I have moderated my own opinion about the issue of fluency when I began working with teachers and students across my district. I had not seen fluency to an overwhelming issue in my own classroom--yes, for a few strugglers, but not pervasive. I realize that it is FAR more of an issue than I wanted it to be. The fact has been driven home to me as we did some fluency assessments with our struggling high school readers--everyone of these struggling readers was markedly dysfluent. It is not a recipe for success to be a struggling reader, who has often become a reluctant reader, in a secondary setting. The motivation for reading is gone, the neccessity looms. Suddenly an hour of homework can become a four hour obstacle. It is an issue for our students and some of that is due to a failure to address fluency early on in context with modeled reading, shared reading, echo reading, recitation, reader's theater--those joyful and natural classroom interactions that are at the heart of classroom practice where fluency is less of an issue for the majority of students. I am now convinced that some children do need some specific support to improve fluency and that these timings may be part of the plan. However, we have to make sure that we link our conferences with these readers to purposeful reading. I recently observed a conference between a third grade student and his teacher. Together they were reviewing his DRA2 assessment and identifying some goals for the student. The teacher was telling him that she agreed that fluency was something that he needed to work on (he had identified this as a goal) and they were brainstorming somethings he could do to address this goal. On the list was a nightly read aloud with a younger sibbling (with a remark from the teacher that this was a great idea, because "While you are working on fluency, you will be helping your little sister learn to love stories and get excited about reading!"), partner reading using a read aloud rubric the class developed and using Garage Band twice a week for self-assessment of oral reading. This conversation did not make me uncomfortable at all, because over and over fluency was linked to making read aloud pleasurable for someone else (little brother), the rubric was class developed as a measure for a quality read aloud and the idea of reading aloud using the cool headsets purchased for the purpose is very invitational. I trust this teacher's practice to be focused on pleasure and understanding and know this kiddo was not getting the wrong message about reading. And the other thing about this is that it is not a sweeping assumption that every kid needs this focus, this kid, who is loosing meaning because of dysfluent reading (not just rate, but phrasing, expression....) was being intervened with on an individual basis. This is a class of readers and the teacher has shaped that self-image for every child.
Lori ----- Original message ----- From: Bonita DeAmicis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group <[email protected]> Date: 2008, 13, Wednesday Of February 20:34 Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Comprehension strategies and Harcourt > > ---- Beverlee Paul <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > It's hard to sell the "inadvertant message" idea if we're listening to them > > read with a stopwatch in our hand. Grrrr. > > > That is sort of where my theory arose. I noticed when I stopped doing > fluency timings and starting focusing on enjoying the book, talking about > what is happening, etc, students began to talk about comprehension and to > enjoy reading. I had one struggling student who took a great leap in fluency > after six months of NOT reading aloud or doing any timings...Sometimes, I > suspect, our over-emphasis (or even small emphasis) on timing reading and > reading aloud can mislead student priorities. The reason I theorize basals > and such (testing probably) have lead primary classes into inadvertantly > creating word callers is that I have had more word callers in my upper grade > classes in the last few years as testing and fluency has grown in emphasis. > Plus, it seems like I am having to work much harder to get children to LIKE > books than I have in the past. It could be just my school though. > > :)Bonita > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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.
