I saw Tim Rasinski present on Saturday. He said he DIBELed MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech...only 87 wpm - you know what that means. But, it is that pacing and voice that give it impact. Dr. Rasinski said students need short, predictable text that are read over and over: songs, poems, Reader's Theater, recitations (americanrhetoric.com), cheers, jump rope chants nursery rhymes, words of wisdom, etc. Check his website for more ideas and links. www.timrasinski.com
Melody On Oct 28, 2007, at 5:53 PM, Renee wrote: > Well I personally think fluency has pretty much nothing to do with > speed. Yes, nothing. To me, fluency is expressive, mindful, flowing... > not necessary speedy. > > Renee > > On Oct 28, 2007, at 4:58 PM, Beverlee Paul wrote: > >> I really, truly have tried to stay out of this fluency discussion >> because it turned heated the last round, but . . . I really hate it >> when we equate fluency with speed, even when we say we know they're >> not one and the same. But our actions and the semantics/word choices >> we use reveal that many of us do see them as identical. >> >> Have any of you read Regie's new Teaching Essentials yet? (great >> read) One thread of that book is that we always need to be >> mindful of >> where we want our kids to end up, and to use that knowledge to guide >> our every teaching decision along the way. Do we want our children >> (eventual adults) to read fast???? Or do we want our children >> (adults) to read quickly enough to enhance/maintain comprehension, >> which will usually be in a silent reading situation? It makes a >> difference! >> >> We've addressed the issue many times on this list (within different >> contexts) of teaching for the goal, not for the means. Role sheets >> are used as a vehicle to get where we want kids to go--being a >> flexible contributor to group discussion. Cooperative learning is a >> vehicle for kids to learn how to fully function in group work. >> Strategy instruction is used so kids can comprehend text. We can't >> just stop in the middle as if that's where we want to go! >> >> We can't even say, IMO, that speed is a necessary, but not >> sufficient, >> part of fluency. Yes, there may, many times, be a correlation >> between >> speed and fluency. But certainly not always. Just because speed >> is a >> "speedy, easy, simple" thing to measure/document doesn't make it >> necessary nor even desirable. My kids, like Lori's, have been >> greatly >> influenced by cultural background and a different language >> foundation, >> so kids in my area with Native American roots almost always do speak >> slower. But even if you talk about a single race in a single locale, >> for heaven's sake, there's individual variations. Once again, we see >> that correlation does not mean causal. >> >> I'm not sure if you can demean a concept ?!:-) but I think we do >> marginalize the connotation of fluency by reducing it to something so >> single-faceted that it can be measured by a stopwatch! >> >> "Not everything important can be measured, and we can't measure >> everything that's important." >> >> Bev original post -> I too have students who are focusing on >> increasing speed. They are sixth graders whose strategy work is >> progressing well, and they love to read, but they're painfully aware >> that their rate is slower than most. >> _______________________________________________ >> 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. >> >> > > "When you learn, teach. When you get, give." > ~ Maya Angelou > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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. > > _______________________________________________ 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.
