News Detail

Becoming a Fluent Reader

Jane N. Hannah, Ed.D
By Dr. Jane Hannah, Currey Ingram Academy Lower School Division Head
(originally published in the September 17, 2014, issue of the Currey Ingram Academy Lower School newsletter)
By Dr. Jane Hannah, Currey Ingram Academy Lower School Division Head
(originally published in the September 17, 2014, issue of the Currey Ingram Academy Lower School newsletter)
 
September is National Literacy Month, and Currey Ingram works diligently to decrease the number of students who struggle to read. Literacy is a complex set of skills that requires proficiency in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. However, fluency is one area of reading instruction that is often neglected in classrooms across the country. When members of the Reading First panel completed their study of reading in 2001, they found in their sample of fourth graders that 44% were deficient in fluency (Put Reading First 2001, pp. 22-23). Fluency should be strongly emphasized in reading instruction because it is the bridge between word recognition and comprehension. 

What is the difference between automaticity and fluency? Meyer and Felton define fluency as “the ability to read connected text rapidly, smoothly, effortlessly, and automatically with little conscious attention to the mechanics of reading, such as decoding” (1999, pg. 284). Therefore, when a student is reading fluently, he/she is doing more than just reading the words automatically, the reader is decoding and comprehending simultaneously.

How can I help my child become a fluent reader? In April 2000, the National Reading Panel’s recommendations included the urgency to identify children before third grade who were “at risk” for reading failure and to begin remediation strategies as early as possible. This panel stressed that a “wait-and-see” approach to intervention could have serious negative effects on academic gains, as well as self-esteem. Two other recommendations from this Panel included the following (Shaywitz, pgs. 258 – 260):
1.Struggling readers must receive explicit, systematic instruction in reading. It must be an interactive process between teacher and student, and the primary focus should not be about completing workbook pages or working on a computer program. 
2.Teachers of struggling readers should use a high-quality reading program that contains the five instructional components of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. 
An important early step toward becoming a fluent reader is being able to turn letters into sounds, blend these sounds together to read words, learn different patterns of letters, and learn the rules and exceptions to rules. This is referred to as phonics. The majority of students who struggle to learn to read demonstrate difficulty with phonics. Did you know that 50 percent of the words you read are wholly decodable and 37 percent are only off by one sound (Reading First)? Once readers have accumulated the knowledge and strategies for decoding words, they only rarely use context or pictures to help them attack an unknown word. The ultimate goal, however, in learning phonics is not to “learn to decode words” but to recognize words “quickly and automatically so that they (students) can turn their attention to comprehension” (Steven Stahl, 1997).
Until children learn to read fluently, they rarely choose to read in their free time, which continues the cycle of poor reading. The less fluent the reader, the less he/she reads, and the weaker the skills. To gain fluency in reading, children must not only learn and apply the rules and strategies for decoding individual words, but they must also learn to read sight words automatically and read large amounts of material at their independent reading level. Independent level (or easy text) is the level at which a person can read 95 percent of the words accurately (or no more than one word in 20 is difficult). The struggling reader must read “easy” text many times, and it is an important component of the total reading program. Asking a child to read only books at the child’s frustration level will not build fluency and will only make him/her dislike reading even more. The frustration level is the level at which one in 10 words is difficult.
The U.S. Department of Education suggests that the oral reading rate should be between 66 and 104 words per minute for students in second grade, 86 to 124 words per minute for third graders, and 95 to 130 words per minute for students in fourth grade (Taylor, Harris, Pearson, & Garcia, 1995). It often takes at least three years for students to reach this level of fluency when a child begins instruction as a struggling reader. Because there are so many other factors that can affect fluency (e.g., speech, language, working memory, anxiety), it may even take more than three years for some struggling readers.
Greater gains can be made in reading when parents and teachers partner with one another. Below are ideas that parents can implement at home:
  1. Read with your child at least three to five nights each week. The “brain learns by practice” (Shaywitz, pg. 188).
  2. Have your child listen to you read while following along. Studies show that reading 30 minutes to and with your child every day results in notable gains.
  3. Practice reading sight words at home. The more automatic a child reads these words (e.g., what, have, was, said), the more words he/she can read per minute. Using these word cards in games may help with student motivation.
  4. Read together (“choral read”) with your child. This is where you and your child read at the same time while using a guide (or finger) as you read.
  5. Re-read the same book at least four times. Then Skype a relative while your child reads a favorite story.
  6. Provide opportunities for your child to be involved in activities that require reading (e.g., cooking, reading directions to make an airplane model, reading information about a favorite topic, making a “to do” list).
  7. Praise your child’s efforts when tackling the difficult task of reading.
  8. As James Patterson suggests, “Be concerned less about what your child is reading,” but just get your child reading, whether it is books like Guinness Book of World Records or Sports Illustrated for Kids (Thomsen, C, 2013).
In closing, it is critical that struggling readers be identified early, that systematic, explicit instruction be provided long enough to ensure success, and that fluency instruction be part of the instruction. Teachers and students work hard at this process daily, but parents can support this process by implementing the activities listed above. Notable strides in improving the rate of literacy among our children can be made when parents and teachers work as a team.

References:
Armbruster, B., Kehr, F., Osborn, J. (2001) Put Reading First, U.S. Department of Education (www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/upload/ PRFbooklet.pdf)
Meyer, M. S. & Felton, R. H. (1999). Repeated reading to enhance fluency: Old approaches and new directions. Annals of Dyslexia, 49, 283-306.
Shaywitz, S. (2006). Overcoming Dyslexia. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Stahl, S.A. & Hayes, D.A. (1997). Instructional Models of Instruction. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Taylor, B., Harris, L.A., Pearson, P.D., & Garcia, G. (1995). Reading Difficulties (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Thomsen, C. (2013). “Dead Aim,” Vanderbilt Magazine: Vol. 94, No. 1, 34 - 37.
 
 
Back

List of 1 items.

Currey Ingram Academy is an exemplary JK-12 day and boarding school that empowers students with learning differences to achieve their fullest potential. Since 2002, the school has been located on an 83-acre campus in Brentwood, Tennessee, just miles from Nashville and Franklin. Families from 33 states and eight countries cite the school as their primary reason for moving to Middle Tennessee.

Currey Ingram Academy is accredited by the Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS).