Article Review: “Putting Fun into Fluency”

 

·        From the October 2011 Edition of The Reading Teacher

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/TRTR.01018/pdf

Step inside Miss Victoria’s classroom… in it you will find children wearing different masks and costumes while they read, students reading to inanimate objects, and children reading in different voices to fit their character.  While students in other classrooms rely solely on age-old techniques such as timed reading drills to practice reading fluency and repeated, Mrs. Victoria allows her students to directly engage with reading through these “fun fluency kit” activities.

Through collaboration with her students, Miss Victoria came up with a kid-friendly definition of fluency… “Fluency is reading like you talk, not too fast and not too slow, with expression and no sounding out. It’s also important to understand what you read.” Her focus on jointly and clearly defining the classes definition of fluency ensured everyone was on the same page in viewing fluency as more than just “speed reading.”  This definition also serves as the foundation for the fun activities she provides for her students.

According to Mrs. Victoria, the three major principle she uses when presenting fluency instruction include: (1) model reading, (2) assisted reading through guided practice and (3) practiced repeated reading.

(1)    As a teaching, reading to your class regularly helps demonstrate the proper degrees of fluency. Having teachers and parent helpers read with appropriate accuracy, rate, and meaningful expression reinforce these important concepts to students.  Seeing quality reading in action helps students have an idea of the type of reading they should be striving towards 

(2)    Beyond modeling, providing guided practice through assisted reading is also extremely important. One-on-one attention is often needed to correct mistakes in order to prevent future ones.  Through time, this scaffolding technique provides the foundational skills for better fluency during independent reading.

(3)    Teachers should practice repeated reading in their classrooms through the use running record to identify the proper reading levels of her students. Research has continually shown that repeated reading is the most effective practice for developing fluency.  However, every attempt should be made to ensure that repeated readings do not get too long and boring.  Mrs. Victoria has found that repeated reading for performance is the most effective fluency strategy.  When performing texts, students often time remain more engaged and enjoy themselves even after reading the same passage over and over again.

 

In Mrs. Victoria’s “fun fluency kits”, it is not uncommon to find dice, plastic microphones, animal face masks, egg timers, sticky flags, flashlights, and plastic animals. All these items assist in the performance or other activities with the text.  If implemented correctly, students should be practicing fluency without even knowing it.  The fun and engagement of the performance activities should steal the attention away from the boredom of rereading texts while still working towards the final goal of reading fluency. Mrs. Victoria has effectively found a way to transform the once dreaded time of fluency practice to a preferred and engaging time for her students.

Michael Graves devotes an entire chapter of his text Teaching Reading in the 21^st Century to the topic of fluency.  In it, he defines fluency as “the ability to read rapidly, smoothly, without many errors, and appropriate expression” (Graves 224).  The topics suggested by Graves throughout the chapter to improve fluency include repeated reading, echo reading, tape-assisted reading, partner reading, choral reading, Reader’s Theater, and radio reading.  

Through her “fun fluency kits,” Mrs. Victoria takes these strategies Graves suggests a step further.  I, along with Mrs. Victoria, believe that a motivating and engaging way to practice fluency is needed for students to get the most out of their educational experience.  Mrs. Victoria’s classroom models these Graves fluency strategies for all teachers.

As a future teacher, I will use these suggestions, both from the Graves and The Reading Teacher article, to better facilitate fluency amongst my future students.  I chose the article because I recognize the need for effective fluency practice in the classroom.  From my experiences growing up in the classroom and observing reading classrooms as a future teacher, I can attest to monotony of repeated reading to develop fluency. Sir Ken Robinson describes the students of today’s classrooms as living in an interactive age of information overload. No wonder students are disengaged in an environment where they are told to sit still, be quiet, and only talks when you are called upon.  That is why the importance of incorporating fun activities into fluency instruction is critical to keep student’s interest.  Activities such as the ones Mrs. Victoria provided her classroom gets the students active in their fluency development.  While the core concepts Graves speaks of in his text provide a solid foundation for the establishment of fluency, I believe the Mrs. Victoria’s classroom provides a prime example and case study of how students can engage with the topic of fluency.