Fluency is defined as “freedom from word identification problems that might hinder comprehension.” The article states that “fluent readers do not spend inordinate time and resources decoding words and can therefore concentrate on comprehension.” When I read this I immediately made the connection to the reading assessment project that we completed earlier in the semester and various class discussions where it was shown that the higher a student’s fluency is the higher the student’s comprehension will be. I really feel that this is true in most cases because if a student can not read fluently then they will become frustrated and hung up on the words and this will cause them to lose focus on comprehending the text. One statement in the article that really stood out to me was “This inability to read fluently and comprehend text can also adversely affect an individual’s motivation to read.” This really made me think about this might affect a student’s level of enjoyment towards reading. It is a shame that so many children do not like to read and that one of the main reasons is because they are not fluent in reading. It is so important as a teacher to work with these children and help them work on their reading skills so that they can have a love for reading throughout life. So much of a child’s learning comes from reading different texts and it would be a big disadvantage to a child if they were to miss out on this experience.
This article states many different strategies that teachers can use to promote and build reading fluency. The first strategy given is “modeling fluent oral reading.” This is where a teacher can read aloud to students “in an expressive, effortless, and natural manner.” I can recall from class discussions that we as teachers should not assume that students know how to do this and so we must model for them the appropriate ways to read orally. Choral reading is where the teacher and the student simultaneously read the same text aloud. As the teacher points to the words, he or she will also whisper the words into the student’s ear.
Repeated reading of a connected text is “the oldest and most widely cited and used method to improve reading fluency.” This requires the student to read aloud a passage at the appropriate reading level and several different times until the desired reading rate is reached. This “produces statistically significant improvement in reading rate, word recognition, and oral reading expression on the practiced passage.” In performance reading students read and rehearse such things as a poem, a speech, or a passage. They practice this several times throughout the week and at the end of the week they perform it. “Students are charged with repeatedly reading their text with the notion of “hooking their audience.”" This requires students to have a complete understanding of the text so that they are able to perform well.
This article presented many useful strategies that will help build fluency of reading with students. I hope that as a future classroom teacher I will be able to implement some of these strategies within my own classroom to help my students.
