Got Fluency?

Anyone get a fluency reading score coming home from school for their school-age child recently? You may have recently received a report that gives a single number which represents the number of words your child read in one minute. Anyone wondering why we are timing our students to see how many words they can read in one minute?

I have very mixed feelings about these fluency scores and the message they send to our students. After all, why would we want to teach our kids to read as fast as they can? This flies in the face of everything I know as a reading specialist. However, there are a two redeeming things about these fluency scores. The first is they are quick and easy to give. Schools are desperately looking for data these days to drive instruction, and when you are talking about giving assessments to hundreds of kids multiple times a year, it gets complicated. The second reason is that research shows that a fluency score is one (albeit ONLY one), indicator of future success as a reader.

I have sat and given hundreds of these assessments for the past couple years and here is one thing I know. There are students that have beautiful command of the text, with perfect tone and pace that sound much better than students who race through the text meaninglessly and end up with a higher fluency score. I just wish they wouldn’t call it a fluency score. Speed is only one small part of fluency and that message is unfortunately lost on many students who are simple being asked to read fast.

By the way, how do you improve your child’s fluency? Two simple things. Have them read often and make time to read aloud TO them to give them that model of fluency. Time for bedtime story!

Lifting the Curtain

Aunt Ali reads aloud with Cassie and Abby.

I recently read an article on how important it is for teachers to read and write alongside our students. We work to make both processes seem natural and something they will do for the rest of their lives and not just inside of a classroom. I am always thinking aloud while I read with my middle school students. I will stop and say things like “that doesn’t make sense, let me go back and re-read that” or “that didn’t sound right, I need to try that again”. Because this happens in our real-world reading we need to make sure students see that reading is not about calling out words perfectly but about reading so that it makes sense for us.

This article parlays perfectly into the reading done with any child of any age. While it is important for children to hear a model of good fluency, it is also important to draw back the curtain at times to show them the thinking that is going on behind the reading. Done in moderation, this kind of modeling is a simple but important part of reading to a child. It is a powerful way to get children to see the thinking that goes on behind calling out the words.

Hooked on Reading part II

I swear my first daughter taught herself to read. I literally turned around one day and there she was reading (and writing too). Sure I provided plenty of references to letters and the sounds they make in the world around us and I read to her often, but she really took it from there. She reads often and to herself.

My second daughter came to reading differently. Thank goodness she idolizes her older sister so that has helped make her foray into the reading world a bit smoother. However she loves to read aloud to someone else. This started as turning pages and blabbering and then grew into turning pages of entire books and telling a nonsense story. But she definitely prefers reading aloud (I am thinking she is like her mommy and likes the social aspect). I have yet to find her reading to herself like her big sister. One thing they BOTH enjoy doing is taking part in reading aloud to family and friends using Be There Bedtime Stories. It is a novel way to get them to do something we are asking them to do every day. They do love it and for that I am grateful.

Turning words on a page into an enjoyable past-time is one of the most important goals for all teachers and parents. If we can bring each child to find their motivation to read we have accomplished a HUGE task. For  teachers this means meeting that goal with a number of different learning styles in one classroom daily.  There are many, many balls in the air at one time. It is not the reading instruction of yesterday that is for sure!

If you have children you can probably relate to (and marvel at) how differently your children are as people. Sometimes it is hard to believe they are from the same set of parents! One thing is for certain; all children do not learn to read in the same way.