Fluency in my Classroom

Reading fluency is an important aspect of a child’s developmental progression as an efficient citizen of the world. The rates at which a child can read will not only help them read faster, but it will also help them process the text of which they are reading. There are many ways for a teacher to assess fluency, although most researchers have not confided in a concrete model. Many different experiments were used in measuring fluency and how to increase a child’s fluency throughout the school year. A few of the fluency models that teachers can use are WCPM –words correct per minute, Reader’s Theater, Choral Reading, Partner Reading and Tape-assisted reading.

      The most efficient researched based type of assessment would be WCPM or words correct per minute. This is a self-monitoring progress that the students are held responsible for. In this segment students are asked to read as many words as they can in one minute. The words that a child messes up or has difficulty reading would be underlined so that the student would not count that word as one that is being read correctly. At the end of the school year, there should be a significant increase in WCPM as the students had when they first started. My only objection about this type of assessment is that some students may feel self-conscious and begin to cheat on their word count for peer pressure to do well. I do not believe that any student wants to admit to his or her mistake and would try to self-correct his or herself during this assignment. This type of involvement in this section would only hurt the student’s progression stage.

Another type of instruction that would help increase fluency is Reader’s Theater. This is a chance for students to “act out” in a play without actually being in a play. The students would find this extremely entertaining and are unaware that they are actually helping their fluency rate. The way this section works is that the students are constantly reading and rereading their passages. By reading and rereading passages students are increasing their fluency rate, word recognition, and overall reading performance.

Choral Reading is a way for the teacher to read aloud to the students and then have the students read along with the teacher. First, the teacher would read a passage aloud so that the students could listen to the story and understand the pace that the teacher is setting. Once the story is read, the students will read along and out loud with the teacher so that they can keep a specific pace that is set for them. Struggling readings can jump in on certain phrases but are encouraged to try their best to work with the group. The only problem I have with this is that struggling readers can often be self conscious of themselves and may be let down that they are not up to par with the rest of the students.

The final fluency assistance offered is tape-assisted reading. This is another form of choral reading except the teacher is not doing the reading. Instead the student will listen to the tape read a story first. After the story is read the student will try to read along with the tape in order to help keep up pace.

I would use any form of the fluency instruction that was stated above. All of these methods seem to be effective in the classroom and it would be of great assistance to a first time teacher to practice all these new founded methods. My favorite type of instruction would be the WCPM practice. I would modify this type of instruction so that I would be the one counting the students words to ensure that the scoring is accurate. This would be one of the many portfolio assignments I would have to show student progression throughout the school year. I would also provide this type of assessment for students to take home and practice with their parents to ensure that rereading is present. In order for fluency to be increased in any grade at any level would be to constantly reread passages that were proven to be difficult to increase word recog