I had my first week of testing fluency for all students in their reading workbook. Those who I'd consider my advanced or top readers read between 120 and 180 words per minute! I was impressed with the inflection and pauses at commas and periods. Even though they were booking it, I felt the selection was well read by them. I encouraged the fastest readers to relax and slow down! I let them know that reading at 140-150 words per minute is solid reading for fourth and fifth graders. All of these readers had one or two nights to practice.
My at-grade level readers had at least three nights to practice. I felt that they did fine, but lacked the inflection and smoothness that I would like them to have. They read about what a beginning fourth grade reader should have. I thought with more practice, that their words per minute would be greater. I was disappointed, because I felt they didn't practice as they should have.
I had two below grade level readers who were awesome on this reading. They were being speedy, and cruised through a lot of words, but lacked inflection and reading with meaning that the first group exhibited. On the other hand, I commend their willingness to practice. That's the difference between these two readers and other at and below grade level readers. Students are to practice independently, and some did not choose to. Question: How do I motivate them to practice their weekly fluency?
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ReplyDeleteSorry Janet, I deleted my other post.
ReplyDeleteI am curious about the fluency piece. With all of the components in our series, I find that one getting pushed to the side in my room some weeks. Are you using read naturally? That is one piece I am curious about but feel overwhelmed with what we have now.
For those students who are not motivated, could you do a reward/incentive program with those 2? When they cold read, establish a goal and reward/incentive with them. If they meet their goal, they get a reward. This may help to motivate those 2 students. Just a thought. Nice work!
Tony, I could get you started on Read Naturally for your students. Definitely you can set a goal and do an incentive. I agree, the series weekly fluency isn't always motivating or at the correct level. Have you tried a poetry folder? I have an article about it's use to motivate readers and improve fluency! Janet
ReplyDeleteIn First Grade, we do a poetry folder. I have gotten my class into the routine of doing our calendar, practicing our fluency piece, practicing our poem of the week, and then we do morning meeting. I can get this process done in 25-30 minutes.
ReplyDeleteFor the poem, I let the class come up with actions to go along with each line. They love it and it is a great way to get them involved! I have gotten lots of feedback saying that they can't believe how well they can read these pieces at the end of the week!
Janet- do you have any good fluency rubrics? I am wondering how I will assess this, besides the ones from LEAD?
Paula, I just have the ones from LEAD for assessing fluency. We also assessed last year each quarter with Dibels. Is there a first grade version of that? Jane or Lisa R. would know, if you're not sure. A rubric? Well, I suppose the best is with Fauntas & Pinnell. I'll probably take their leveling and use that. I think it's a 0, 1,2, or 3.
ReplyDeleteI will definitely take a closer look at using the Fountas and Pinnell one (correctly!). When trying to get all of those assessments done, I find myself trying to go too quickly. I trust that the Fountas and Pinnell assessments are good measures!
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