I put my students to work on this one. I wanted their opinion as to what was working, what wasn't, and what is their proof. Here's some of the responses: MM Listening to other people read helps because if they do it right, I know how I should do it. For instance, I used to blow through comma and periods, but now I stop at them. SG We read the Readers' Theater. It helps me with my fluency because I usually have quite a few lines. MR We read for Reading Counts and do Readers' Theater. In Readers' Theater you get to read with emotion, and for the Friday test, I have been staying above my 140 goal line. BJ Readers' Theater helps my fluency a lot because you have to practice every day, and it's always fun. I know I'm getting better because I stay above my goal line on my Friday fluency test. DG Somebody reading with me helps. I am still under my goal line, but I am getting better each time I do it. AK I think that me reading to someone else is helping me because on my Friday test I am staying above my goal line.
I'm still the alpha book gobbler, reading myself, and getting kids to follow suit...read and read...The 8th graders are blogging and the underlying theme is of excitement with their books. Check it out at http://ljgruhn.blogspot.com
They have to post comments to my posts on the blog every two weeks. And I have organized each post with a picture of the book I'm reading at the time (adolescent books only). They like this and I think it puffs them up a bit, which is good. I'm starting a list of books that kids can't get anywhere here. Laura said she would try to get for us somehow. She's going to get me started with Scholastic Books, too, and just help me get books in their hands. It's all just so enormously exciting. It hasn't waned, it's growing and this is a very good thing!
Blog posts on their books have improved. They're becoming more fluent at it and "somewhat" learning they have to proof before posting. They want to post like they "text." I'm tickled that kids I don't have from resource room are asking me for audio books. My 8th grade boy who had a teacher eating her hat has read his second book in that series, with a B+.
We have been doing short 2-person plays, highlighting of "meaningful phrases," and reading shorter passages within a larger text with partners or very small groups. Discussion about what good readers do has helped some readers to look and listen for those things. Students are often able to comment on how other readers are using the skills of a good reader. Grouping students who have trouble with phrasing with other students who are good at phrasing is helpful. They often practice several times together before "performing" which makes it less scary. I often ask students to listen and identify what the presenters are doing that good readers do when I read aloud or when good readers read aloud. Students seem to be using more expression and are phrasing better. Their reading is starting to sound more like conversation.
In listening to the fifth grade students read every week, I have noticed that the students are beginning to recognize punctuation. YEAH! The ones who were struggling with punctuation are the ones who are able to read 150 words per minute, yet they are monotone, ramble, and lack expression. Another thing that I have noticed is that the total number of repetitions each week are continuing to decrease, as the students are focusing more on the word they are reading rather than worrying about the next word. In the first baseline probe I did with two of the students on the first week of school, one had 19 repetitions, and the other had 13. Now, they are both averaging under 5 repetitions per week. All the students are striving each week to reach their fluency goal and this is making them more conscious readers. Also, I am very pleased at the progress my fully integrated student is making with his oral reading skills. In listening to his peers read, and reading aloud with them, he is becoming more confident and is able to read more on his own (More than I have EVER gotten him to read independently and he doesn't even complain about it :)
This year we are spending one week on a book instead of just one day. We talk about what is on the cover and we make predicitons about what the story is about. We act out the story with puppets or props that the children come up with. We do repeated readings and sometimes the children read it aloud using the pictures as clues. The book is available to them all day all week. I have found that by Friday when I show them the retelling cards they are able to put them in sequence order and answer the questions and retell me the story with ease!
I have been using a lot of modeling, repeated readings, choral reading, etc. in my room to help improve fluency. Our reading series has 2 stories for each week in the student books that we use with whole group reading. I usually start by reading the story to the students first. Second, we read the story as a whole group. Last, I split them up into small groups and they read it as a whole group and then as individuals to their group. The students seem to really enjoy doing this. They can then retell the story without any problems. I also try to do some fun activity for each story to help make it more enjoyable for the students.
My guided reading time is rather similar to my whole group reading activities. In guided reading, we will do a picture walk, make predictions, etc. Then we will read it as a whole group. One the last day that I meet with each group, each student will read me the book individually.
We are doing more choral reading so the children don't sound like little robots. We are really working on reading so it sounds like we are using our talking voices. We are spending 5 minutes every morning doing "silent reading" I feel this is encouraging more children to realize they CAN read, even if it's just part of the book. I put a basket of books at each table that are easy readers that encourage the students to read our sight words. In kindergarten they just need lots and lots of exposure to print.
