Sunday, February 12, 2012
Reading Fluency
After reading the articles by Deeney and Rasinkski and Cunningham and Allington's Ch. 4, it made me realize how important reading fluency is. I never had difficulty reading when I was in elementary school and I was always frustrated by the kids that would take such a long time reading a passage out loud. The very first page in Cunningham and Allington's Ch. 4 is a passage that you could read to understand how difficult it was for students who weren't very fluent readers. It was so hard! After I figured out all the words and got through the passage, I couldn't remember anything I read. I always use to think if students had a hard time reading or came across difficult vocabulary words, they would eventually get it and understand the passage. I was completely wrong. I always thought that reading fluency had to do with how fast and accurate you could read something, but I never thought about comprehension, too. If a child reads a passage and they spend all their time trying to decode vocabulary words, they are never going to comprehend what they just read. The articles and book both had very good suggestions on how to help students increase their reading fluency. One suggestion I didn't fully agree with was in Ch. 4 of the book. It said to give students who are having trouble with reading fluency an easier book to read, that is below grade level, versus the rest of the class. I feel like that is singling the child out and making them feel inferior to the rest of the class who is on the normal reading level. I thought the other suggestions such as having a fluent reader read out loud and reading poems and plays several times out loud would be more beneficial versus singling the child out. After our readings this week it made me have a completely different view on reading fluency and how important it really is.
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I appreciate you sharing your struggle with reading comprehension. I still struggle with this today when asked to read text books...YUCK!!! I do not think that it is OK to point out that a child has a lower level book, however, they may need to read an easier book. I feel like this would be OK for independent reading or maybe reading groups. I do not feel like as a teacher I would point out that Johnny has a lower book then everyone else. I also think that there is a fine line between an easier book for a while and an easier book for life. You don't want the child to think that they can always have an easier book if they appear to not get it. This may lead to a slacker.... Good Luck finding this line, I am sure we will all struggle with it!
ReplyDeleteThe short passage at the beginning of chapter four was such an eye opener to me as well! What a challenge it was to decipher the words and the meaning of that sentence. I have always felt reading was such a natural thing, after all, it seems almost everyone can read, but these articles gave me insight to how difficult and time consuming it can be for a young struggling reader, and I am really excited to better struggling students experience with reading comprehension and fluency.
ReplyDeleteI do see what you are saying about how providing an easier book to a child may make them feel singled out or may lead to teasing from other students, but if the child is able to comprehend and be fully engaged in that story then I think it is a great opportunity for them to practice their reading skills. It make even make them feel empowered and feel like they are a great reader like some of their classmates.
ReplyDeleteI can relate... i felt sooo lost trying to read some of our assigned reading. I guess we just cannot relate to some of the issues our students will face until we put ourselves into their position(s). This taught me a valuable lesson...not to assume. I honestly try not to anyyways, but as a human being i believe that this comes natural, so we need to be sure to re-evaluate what our students are truly struggling with so we can sincerely help them to improve.
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