A fluent reader is “any person who can read smoothly, without hesitation, and with comprehension.” If students are to comprehend what they read they must be able to accurately identify the words they read. Both the chapter and articles I read seem to define fluency with the word comprehension, insisting that students cannot be fluent without having an understanding of what they are reading first. There are four components of fluency that include accuracy, automaticity or speed, prosody, and comprehension. It’s important to remember that a small mistake might not appear to matter when a student is reading, but even the slightest misstep, something as simple as mispronouncing a character’s name can turn out extremely problematic for comprehension. Even incorrect pausing has been known to negatively affect comprehension and therefore fluency.
In my classroom, students are assessed with an AIMSweb standard test and DSA running records to determine their reading level. Based on their score they are put into guided reading groups. In their reading groups they read and are taught at their instructional reading level, however when the students read to a partner or take a book home the book must be one level (based on the Fountas and Pinnell leveled books) so that they can practice their fluency. The idea is that if the book is overall less challenging at a lower level they will be able to build their accuracy, rate, and comprehension skills rather than learn new skills. This way students are learning new reading skills during their reading groups for part of the day and then practicing and perfecting fluency skills during Daily 5 and at home.
It is crucial that we keep up on students reading through continuously assessing their reading levels and fluency with running records so that they continue to grow and be placed within the correct levels.
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