Fostering Fluency

1. FosteringFluency Effective, research-based practices for development of automaticity and fluency Anne Zernicke, Rosemary Ginn, Janice Raymond Massachusetts Dept. of Education, Reading First

2. What is Fluency? • Rate and accuracy in oral reading Hasbrouck and Tindal 2001, Torgesen et al. 2001 • Accurate reading at a minimal rate with appropriate prosodic features (expression) and deep understanding Hudson, Mercer and Lane 2000

3. LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION Skilled Reading- fluent coordination of word reading and comprehension processes BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE LANGUAGE STRUCTURES VERBAL REASONING LITERACY KNOWLEDGE SKILLED READING: fluent execution and coordination of word recognition and text comprehension. increasingly strategic WORD RECOGNITION PHON. AWARENESS DECODING (and SPELLING) SIGHT RECOGNITION increasingly automatic The Many Strands that are Woven into Skilled Reading (Scarborough, 2001) Reading is a multifaceted skill, gradually acquired over years of instruction and practice.

4. From Call of the Wild by Jack LondonTaken from the NICHD Research Program: What We now Know About How Children Learn to Read Bonita Grossen 03-27-97 Full report at: www.cftl.org/30years/30years.html He had never seen dogs fight as these w___ish c________ f_____, and his first ex________ t____t him an unf______able l____n. It is true, it was a vi_______ ex_______, else he would not have lived to pr___t by it. Curley was the v_____. They were camped near the log store, where she, in her friend__y way, made ad______ to a husky dog the size of a full-_____ wolf, th_____ not half so large as _he. __ere was no w___ing, only a leap in like a flash, a met_____ clip of teeth, a leap out equal__ swift, and Curly’s face was ripped open from eye to jaw.

5. From Call of the Wild by Jack London He had never seen dogs fight as these wolfish creatures fought, and his first experience taught him an unforgettable lesson.  It is true, it was a vicarious experience, else he would not have lived to profit by it.  Curly was the victim.  They were camped near the log store, where she, in her friendly way, made advances to a husky dog the size of a full-grown wolf, though not half so large as she.  There was no warning, only a leap in like a flash, a metallic clip of teeth, a leap out equally swift, and Curly's face was ripped open from eye to jaw.

6. Marilyn Adams on the nature of skilled reading: …it has been proven beyond any shade of doubt that skillful readers process virtually each and every word and letter of text as they read. This is extremely counter-intuitive. For sure, skillful readers neither look nor feel as if that’s what they do. But that’s because they do it so quickly and effortlessly. Almost automatically; with almost no conscious attention whatsoever, skillful readers recognize words by drawing on deep and ready knowledge of spellings and their connections to speech and meaning. In fact, the automaticity with which skillful readers recognize words is the key to the whole system…The reader’s attention can be focused on the meaning and message of a text only to the extent that it’s free from fussing with the words and letters.

7. Fluency and Comprehension • Fluent reading allows the reader to attend to the meaning of the text rather than the mechanics of decoding. • Fluent readers construct meaning as they read as evidenced by their phrasing, intonation and expression.

8. What can fluent readers do? * Read every letter in every word. * Read almost every word. * Perceive letters in chunks; recognize high frequency letter combinations. * Apply syllabication strategies to divide lengthy words with little conscious analysis.

9. What can fluent readers do? * Read fluently with adequate speed, phrasing, intonation; their reading sounds like they’re speaking. * Apply their knowledge of orthography to help identify unknown words they encounter. * Activate, apply their extensive vocabulary.

10. What can fluent readers do? * Use their knowledge about the structure of written text to anticipate words as they read. * Rely little on contextual information because word recognition is rapid, automatic and efficient. * Construct meaning as they read.

11. Partner Activity

12. Passage #1 • Please take turns reading the following passage to your partner. • After reading, discuss with your partner whether your reading of this selection was accurate and fluent. • Why were you able to read this passage with accuracy and fluency?

