Where can I fit daily fluency practice into my schedule?

The instructional day for students (and teachers) is packed.  This makes it difficult to find time to implement anything new.  

Time is JUST SO precious, isn't it?

While we can't create more time (sure would be nice, huh?), we can try to find (or carve out) small moments in the day for important instructional tasks.  

We know fluent reading is important, and we know the way achieve fluent reading is through opportunities to practice what students have learned.

This means we MUST give students multiple opportunities to read text appropriate for them.  

We have to make it a priority to find time for daily fluency practice. Take a look at the suggestions below to see where you might fit daily fluency practice into your day.  

• Morning Routine--Use fluency practice as a bell ringer activity.  After students have entered the classroom and put away their things, have them engage in repeated readings or partner readings. 

• End of the Day--After students pack up have students participate in echo, choral or cloze reading to wrap up the day.  Students could also partake in repeated readings or reading with a partner.

• Transitions--When students transition back from specials, lunch or recess they can do a 5-10 minute fluency activity, much like the morning routine option.  This would be a great opportunity to get students to calm their bodies and brains.

• Centers--Have fluency practice as a center choice on a daily basis. Students could partner read, do repeated readings with whisper phones, or even record themselves reading each day!

• Small Group--devote 5 minutes of each small group time to fluency practice.  This could be in the form of one breath boxes, high frequency words and phrases, high frequency flashcards or repeated readings of appropriate leveled passages your small group is working on.  

• Whole Group-Start out each reading lesson with 5-10 minutes of fluency practice.  Perhaps each week you could select a poem and then do various fluency activities with the poem each day.  Monday could be Choral reading, Tuesday Echo reading, Wednesday Cloze reading, etc. 

• RTI--have fluency work be apart of each tier 2 and tier 3 group.  Groups could engage in readers theater or repeated readings.  Fluency work could be the entire focus of the group, or just a portion of it. 

So, how much time should be devoted to daily fluency practice?  Well, according to Dr. Timothy Shanahan you should schedule 30 to 45 minutes per day for fluency instruction.  This doesn't have to be in one time block--break the thirty minutes up in various chunks.  The important thing is that fluency instruction should be happening!

If you take time to reflect on your daily schedule, you may find 5 to 10 minutes at various points of the day where you can squeeze in intentional fluency practice.  Or perhaps there is something that isn't quite moving the needle that you may cut out in order to implement a new fluency routine.

What do you do for daily fluency practice? I'd love to know!

How can we help kids who are disfluent?

We know fluency is important.  

We know fluent reading is the bridge to comprehension.

But.... what can we do to help disfluent readers? 

To best help a disfluent reader, we must first determine what stage the student is at.  This will help us find the best strategy for the reader.  

Is the student a beginning reader (kindergarten or first grade)?

Is the reader one who is making adequate progress?

Or, is the reader one who is struggling?

Lets look at a beginning reader first.  A beginning reader is someone in kindergarten and first grade who is attaching letters to their sounds and blending them into simple words.  To improve reading fluency for these students a teacher should:

• Spend a significant amount of time on accurate text reading
• Implement a systematic daily practice for learning to read words accurately
• Model fluent reading.
• Give students lots of opportunity to read and re-read decodable text
• Encourage students to read "like they are talking." 

Now, lets look at a reader who is on-level or making adequate progress.  These are students in grades two or higher who are average and making adequate gains. How do we keep the momentum going?  How do we maintain their progress? To do this a teacher should use:

• Choral reading
• Echo Reading
• Cloze reading
• Partner reading
• Readers' theater 
• Poetry readings

Finally, lets look at struggling readers.   Disfluent readers need a mixture of what beginning readers  and on level students need. The best way for disfluent readers to become more fluent is by reading!  These students need:

• Focus on ACCURATE text reading.
• Use decodable text
• Repeated readings 
• Systemic daily practice of reading words accurately
• Modeled fluent reading
• Encourage students to read like they are talking
• LOTS of opportunities to read text (at their level) using choral, cloze, echo and partner reading.

If you would like to know how to define fluency and why being a fluent reader important, check out the first post in the series by clicking here.  

There are a ton of great articles written by reading gurus on the topic of fluency.  Check them out by clicking below.

Everything You Wanted to Know about Repeated Reading by Timothy Shanahan via Reading Rockets

Using Poetry to Teach Reading via Reading Rockets

Developing Fluent Readers by Jan Hasbrouck via Reading Rockets

I hope you will join us next time to discover ways you can fit daily fluency practice into your schedule!