We have been working on repetitive Level A books for Guided Reading. I introduce a book to a group of students. The kids practice reading them when we have some extra time (sometimes with a partner or to themselves). Then we get together and read it as a group-choral reading. Also, I have some sentences with their vocabulary words in them that I introduce (one by one) by reading it to them and having them echo it back. Then we practice it over and over together(sometimes two or three read it together). Once they seem to really know it, I put it with the others we've done and put it in the letter center for them to read to other students. This year I got a new pocket chart set of word families. As I introduce one set, we use our Visual Phonics cues to figure out the words and then we go over and over them each day. It has helped to boost vocabulary as a few words in each set are words we have had to define and discuss.
Second graders are reading together their "Baker's Poem," trying to get it ready for the Dec 10 concert. I want them to speak as one voice, but we are quite a way off from that. Some lines come easier than others, and they are beginning to recite some easier ones from memory.
I am not sure what to do with the ones who chime in as a reaction to what the others have recited, always trailing behind in a sort of sing-song monotone.
I continue to model the lines and have them echo. (Just can't do that forever--looking for some independence on their part!!)
When I notice a child is not reading the book like a story then I go back and have them echo read with me and have them notice the phrasing. When we do cut up sentences I put them in phrases and have them read it back so they can hear and see the phrasing. Fluency is just part of what we work on everyday because it is orchestrating all of the strategies we have been working on to have their reading be what it is suppose to be.
I have done lots of choral reading, repeated readings, modeling, readers theater, echo reading, poems, etc. and continue to do all of those things. What I've begun to do now is to do more discussion and highlight what "good reading" is with students. We discuss punctuation and bold text. We look for phrases, patterns and rhymes. When I "catch" someone reading with good fluency, I have that student sit in my chair on the carpet to read to the class. I preface the reading by saying that others may have been reading like this too, but this student is the one I "caught," and try to get different students up front. I also talk about reading fluency with parents at conference time and why certain books come home and stategies that we are working on at school and that they can do at home. Directly instructing students and parents on why we do the reading activities we do has helped to give purpose to those activities.
My students choral read, echo read, partner read, do repeated readings, .... of our basal stories, poems, and guided reading stories. We have been doing readers theaters and fluency probes. My students like to see how their words per minute increase on one minute timed readings after they have reread a passage many times until they feel comfortable reading it aloud fluently. This seems to help build their confidence.
I continue to use alot of modeling, repeated readings, choral reading, and partner reading to improve reading fluency with my students. Most of my students continue to struggle with sight word recognition and phonics skills and are just beginning to use reading strategies to decode unknown words, thus they continue to struggle with being a fluent reader. To help boost their confidence and ability to be more fluent, each student has a basket of books filled with many books below their instructional level. Books included in their baskets include Sight word books, Ready Readers, Vocabulary Builder books, and Guided Reading level A - D books that they have already read) They spend the first 5 minutes of reading time reading these books which seems to be one of their favorite activities!
My students like to echo read our basal stories that we do each week. They also choral read them. We even partner read them when time is available. We do choral reading of our weekly phonics poems as well. The students seem to like doing this. It makes them feel that they are getting better at their reading.
This is Jennifer Junk's comment: Reading books with repeated text, repeated readings, working on letter sounds and pointing to text as I read have been some great strategies I have used. We generally focus on one book per week using flannel boards, retelling cards, story props, tapes and CD's. We also have print with pictures of the word around the room for the children to see/write/read.
In the past I have found repeated readings to be beneficial for any grade level. It is much more difficult to get older students to accept the value in this. I think it must feel babyish to them. I need a way to make it fun. I think I may try some of the silly poems that I have from a workshop I attended. Lately, I have relied more on shared reading, with me sharing too, so that the students have a model.
Until a year ago, I had little use for read alouds. I think this may have been because my original training was deadly dull. After my Second Chance Reading training, however, I have used read alouds a lot and incorporate vocabulary. I would like to be better about employing culminating activities such as dictated writing or inductive thinking, but have let this part slip this year. Middle school certainly is a change from what I have been used to!
I am in my second book unit this year where vocabulary is a main focus. I am using a word wall with each, in a competitive way. I have a vocabulary bee, instead of a spelling bee. The students have been enthusiastic; anything phrased as a game (competition)!
So what is working in your classroom with direct instruction of reading fluency strategies? How do you know? Please give specific examples.
