Stephanie, I have also used the Fluent Reader this past year. In New Mexico we have to use DIBELS. Our district has us do it K-3. They gave us palm pilots with the tests on them so we can electronically assess the reading passages the students read. Using information I got from this book and some other research I read, I set up reading groups. I will say that I may not have gone strictly "by the book" on this. I have a listening center that attaches to a tape player with several headphones. I took my kids who were in the Stategic and Intensive levels of DIBELS (those who did not meet the minimum number of WPM) and even some of my bilingual students. I recorded the short leveled readers that came with our Scott Foresman reading series at a very slow pace. I would put 4 or 5 students at a round table with the headphones and have them read with the tape twice each day. It took about 20 minutes per group. I did this during our AR time (1 hour). I sat at the table with the kids to make sure they stayed on task while the other kids were reading around the room. This way I was able to meet with all my groups while everyone else was busy. One little boy went from 48 WPM on the first benchmark in August to 112 WPM in May. Several others made great leaps as well. Of course, I had three who, though they improved a lot, did not even make the minimum for the middle of the year by the end of the year. But they did improve. This year I want to work on improving their comprehension as well as their fluency- to make if more than separate pieces of the puzzle. Cheryle Estala Hobbs, NM
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