Fluency: What is it, and why is it important?

Did you know that 36% of the nation's fourth graders are unable to fluently read? This is according to the 2018 National Assessment of Educational Progress Report. 

That is ONE out of EVERY THREE!  Wow....let that sink in....

Even more disturbing is the statistic that students who exit third grade unable to read, are FOUR TIMES as likely to not graduate high school.  Add poverty to the mix, and a student is THIRTEEN TIMES less likely to graduate.  (Sparks, 2011)

So, how do we turn that statistic around? 

One way is for us to truly understand what fluent reading is and what we can do to help students. 

What exactly is fluency?

Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly and with expression.

To explain it more simply, fluency is the ability to read like you speak. To take what is read and make it sound like spoken language.

When I explain it to students, I use the acronym E.A.R.S (Expression, Accuracy, Rate and Smoothness).  One of my colleagues and fellow reading interventionist shared this acronym with me years ago.  I love the simplicity of it and how easy it is for students to remember!  

Why is fluent reading important? 

When a student reads fluently, he or she automatically and effortlessly recognizes words on the page.  Because this process is automatic and effortless, more space is freed up in the student's brain to understand what is being read. 

On the flip side, if a student is disfluent, he or she is using available brain space to decode words.  The disfluent reader is spending all of their time trying to match letters and sounds and simply does not have the capacity to comprehend what is being read.  The brain is in overdrive.

Being a fluent reader is important, as fluent reading bridges the gap between word reading and comprehension.  The inability to read text accurately, quickly and with expression creates the inability to understand what one has read. 

Lets take the example of the text below, which is a direct quotation from BMC Medical Journal.  Try decoding this text AND understanding what is written. 

The text above was likely difficult for you to read, and there is an even greater likelihood that you struggled to glean meaning from the text (unless you are a medical professional). This short excerpt helps illustrate the point of how disfluent reading truly impacts comprehension.

Follow along with this blog series as I cover the following topics. 

Post 2: How can we help disfluent readers?

Post 3: How can I fit daily fluency practice into my day?

Post 4: How do we track student success? 

Post 5: Top mistakes teachers make regarding fluency.

Post 6: Resources to help with daily fluency practice. 

Six Books to Celebrate Winter

I have said before that fall is my favorite, and it is....but winter is a VERY CLOSE second.   

There is so much to LOVE about this season.  The beauty of a snowy day, gently falling snowflakes, holidays, cozy warm fires, smells, food....... So. Many. Things to adore.  This time of year just makes me happy, and I enjoy sharing that happiness with my students.  One of the best ways to pass along appreciation for winter is to read aloud some fantastic books that celebrate the season.  

Below are SIX books that make PERFECT read alouds to honor the best season of the year. 

The Snowy Day  by Ezra Jack Keats (Prek-2)

This is a classic book all ages can love!  Follow a young boy as he explores the wonder of a snowy day.  The contemporary illustrations and vivid text has made this book iconic.  In January of 2020, New York Public Library reported The Snowy Day was the #1 checked out book in it's 125 year history. 

The Snow Tree by Caroline Repchuk

I adore this book.  The story is heartwarming and the illustrations (with texture) are gorgeous and sure to delight all readers.  Follow a young cub as he wakes up to a wintry world of white and wonders where the colors have gone.  A host of woodland animals help him find the lost colors, only to create a beautiful symbol of the winter season. 

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

This is a book that is perfect for holidays, snow days.....or any day for that matter.  Follow along with a Vermont boy, Wilson Bentley, in this Caldecott Medal winning picture book as he shares his fascination with snowflakes. 

The Mitten by Jan Brett

I first heard this book when I took my son to a local story time, and I fell in love!  This bestselling classic is a charming story about a host of woodland animals crawling into a lost mitten.  It is sure to delight all readers!

Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner

Have you ever wondered what snowmen do at night? Follow a long with this frosty, fun tale to find out the secret life of snowmen! 

How to Catch a Snowman by Adam Wallace

Get ready for snow much fun as you travel through a winter wonderland.  There will be running, skating, bouncing and LOTS of traps as you try to catch that pesky snowman!  If this is fun for your young readers, make sure you check out the companion books--How to Catch an Elf and How to Catch a Gingerbread Man!

For more books to celebrate winter check out this list from We are Teachers and PBS Kids!