I put my students to work on this one. I wanted their opinion as to what was working, what wasn't, and what is their proof. Here's some of the responses:
ReplyDeleteMM Listening to other people read helps because if they do it right, I know how I should do it. For instance, I used to blow through comma and periods, but now I stop at them.
SG We read the Readers' Theater. It helps me with my fluency because I usually have quite a few lines.
MR We read for Reading Counts and do Readers' Theater. In Readers' Theater you get to read with emotion, and for the Friday test, I have been staying above my 140 goal line.
BJ Readers' Theater helps my fluency a lot because you have to practice every day, and it's always fun. I know I'm getting better because I stay above my goal line on my Friday fluency test.
DG Somebody reading with me helps. I am still under my goal line, but I am getting better each time I do it.
AK I think that me reading to someone else is helping me because on my Friday test I am staying above my goal line.
I'm still the alpha book gobbler, reading myself, and getting kids to follow suit...read and read...The 8th graders are blogging and the underlying theme is of excitement with their books. Check it out at http://ljgruhn.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteThey have to post comments to my posts on the blog every two weeks. And I have organized each post with a picture of the book I'm reading at the time (adolescent books only). They like this and I think it puffs them up a bit, which is good. I'm starting a list of books that kids can't get anywhere here. Laura said she would try to get for us somehow. She's going to get me started with Scholastic Books, too, and just help me get books in their hands. It's all just so enormously exciting. It hasn't waned, it's growing and this is a very good thing!
Blog posts on their books have improved. They're becoming more fluent at it and "somewhat" learning they have to proof before posting. They want to post like they "text." I'm tickled that kids I don't have from resource room are asking me for audio books. My 8th grade boy who had a teacher eating her hat has read his second book in that series, with a B+.
ReplyDeleteDebb P. said...
ReplyDeleteWe have been doing short 2-person plays, highlighting of "meaningful phrases," and reading shorter passages within a larger text with partners or very small groups. Discussion about what good readers do has helped some readers to look and listen for those things. Students are often able to comment on how other readers are using the skills of a good reader. Grouping students who have trouble with phrasing with other students who are good at phrasing is helpful. They often practice several times together before "performing" which makes it less scary. I often ask students to listen and identify what the presenters are doing that good readers do when I read aloud or when good readers read aloud. Students seem to be using more expression and are phrasing better. Their reading is starting to sound more like conversation.
In listening to the fifth grade students read every week, I have noticed that the students are beginning to recognize punctuation. YEAH! The ones who were struggling with punctuation are the ones who are able to read 150 words per minute, yet they are monotone, ramble, and lack expression. Another thing that I have noticed is that the total number of repetitions each week are continuing to decrease, as the students are focusing more on the word they are reading rather than worrying about the next word. In the first baseline probe I did with two of the students on the first week of school, one had 19 repetitions, and the other had 13. Now, they are both averaging under 5 repetitions per week. All the students are striving each week to reach their fluency goal and this is making them more conscious readers. Also, I am very pleased at the progress my fully integrated student is making with his oral reading skills. In listening to his peers read, and reading aloud with them, he is becoming more confident and is able to read more on his own (More than I have EVER gotten him to read independently and he doesn't even complain about it :)
ReplyDeleteThis year we are spending one week on a book instead of just one day. We talk about what is on the cover and we make predicitons about what the story is about. We act out the story with puppets or props that the children come up with. We do repeated readings and sometimes the children read it aloud using the pictures as clues. The book is available to them all day all week. I have found that by Friday when I show them the retelling cards they are able to put them in sequence order and answer the questions and retell me the story with ease!
ReplyDeleteI have been using a lot of modeling, repeated readings, choral reading, etc. in my room to help improve fluency. Our reading series has 2 stories for each week in the student books that we use with whole group reading. I usually start by reading the story to the students first. Second, we read the story as a whole group. Last, I split them up into small groups and they read it as a whole group and then as individuals to their group. The students seem to really enjoy doing this. They can then retell the story without any problems. I also try to do some fun activity for each story to help make it more enjoyable for the students.
ReplyDeleteMy guided reading time is rather similar to my whole group reading activities. In guided reading, we will do a picture walk, make predictions, etc. Then we will read it as a whole group. One the last day that I meet with each group, each student will read me the book individually.
We are doing more choral reading so the children don't sound like little robots. We are really working on reading so it sounds like we are using our talking voices. We are spending 5 minutes every morning doing "silent reading" I feel this is encouraging more children to realize they CAN read, even if it's just part of the book. I put a basket of books at each table that are easy readers that encourage the students to read our sight words. In kindergarten they just need lots and lots of exposure to print.
