Reading Fluency

Fluency a key skill that young readers need to develop to enhance their ability to understand and comprehend the text that they are reading. In the article on one-minute measures by Deeney, she states that it's important that we understand that readers struggle and to understand just why they struggle. I completely agree with her view; if we recognize just where or how a reader is struggling the better we, as teachers, can asses why that is and develop tools to improve certain skills. I know that when I was in fourth grade, my teacher told my parents that I struggled with fluency and suggested I go to a learning center to better concentrate on improving my reading skills. The whole experience did not do a thing for me as a reader because I didn't really need the help. My teacher had not properly measured my fluency, I was fast, accurate, understood what I was reading and did it all smoothly. I hated reading out loud cause it made me nervous and self conscious, and she would have been able to tell that if she had tested or looked at my endurance as a reader. Endurance is another key area which Deeney brings attention to that is key in determining a reader's fluency.

What would be some other ways to incorporate one-minute measures and endurance into testing fluency?

These are some pretty cool websites that deal with improving fluency and getting parents involved i the process!

http://www.aacrc.net/readerstheatre.htm

http://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/fluency/

Anyone can read and write!

Reading and writing are two vital areas where children need to develop good skills, because they will stay with them the rest of their lives. Word walls and letter of the week have been popular methods of teaching children how to read. These methods, in the traditional sense, emphasize what kids don't know. In the article "Letting Go of Letter of the Week", it offers ideas on how to make reading and writing areas where it emphasized what kids already knew. One way Ms. Bell used a word wall was placing the picture of each kid in the class with their name on it under the letter the name started with.



As a lover of reading I want to instill that same love into the many children that I will teach. This can be a challenging task especially when kids are intimidated by reading. Providing the right tools and skills for young students essential in turning kids into confident readers as well as writers.

These images were creative ideas on how to teach reading and writing and make it interesting and fun for kids:

The tools above and below help with connecting similar groupings of letters and forming new words.

Tossing a pom pom into a cupcake pan to see what ending to add to a list of words and use the words in a story turns writing into a fun creative game.

Using different colored pens in editing and revising, like the article by Bell and Jarvis, allows for children to be active participants in learning the rules of words and writing.