentioning -- readers theater, poetry, nursery rhymes, songs, oratory, dialogues, monologues, letters, journal entries, etc. Interestingly, this list of text types or genre is a nice list of texts that have been put on the shelf in schools. Children do not do nearly as much with poetry, scripts, songs,etc as I did as a child. And this is the type of material that is fun, touches the heart, develops in students a love of language etc. We have a growing body of research that shows that kids engaging in repeated readings of this type of material make gains in reading achievement that is sometimes breath taking. Lorraine Griffith (a 4th grade teacher in Buncombe County NC) has been doing repeated reading of this type of material in her class for 7 years now. She has an article in the Oct 2004 issue of The Reading Teacher. Her struggling readers make 2.9 years growth in reading achievement (comprehension) in the year they are in her classroom. Interestingly, although she doesn't make a big issue of reading speed, her kids still make strong gains in reading rate -- 59 word per minute is the average gain of her struggling readers in the year they are with her. This is well above what the average gains the norms for 4th graders suggest. When kids engage in repeated readings of authentic material for authentic purposes, the rate will just naturally increase. You don't have to turn your classroom into the Indianapolis 500 (since you are in Florida it doesn't we could make that the Daytona 500 -- :) I could share other studies as well but as usual I am writing too much. But let me mention one more since you are in Florida -- Lake Orienta Elementary in Seminole County has had some strong gains in overall reading achievement taking this approach to reading fluency. Repeated readings with an emphasis on practice to make meaning with your voice, in the same way that Dr. King rehearsed his I Have a Dream speech repeatedly to get the greatest meaning out of his words. BTW -- with Memorial Day coming this weekend, I have been working with kids and teachers on a poem I remember reciting as a young student in the 1950s on Memorial Day -- "In Flanders Fields the poppies blow, beneath the crosses row on row..." Hope this helps, tim At 10:56 AM 5/26/2007 -0400, you wrote: >I have been reading the fluency discussion, but intentionally staying out >of it. However, I just can't resist the opportunity to ask Dr. Rasinski a >few questions. (I own two of your books, and have heard you speak several >times as well.) > >You said:>My own > research has in fact found strong correlations between >fluency and > comprehension all the way through senior high school. ... >Interestingly, however, policy makers >are not terribly interested > in >fluency with older students. It's just not issue they say. > >This is not the case in Florida (home of Joe Torgenson) where we are now >required to teach fluency and give one minute fluency tests to middle and >high school students in intensive reading classes. These are the kids who >score below grade level on the state acheivement test. For the past two >years, we gave this test quarterly (in addition to informal testing in the >classroom). This year it was given 3 times. Overall, most of these >students fail to meet the target rates AND they have poor comprehension, >so I'd say that our data matches yours. What I'd like to know is if there >is any evidence that focusing on improving fluency improves >comprehension. In other words, how do we know that poor fluency causes >poor comprehension and not the other way around? Could focusing on >comprehension strategies improve fluency - possibly more than the current >mania focusing on reading rates? Incidentally, we see virtually patterns >in the data we've collected from these fluency prompts. > >My second question has to do with ELL students. We have quite a lot of >these in Florida. I have found that many ELL students with horrible >fluency have good comprehension. I have also found that many of our ELL >students who score well on the fluency probes have virtually no >comprehension of what they've read. Have there been any large studies >with this population that could help us know the best approach for >teaching these readers? > >Thanks for any enlightenment you can send my way. > >Diana >Middle School Literacy Coach >_________________________________________________________________ >Create the ultimate e-mail address book. Import your contacts to Windows >Live Hotmail. >www.windowslive-hotmail.com/learnmore/managemail2.html?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGLM_HMWL_reten_impcont_0507 >_______________________________________________ >Mosaic mailing list >[email protected] >To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to >http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > >Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. Timothy Rasinski, Ph.D. Reading and Writing Center 404 White Hall Kent State University Kent, OH 44242 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: 330-672-0649 Cell: 330-962-6251 Fax: 330-672-2025 Informational website: www.timrasinski.com Professional Development DVD: http://www.roadtocomprehension.com/ _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
