Presentation ByKatherine BarroodMarie MurrayKatherine RydzyBook byTimothy V. Rasinski
What do you think of when wemention the word fluency?
Step 1: Write a word that comes tomind when you think about fluencyon each post it note.
Step 2: Place your post-it note underone of the headings on the board.
Overview of the Text
•Purpose
The goal of Tim Rasinski’s book is to help teachersimprove student’s reading comprehension andoverall reading proficiency through fluencyinstruction. (p. 175)
Overview of the Text
•Summary
–Begins with a theoretical and historical look at oral reading
–Offers a rationale as to why teachers should practice oralreading in the classroom
–Presents the latest research on fluency, offers teachingstrategies based on that research and shares effectivefluency practices
–Explains how fluency instruction can be integrated into theregular reading curriculum
–Provides step-by step teaching guides, teaching tips andsource lists
–Includes a variety of methods to assess fluency
Overview of the Text
•Audience
–the author states that the strategies presented in the bookare for use with grades 1-8
–for teachers who want to develop fluent readers and wantto enhance comprehension
–provides strategies for improving word recognition,fluency, and comprehension through oral reading practices
–teaching strategies described in the book are appropriatefor all students, including those who have very poorreading skills
Partner Poems
•Why are partner poems a great tool forbuilding fluency?
–Poems improve reading fluency
–Partner makes reading aloud less terrifying
–Learning essential reading skills while learning toappreciate poetry
–Messages are simple and kids can relate to them
–Authentic and engaging “real” literature
Fluency Strategies to Use withPartner Poems
•Model fluent reading
•Repeated reading
•Choral reading
•Paired reading
•Recorded reading
•Read it like the character
•Lucky listener
•Harvesting words
Choral Reading
•Groups of children read the same text aloud,in unison.
•Maximizes the amount of reading per child.
•Builds a community in the classroom.
•Particularly effective for struggling readers.
Types of Choral Reading
–Refrain
–Line-a-Child – Let’s Give It A Try
–Dialogue
–Antiphonal Reading
–Call and Response
–Echo Choral Reading
–Cumulative Choral Reading
–Choral Singing
Oral Recitation Lesson
•An instructional procedure involving modeling,support & coaching, repeated reading, &performance.
•Steps
•Read story aloud to students
•Collaborate with students to construct a story map.
•Use the story map to write a summary.
•Select a part of the story to reread.
•Model fluent reading of the selected part.
•Have students practice the selection alone,in pairs, and/or chorally.
•Have the students perform the selection.
More Ideas for Promoting Fluency
•Read Alouds
•Neurological Impress Method
•Paired Reading
•Audio Recorded Reading
•Buddy Reading
•Repeated Reading
•Radio Reading
•Mumble Reading
•Performance Reading
Readers Theater
•Script Reading
•No Props or Staging
•Script Can Be Pre-packaged or Student Written
•Requires Practice Over Several Days
•Culminates in a Performance for a ParticularAudience
Rasinski offers numerous sources for Readers Theater scripts inThe Fluent Reader.
Critique
Strengths
•Comprehensive view of fluency development, including ahistorical perspective, implications and applications forclassroom instruction, and assessing student fluency
•Offers multiple ideas/strategies for teaching fluency with arationale for each, much like a menu of best practices
•Provides reproducible pages necessary for implementingstrategies
•After reading the text, we felt confident in our ability toimplement the strategies with students, especially whenfollowing the classroom vignettes
•Great list of web references, especially for reader’s theater.
•Easy to read
Critique
Weaknesses
•More attention could have been paid to implementation atdifferent grade levels and specific examples of children’sliterature that teachers could use as a starting point for theactivities.
•It was difficult to see how this instruction would fit into ascripted curriculum/anthology based program
•It would take too much time out of the reading block to fullyimplement all of the suggested activities
•Webinars are tricky to get to play
•Repetitive
A Critical Note:(It’s not quite a strength nor a weakness)
• The book doesn’t go far above and beyond other resourcesthat are out there, but it does take all of the popular oralreading strategies and package them in one easy to useresource.
References
•Rasinski, Timothy V. (2010). The Fluent Reader,(2nd Edition). Scholastic.
•Rasinski, Timothy V., Harrison, David L.,Fawcett, Gay. (2009). Partner Poems forBuilding Fluency, Grades 4-6. Scholastic.