13. First Reader By Billy Collins I can see them standing politely on the wide pages that I was still learning to turn, Jane in a blue jumper, Dick with his crayon-brown hair, playing with a ball or exploring the cosmos of the backyard, unaware they are the first characters, the boy and girl who begin fiction. Beyond the simple illustrations of their neighborhood, the other protagonists were waiting in a huddle: frightening Heathcliff, frightened Pip, Nick Adams carrying a fishing rod, Emma Bovary riding into Rouen. But I would read about the perfect boy and his sister even before I would read about Adam and Eve, garden and gate, and before I heard the name Gutenberg, the type of their simple talk was moving into my focusing eyes.

14. It was always Saturday and he and she were always pointing at something and shouting, “Look!” pointing at the dog, the bicycle, or at their father as he pushed a hand mower over the lawn, waving at aproned mother framed in the kitchen doorway, pointing toward the sky, pointing at each other. They wanted us to look but we had looked already and seen the shaded lawn, the wagon, the postman. We had seen the dog, walked, watered and fed the animal, and now it was time to discover the infinite, clicking permutations of the alphabet’s small and capital letters. Alphabetical ourselves in the rows of classroom desks, we were forgetting how to look, learning how to read.

15. Passage #2 • Take turns reading this passage to your partner. • After reading, discuss whether your reading of this passage was accurate and fluent. • Why or why not?

16. Excerpt from Journal of Optics and Acoustics • Using methods associated with polynomial expansion, we discussed atmospheric dispersion effects in dual wavelength adaptive optics systems. On the basis of dual frequency correlations associated with phase expansion coefficients, we solved for residual phase errors produced by atmospheric dispersion. Taking the product

17. Passage #2 continued amount of beacon phase distortion and specific value of ratio (lambda 2) (lambda 1)(the beacon wavelength/ transmitted wavelength) to be phase predistortion, it is possible to rectify relatively well the phase distortion transmitted light beams. Y. Yeng

18. Characteristics of dysfluent readers • Slow rate of reading • Hesitates at unknown words • Difficulty applying learned word identification strategies • Repeats, rereads words and phrases • Recognizes few words at sight

19. Lack of automaticity: Letter naming/recognition Letter sound Recognition of phonic patterns, syllables Sight words OR child is automatic at word level but Lacks fluency at: Phrase Sentence Paragraph Passage level Possible reasons for slow, dysfluent reading include:

20. Automaticity • Most complex behaviors include underlying subskills which must be mastered to an automatic level. • Once automaticity is achieved, performance is fluent, more enjoyable, and attention can be devoted to higher goals.

21. Automaticity and Reading • Difficulties in automatic word recognition affect accuracy, rate of reading and a reader’s ability to efficiently comprehend what they read. (Lyon 1995; Torgesen 2001)

22. Automaticity refers to fast, accurate and effortless word identification at the single word level. (Hook, Jones 2002) Fluency refers to not only automatic word identification but also to the application of appropriate prosodic features at the phrase, sentence and text levels. (Hook and Jones 2002) Automaticity and Fluency

23. Assessing Automaticity and Fluency

24. Why assess fluency? • Oral reading fluency measures are valid: have been found to predict results on high stakes reading comprehension tests • Benchmarks for satisfactory reading rates are the same regardless of reading program • Benchmarks help teachers identify who is at risk for for below grade level performance

25. Assessments DIBELS: Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Good and Kaminski, Univ. of Oregon Test of Word Reading EfficiencyTorgesen, Pro-Ed Gray Oral Reading Test IV

26. DIBELS subtests • Letter naming • Initial sound fluency • Phoneme segmentation • Nonsense word fluency • Oral reading fluency • Word use fluency • Oral retelling

27. TOWRE Sight Word Efficiency

28. How to assess fluency Use oral reading fluency norms from a valid assessment tool such as DIBELS • Passages at student’s instructional reading level should be used. • Conduct 3 one minute screenings then calculate the median score • Mark all errors

29. WCPM trials • Teacher asks student to read passage. • Teacher times reading and has student stop at one minute. • Teacher counts words read correctly per minute (WCPM). • Teacher refers to benchmark chart to interpret score. (Hasbrouck and Tindal 1992)

