The Challenge Of Fluency

Distinguishing between the ability to read certain words, but not comprehend them is a tricky place to be. As a student it's frustrating and disheartening, and as a teacher you are left potentially feeling inadequate, not quiet sure how to help that student achieve their goal. However, in Timothy Rasinski's piece, Creating Fluent Readers, a three step guideline is created to better equip teachers in this process. The first tip given by Rasinski is for teachers to help students with their accuracy by decoding words. After students can do this, the second step is automatic processing. Thirdly, after students are able to complete the first two steps, they will begin practicing prosodic reading, which means that, "The reader must parse the text into syntactically and semantically appropriate units."

By following these steps, one can distinguish where the student falls in their deficiency, and can meet the student where they are at--focusing on how to solve the problem rather than just stating they are falling behind.

It is good to keep in mind though, as discussed in Theresa A. Deeney's article on One Minute Fluency Measurements, that some researchers believe fluency is present in students even before they can show its connectedness to the text. This point of view argues that it's manifestation however, is what we see at a later date. This is accomplished when accuracy, automaticity, and many other small parts of reading strategies are combined.

Ultimately, regardless of how fluency happens, I think it is important for students to understand that while reading, balancing words accurately and quickly all the while connecting them to the context is challenging. A lot of time, fear and failure come from a place when students feel like they are the only ones on the planet struggling with something. So, as a teacher, it is important to encourage children in this stage of reading but  also bring to their attention that this knowledge will take time to achieve.

This process can be draining at times, repetitively reading phrases and passages. That is why I found this activity to the right, as fun and silly and a way to help kids enjoy this stage of reading more! Students could each be assigned a character, or we could draw as a class one a day, and one student could read aloud to the rest of his/her peers.