Teaching Phonics

“Reading fluency” is when students can read quickly, accurately, and with expression. Students should not be made to read more quickly, with intonation, it will come when they are ready. When students begin to recognize more words, their reading becomes more smooth and fluent. Therefore, accuracy and basic word recognition should be given a lot of focus on the classroom so that students can get as much practice as they can on order to become fluent readers. Fluency is important to help with comprehension because when the reading is choppy and without flow, it is hard to understand the text. It can be difficult for students to answer comprehension questions on the reading if they have just stumbled through the passage.

I would apply fluency assessment in my classroom by measuring reading speed and accuracy of my students. I would do this by obtaining a WCPM (words correct per minute) score. I would have the students individually read from an unpracticed regular classroom passage for one minute and determine how many words the students can read correctly. I would chart their score on a graph to see the students' progress. By monitoring the reading fluency progress of my students, I will see if my instruction is effective and what my goals for the student should be. The students will be motivated to keep trying and improving their fluency when they see their fluency growth represented in the graphs.

There are many ways to instruct fluency development in the classroom. I loved the reading theater idea. It's a really great way to get students motivated to read; it “gives students a real reason to read aloud” (Hasbrouck, 2006). Guided oral reading is also good for students to practice while hearing how it should sound. In small groups, I would read aloud with the students and then have them reread it to themselves and then reread the same passage to a peer. Rereading is so important for students struggling with fluency. Reading with feedback can be done one-on-one. First the teacher reads the passage and then the students reread the same passage and the teacher provides feedback so the student will know what was read correctly and what wasn't. While the teacher is busy helping a specific group of students, the others can use their time efficiently by listening to a passage on tape while reading along and continuing to practice that text until it is read fluently. I would try to give the students a lot of opportunity to read and reread. I would model fluent reading by reading aloud to the students while the students read along silently from their own copies of the text or from big book that they can follow along.