30. Practice example for WCPM • Jen read a passage of 140 words in 2 minutes. She made 20 errors. Words read correctly: 140-20=120 Percent accuracy: 120/140= 85% Time in decimal form 120/60=2.0 WCPM = 120/2.0 = 60 WCPM

31. WCPM Calculations Percent Accuracy # of words read correctly total number of words read 120/140 = 85% accuracy Time in decimal form: Divide time (seconds) by 60 120 seconds/60 seconds = 2.0 WCPM = 120/ 2.0= 60

32. Interpreting results For Percentage of accuracy • 96-100% Independent reading level • 91- 95% Instructional reading level • 90% and below Frustration reading level * Jen read the passage with 85% accuracy. Is this passage appropriate for fluency practice?

33. Interpreting results For Oral Reading Fluency benchmarks Teachers need to refer to normative data sources which include: DIBELS benchmarks Hasbrouck and Tindal, 1992 Fuchs et al, 1993

34. Research-based Instruction

35. Instruction • For children whose performance falls below benchmark, additional assessment is needed to pinpoint specific instruction needed. • Further diagnostic assessment will help determine if slow, dysfluent reading is a result of weak accuracy (word level) or slow rate, fluency (text level).

36. Fluency instruction for the struggling reader Struggling readers need more structured, systematic, explicit emphasis on building both accuracy and fluency. (LETRS, Sopris West)

37. General principles for instruction • Text used for fluency instruction and practice should be carefully chosen by teacher. • Frequent, brief practice on successive days. • Charting of accuracy and rate is highly motivating and provides record of progress. • Comprehension checks may be part of fluency lessons.

38. Instruction to develop automaticity of letters and sounds • Letter recognition, naming tasks (Alphabet Arc activities) • Letter-sound correspondence (Sound card games and drills) • Phonological awareness tasks (Rhyming) • Phonemic blending and segmentation tasks (Elkonin box activities, finger tapping)

39. Instruction to improve automaticity at the word level • Onset-rimes (word sorts, drills) • Syllables (Six syllable type review and drills) • Irregular, sight words (sand writing, drills) • Regular sight words (review phonic pattern, orthographic rule, word card games, drills)

40. Example: Fischer Speed Drill rid hid hide kit kite ride hide rid hid kit ride hid kite ride rid kit hide hid ride kit rid hide hid kit rid kite ride Phyllis Fischer Concept Phonics (Oxton House)

41. Instruction to improve Fluency in connected text Research has shown the following techniques to be most effective: • Alternate or simultaneous oral reading with a model • Repeated readings • Timed trials with Charting

42. Alternate Oral Reading • Teacher reads section of passage while child follows along, reading silently and pointing to words as they are read. • Child reads same section or next section of text.

43. Simultaneous oral reading • Preview passage; discuss. • Teacher reads passage as child reads along, silently. • Teacher and child read passage together. • Child reads passage independently.

44. Repeated readings • Text is read, then reread two to four times on successive days. • Teacher must insure that text used can be read with at least 95% accuracy by child. • Teacher and student can graph wcpm.

45. Charting with one minute timed trials • WCPM are counted after child reads passage for one minute. • Performance is charted so that improvement is seen over weeks, months.

46. Phrase-cued reading • Teacher marks text with pencil, scooping phrases. • Teacher models expressive reading using pencil to scoop phrases as phrases are read. • Student follows model, reads passage while scooping phrases with pencil.

47. Automaticity/Fluency Programs and Materials: • Great Leaps by Campbell and Mercer • Read Naturally by Edformation • Quick Reads by Hiebert • Language! by Greene

48. Great Leaps K-2 high frequency phrases my work is good make it work most people which day man made find out a good day about much work first day 1998 Campbell and Mercer

49. Short texts to be read quickly with meaning. 60 texts each at grades 2,3,4. Carefully structured to focus on 1000 most frequent words and important phonemic patterns www.quickreads.org

50. Most effective/less effective practices Most effective practices include: Alternate and Simultaneous reading Repeated readings Minute trials and Charting Less effective practices include: Choral reading Round robin reading Readers’ theatre National Reading Panel 2000