Fluency
- Reading Fluency is the ability to read phrases and sentences smoothly and quickly, while understanding them as expressions of complete ideas.
- Reading fluency shows a person's ability to read outloud with speed, accuracy, and voice inflection/expression. -Greismer (ehow) *Reading fluency is determined by reading aloud.
- Reading Rate is the speed at which a person reads words on a page.
- Reading Accuracy is the ability to read without making mistakes; (Effortless and accurate word identification).
- Read more : http://www.ehow.com/about_6507044_reading-rate-vs_-fluency.html
What Fluent Readers Do:
They read effortlessly with speed, accuracy, and proper expression as though they are speaking.
They have an "automatic" nature of reading.
Their automaticity gives them the ability to focus their attention on the ideas in the text and comprehend the author's message.
What Fluent Readers Possess:
Automaticity - ability to translate letters to sounds to words effortlessly and accurately.
Rate - appropriate reading speed according to the reader's purpose or the type of passage. WPM - Words Per Minute
Quality - the reader's ability to use proper intonation or expression ("prosodic features"- pitch, stress)
What Less Fluent Readers Do:
They struggle along through text in a very labored, word-by-word way.
Most of their attention goes to decoding the words, so their comprehension is hindered.
Reader's Theater - Read Scripts with pairs and groups
Phrase Reading - reading phases with 2-5 words
Sight Word Reading Practice *Sight Words/ Fry's Words - These are words that are most common in our reading, spelling, and writing instruction. These lists of words should be recognized instantly. Mr. Fry, in 1996, expanded on the original Dolch Word list. The Fry word lists are organized into 100 words per grade level (List One is meant for Kindergarten). These lists are easily found online, often found as "1000 High Frequency Words".
Fluency Formulas
Rate (Words Per Minute -wpm) = Total number of words read ÷ reading time (in seconds) x 60
Rate (Words Correct Per Minute) (wcpm) = After finding the wpm, subtract the mistakes (miscues) made.
For Example: If a student read 115 words in a minute (wpm) and made 5 mistakes, the Words Correct Per Minute (Rate) would be 110 (wcpm). 115 wpm -5 miscues = 110 wcpm Rate = 110wcpm
How to Find Accuracy Percentage
Accuracy = Divide the total # of words read correctly (wcpm) by the total # of words in the passage
Using the Example Above: You would divide 110 (wcpm) by 115 (wpm)...giving you 0.956.
The Accuracy percentage would be 96%.
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Calculating Fluency Rate- Words Correct Per Minute (WCPM)
- While listening to student recording (cold read and/or final read) mark reading errors on a copy of the reading passage. Errors include omissions, substitutions, and insertions. If the student corrects an error, it is considered a self-correction and not included in the total error count.
- Count the total number of errors and subtract that number from the total number of words the student read. This is the number of words read correctly (WC). For example, if a passage has 155 words and the student made 6 errors, the WC would be 155 – 6, or 149 wc.
- Convert the total time it took the student to read the passage into seconds. For example, if a student took 2min:15seconds to read the passage, The total number of seconds would be 120 + 15, or 135 seconds.
- Divide the number of words read correctly (WC) by the total number of seconds. Then multiply that number by 60 seconds to get the words correct per minute (WCPM) Rate.
Sample Using Above Examples:
Passage: 155 words
Errors: 6
WC: 149
Total Time: 2:15 2x60 = 120 seconds + 15 seconds = 135 seconds
WCPM: 149 WC/135 seconds = .96 words correct per second x 60 seconds = 66 WCPM
Calculating Accuracy Fluency Rate
After
determining the total number of words read correctly (WCPM – see
above), divide that number by the total number of words in the passage
read. The answer is the accuracy rate for the student’s readingSample Using Above Examples:
Passage: 155 words
Errors: 6
WCPM: 149
Accuracy Percentage Rate = 149 wcpm/155 words in passage read = 96% accuracy
Fluency Steps/Materials
What materials do you need to administer a Fluency Check?
1. Calculator
2. Timer (Stopwatch)
3. Reading passage- (A copy for you to mark on and a copy for the student to read from).
If you already know the student's present oral reading level, choose a reading passage that is 1 to 2
Grade Equivalency levels below. Your goal is to see how fast a student can read text at their independent
reading level.
For Example: If you have a fourth grade student who has a third grade oral reading level - give them
a first or second grade reading passage.
However, sometimes you will want to check and see if a student is reading on grade level, so you would
give them a passage that is leveled at the grade level they are presently in.
Steps:
5. Count the total number of words in the reading passage.
6.a Have the student read the passage outloud as you are timing the reading.
b You will begin the stopwatch and be following along on your copy to record mistakes(miscues) and
take any notes.
8. When the student finishes reading the passage, record the time in seconds and compute the data using
the rate formula from above.
This procedure (having the student read the entire passage) is also a good way to check comprehension.
After they finish reading, have them turn the reading passage over and ask them questions about the text.
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One Minute Method-
The steps are similar to the procedure above, the difference is that you would only have the students read
aloud for 1 minute, (you would set a timer for 1 minute) when the timer goes off, you would have the
student quit reading, then mark their passage at the last word they read.
To find wpm and wcpm - you would only need to count the number of words they read before the timer went
off. This number would be their words per min (wpm). To find wcpm- subtract the number of mistakes they
made from the number of words they read.
For Example if a student read 67 words before the timer went off their wpm would be 67. If they made 3 mistake during their reading, you would subtract 3 form 67....giving you 64, which would be thier words correct per minute (wcpm). To find their accuracy, you would divide 64 by 67 which would give you 0.955 or 96%.
The One Minute Method is not a good procedure if you are wanting to do a comprehension check at the end. The students who do not finish reading the passage in its entirety would not have all the information from the story to answer all questions.
- DIBELS (DIBELS.org)- Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills (Grades K-6) {Free} ~ seven measures to function as indicators of phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy and fluency with connected text, reading comprehension, and vocabulary
- ~ short (one minute) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills)
- Reading A-Z (Learning A-Z.com) {account needed - not free} ~ an online reading resource (leveled readers, running record materials)
- FCRR - Florida Center for Reading Research
