Fluency Finale: The Grinch

The fluency unit came to an end this week (see previous post for more) with a readers’ theatre reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This week the students read their play to the kindergarten classes instead of into a podcast. The script did, indeed, give them a chance to read with expression, however Grinch-y. They loved presenting to the kindergarteners (I asked the kindergarten teachers to rate their performance, they averaged four stars).

At the end of the week, I was looking forward to testing their fluency. I use the DIBELS to progress monitor their reading each month. They’ve been making gains, typically one or two words gained per minute, so I was really hoping to see great leaps this month with all the extra read-aloud practice.

On Friday, (drum roll please!) I was ecstatic to calculate their Words Correct Per Minute (WCPM). I had them read a passage at the DIBELS level they’re working at (typically one to three levels below grade level) for three minutes, marking errors and minute marks. Then, I calculated the WCPM and accuracy (words read correct/total words read). I was so pleased to see that each of my students improved a lot! One improved his WCPM by 16 additional words per minute, a 26% increase, and another increased by 9 WCPM for a gain of 50%, in just one month. And, their accuracy increased a well, which I was even happier to see. 

Looking ahead to 2011, fluency will remain a priority, especially now that they have a better foundation. Next up: reading fluently, for comprehension.

Fluency Update: Reading Punctuation

I have been working on fluency skills with my group of third, fourth, and fifth grade students this month (see previous update). Mid-way through the focus on fluency, they’ve all had the chance to read and record a play podcast at least once, one group has completed the process of reading, practicing and recording a podcast twice.

This week, I realized just how difficult it is for some students to separate reading fast with reading well. Working with one student who read through the script with the cadence of a semi-truck flying down a hill with broken brakes, I stopped him over and over to try to get him to read the periods and commas. Even after I modeled the right and wrong ways to read punctuation, and explaining why reading the punctuation was important, it was really difficult for him to slow down. Part of the problem for this student was that he’s a kid who likes to get things done fast. He play sports and the faster he runs, the better. We’ve been working on math fact practice and he’s gotten better and better at doing multiplication faster and faster--the more multiplication facts he recalls in five minutes, the better he feels about his math ability. And, in some aspects, he’s been encouraged to read faster and faster. This year, he’s shown a lot of growth in his reading skills, and part of that has been the timed reading that we do together once a month for progress monitoring. His Words Correct Per Minute (the, however faulty, measure that we use to track fluency) in a third-grade reading passage has doubled since September and I know that’s something he’s proud of. So, slowing down is also an old habit that’s dying hard. By the end of the week, when he recorded his podcast, he was able to slow down a little, but it’ll be a skill we continue to work on.

Coming up, it’s Christmas all around (it’s the last week before Christmas break and, as I always feel this time of year when kids are gearing up for winter vacation and Santa’s visit, it's best to go with the holiday cheer). One group will be practicing a rendition of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, a play that I thought would give them a chance to practice reading with a certain curmudgeon-y, grumpy, exasperated tone that they don’t often get to employ. My other group finished their play reading and have moved on to writing a skit of their own, for the novel they’re writing The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. 

Fluency Update: Reading The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

I started the fluency focused readers’ theatre lesson cycle this week (as mentioned in last week’s post). To start the three-week lesson, six students in third, fourth, and fifth grade practiced The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.

On Monday, they were introduced to the idea of reading fluency (it’s “reading like you talk,” as defined by one of my students) and started reading the scripts. At first, I had them read the scripts in pairs, alternating lines, so that they had the opportunity to read the entire script through instead of memorizing a few lines. On Tuesday and Wednesday they kept reading different roles and worked on answering comprehension questions about the play. On Thursday they got their official “roles” and on Friday they read their scripts into a podcast recording. Throughout the week, we talked about how to increase fluency—working on words in the script that were hard (porker, wrong, and honor) and adding voice and expression to the lines.

Over the course of the week, two things surprised me. First, they didn’t get bored. I was worried that, reading the same lines over and over would become tedious, especially for these students who tend to jump to the next book, activity, or even sentence before fully understanding the initial one. But, when it did get a little boring for them, I was able jump in and challenge them with prompts such as: How do you think the wolf would say that? Or, imagine how you would feel if you were in that situation, how would your voice sound?

I was also surprised at how easy to find “new” learning for every student. On Monday, they were all working on decoding and phonics, though some more than others. By Friday, two students were still decoding and working on phonics. Two others were working on increasing their speed and accuracy with the lines. And, the final two were working on adding voice and expression where they hadn’t before. That was a nice change—usually, in a one-week plan that focuses on a specific skill, by Friday I have kids who are bored and kids who still “don’t get it.”

This coming week, they’ll be working with scripts that are a little more challenging but, judging by the comments after they recorded The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, (That was fun! Are we recording next week too?) they’re ready for it.

Building Reading Fluency

During the second quarter, which officially started a few weeks ago, I’ve shifted focus from teaching phonics to teaching reading fluency, especially with a group of third, fourth, and fifth graders that have mastered the basics, but are still “struggling readers.” Focusing on fluency, the ability to read accurately (quickly and correctly) and with expression, I think, will help them enjoy reading and understand more of what they read as they connect words they read with words they hear.

Fluency, I think, is one of the most difficult qualities to develop in students who are struggling with reading. It comes so naturally to some students, even as it eludes others. I have worked with students who struggle with phonics yet, even as they stumble over words, some aspects of fluency—the rise and fall of their voice as they read, the inflection they give to punctuation, their expression as they read dialogue—is impeccable. Other readers, who can sound out any word presented to them, read in stifled monotone, as if every word is one more step in a torturous journey towards finishing the chapter.

I recently researched the topic of reading fluency and learned that it’s a hard won skill for kids—requiring both repeated reading and reading many different texts. For my students, repeated reading can be challenging and they lose interest quickly, while at the same time, building the ability to read many different texts poses its own challenge as they work to transfer knowledge (word skills, sight words) they used in one text to a book that, on the cover at least, looks completely different.

So, in my group of upper elementary students, whose reading levels and fluency ability are incredibly diverse, I’ve struggled with just how to approach the idea of fluency, and how to get them to practice it in a way that introduces something new for each child. I’ve decided to focus on reader’s theatre with a few different plays, and strategies to teach them the importance of reading fluently.

The guiding questions: How does reading fluency enhance how we enjoy and understand what we read? How does our reading fluency enhance how we communicate what we read to others?

In this unit:

• I’m focusing on explicit instruction in the components of fluent reading with guided notes on how to read expression—what readers do when they read a period, exclamation point, and question mark, as well as notes on how to read emphasized text (text that is written in italics, bold font, or capitalized letters).
• As they read, the students will discuss how to read sentences with expression, reading parts of sentences, pausing for commas, and adding voice to dialogue.
• Twice each week, as a class, they’re going to do Reading A to Z's “zipper reads” procedure, a way of repeated reading that encourages kids to track their own accuracy and word comprehension. Eventually, I will have them graph their progress, so each student can see how their fluency improved over the weeks.
• As they practice their scripts, they’ll be working towards reading the script for a podcast recording that they can share with their parents, or with another class.

I'm excited to see the growth that the combination of instruction, group practice, and small group work with scripts that are interesting to them (one of the plays is the script of the novel that my fifth grade students are reading, The Best Christmas Pageant Every by Barbara Robinson), and the ultimate goal of helping them hear themselves read, will bring about in this group of students. 

If you’re working on building fluency in your class, don’t start without reading the resources from Reading Rockets, a public television resource with information and strategies.