And Now A Thought About Fluency

Teachers,

Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday. 

And Now A Thought About Fluency —

Kim and I have been going to a Literacy Training. There was a part of the training that was an ah-ha moment for me. I read about Fluency and how important it is leading up to comprehension. Fluency is only how fast a text is read out loud, but it also includes accuracy and prosody. Students should read as fast as they talk. There is a WPM guide that tells us how fast that should be according to grade level, but a generally it should be as fast as a student talks. Faster than that, they are just reading as fast as they can and comprehension suffers. Accuracy brings in words, vocabulary and context and provides meaning to words students recognize as well as context to the text. If words are missed or misread, the meaning of the story could get lost. Prosody is the way stories are read. The voice fluctuation, the raising and lowering of the voice, sounding like the voices that are speaking the words on the page, and reading not only the words, but the punctuation. Storytelling. Put all these things together and we get fluency. Without each of these things, comprehension goes down. Now to the ah-ha moment. As we learned about all this, we thought about how we read books with students and listen to them stumble over words, help correct them if they say a words or sentence wrong, and in the end have them tell us what they read. If the student is reading a book they are not fluent in and are struggling reading words and do not know the vocabulary, should we expect them to understand what they read each time? They need to work on comprehension, but fluency is a big part of being able to understand the meaning of a text. So what do we do? If they do not comprehend what has been read, is the fluency getting in the way? Would choral reading help them understand better as they listen and read? Just a thought. If a student does not comprehend what is going on in a story, it might be because of their fluency. I know you are all working on amazing things with your students. This was just an moment of clarity for me. You just happen to be on the reading end of my thoughts. Thank you for bearing with me.

Quote I’m pondering —

“I not only use all the brains I have, but all the brains I can borrow.” -Woodrow Wilson

What I’m watching —

Decorah Eagle Camera

I have been watching this pair of eagles for about 5 years. They build their nest in January and February. Mom lays 2-3 eggs the middle of February, about 3-4 days apart and the two share their time siting on the eggs. Good lesson on sharing. Both boy and girl sits on the eggs. About the middle of March they hatch and we get to watch the parents feed fish and rabbits and other yummy foods to their young. Then about the middle of May the little ones start to stretch their wings and by the last day of school they are off and the nest is empty until January. And it is all live. They do have saved videos in two hour segments that they post so you can see what happens at night, or when something special happens you can refer back to it. Amazing.

Favorite Article This Week —

Dad’s Special Lunch Bag Drawings Help ‘Shy’ Son

These are some of the most amazing drawings, and they are on lunch bags. This is an amazing, talented dad. 

A Big Thank You —

Thank you Alma. Seriously you have done amazing things with our school. The coaching that happens when you put your magic touch and persistence on a situation. I have learned a lot from you. You have taught us all amazing things. It does take willingness and hard work on the part of the people you work with, but the fruits of your labors are evident and priceless for our school and the students. Thank you for all your hard work. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work. Have a wonderful weekend.