ReplyDeleteWe have been working on repetitive Level A books for Guided Reading. I introduce a book to a group of students. The kids practice reading them when we have some extra time (sometimes with a partner or to themselves). Then we get together and read it as a group-choral reading. Also, I have some sentences with their vocabulary words in them that I introduce (one by one) by reading it to them and having them echo it back. Then we practice it over and over together(sometimes two or three read it together). Once they seem to really know it, I put it with the others we've done and put it in the letter center for them to read to other students. This year I got a new pocket chart set of word families. As I introduce one set, we use our Visual Phonics cues to figure out the words and then we go over and over them each day. It has helped to boost vocabulary as a few words in each set are words we have had to define and discuss.
ReplyDeleteSecond graders are reading together their "Baker's Poem," trying to get it ready for the Dec 10 concert. I want them to speak as one voice, but we are quite a way off from that. Some lines come easier than others, and they are beginning to recite some easier ones from memory.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure what to do with the ones who chime in as a reaction to what the others have recited, always trailing behind in a sort of sing-song monotone.
I continue to model the lines and have them echo. (Just can't do that forever--looking for some independence on their part!!)
When I notice a child is not reading the book like a story then I go back and have them echo read with me and have them notice the phrasing. When we do cut up sentences I put them in phrases and have them read it back so they can hear and see the phrasing. Fluency is just part of what we work on everyday because it is orchestrating all of the strategies we have been working on to have their reading be what it is suppose to be.
ReplyDeleteI have done lots of choral reading, repeated readings, modeling, readers theater, echo reading, poems, etc. and continue to do all of those things. What I've begun to do now is to do more discussion and highlight what "good reading" is with students. We discuss punctuation and bold text. We look for phrases, patterns and rhymes. When I "catch" someone reading with good fluency, I have that student sit in my chair on the carpet to read to the class. I preface the reading by saying that others may have been reading like this too, but this student is the one I "caught," and try to get different students up front. I also talk about reading fluency with parents at conference time and why certain books come home and stategies that we are working on at school and that they can do at home. Directly instructing students and parents on why we do the reading activities we do has helped to give purpose to those activities.
ReplyDeleteMy students choral read, echo read, partner read, do repeated readings, .... of our basal stories, poems, and guided reading stories. We have been doing readers theaters and fluency probes. My students like to see how their words per minute increase on one minute timed readings after they have reread a passage many times until they feel comfortable reading it aloud fluently. This seems to help build their confidence.
ReplyDeleteI continue to use alot of modeling, repeated readings, choral reading, and partner reading to improve reading fluency with my students. Most of my students continue to struggle with sight word recognition and phonics skills and are just beginning to use reading strategies to decode unknown words, thus they continue to struggle with being a fluent reader. To help boost their confidence and ability to be more fluent, each student has a basket of books filled with many books below their instructional level. Books included in their baskets include Sight word books, Ready Readers, Vocabulary Builder books, and Guided Reading level A - D books that they have already read) They spend the first 5 minutes of reading time reading these books which seems to be one of their favorite activities!
ReplyDeleteMy students like to echo read our basal stories that we do each week. They also choral read them. We even partner read them when time is available. We do choral reading of our weekly phonics poems as well. The students seem to like doing this. It makes them feel that they are getting better at their reading.
ReplyDeleteThis is Jennifer Junk's comment:
ReplyDeleteReading books with repeated text, repeated readings, working on letter sounds and pointing to text as I read have been some great strategies I have used. We generally focus on one book per week using flannel boards, retelling cards, story props, tapes and CD's. We also have print with pictures of the word around the room for the children to see/write/read.
In the past I have found repeated readings to be beneficial for any grade level. It is much more difficult to get older students to accept the value in this. I think it must feel babyish to them. I need a way to make it fun. I think I may try some of the silly poems that I have from a workshop I attended. Lately, I have relied more on shared reading, with me sharing too, so that the students have a model.
ReplyDeleteUntil a year ago, I had little use for read alouds. I think this may have been because my original training was deadly dull. After my Second Chance Reading training, however, I have used read alouds a lot and incorporate vocabulary. I would like to be better about employing culminating activities such as dictated writing or inductive thinking, but have let this part slip this year. Middle school certainly is a change from what I have been used to!
I am in my second book unit this year where vocabulary is a main focus. I am using a word wall with each, in a competitive way. I have a vocabulary bee, instead of a spelling bee. The students have been enthusiastic; anything phrased as a game (competition)!
ReplyDelete