Unit 8: Developing Automaticity
And Fluency
 Understanding Fluency and Automaticity
Issues
 Instruction for Fluency and Automaticity
Table Talk
 Discuss several way that decodable texts could
be used to reinforce and support explicit
instruction in decoding. Explain how this would
differ from using context texts (such as science
or social studies).
 What are some strategies you currently use to
help students with fluency?
 Discuss what do you think it means to directly
teach comprehension strategies. What strategies
do you currently teach in your classroom?
Unit 8: Developing Automaticity
And Fluency
 Understanding Fluency and Automaticity
Issues
 Instruction for Fluency and Automaticity
Understanding Automaticity and Fluency
“…reading is like learning
to ride a bike: if you go too
slow you fall off”
Susan Hall & Louisa Moats, Straight Talk About Reading
Defining Automaticity
“Ability to respond or react without
attention or conscious effort.
Automaticity in word recognition
permits full energy to be focused
on comprehension.”
Birsh, 1999
Defining Fluency
“Ability to translate print to
speech with rapidity and
automaticity that allows the
reader to focus on meaning.”
Birsh, 1999
Defining Fluency
…“Beyond the ability to
merely decode words, the
ability to use punctuation and
other cues to read smoothly
and easily, with proper speed,
accuracy and phrasing.”
Birsh, 1999
Fluency Related Processes
letter perception
inference and
comprehension
skills
phonological
representation
lexical
access and
retrieval
prosodic knowledge
Fluency
orthographic
representation
syntactic
morphological
Wolf et al 2003
decoding/word ID
Factors that may limit oral reading rate:
 Proportion of words recognized by “sight”
 Speed with which sight words are processed
 Speed of processes used to identify novel words
 Speed with which word meanings are identified
 Speed at which overall meaning is constructed
(J.Torgesen in speech to American Speech and Hearing Association, 2003)
Further Challenges for Fluency
• The challenge for continuing growth in
fluency becomes even greater after third grade.
• 4th, 5th and 6th graders encounter about 10,000
words they have never seen before in print
during a year’s worth of reading.
• It is difficult to guess these new words from
the context so they must have reliable decoding
strategies to improve the accuracy with which
“new” words are identified when encountered in
text.
Torgesen, 2003
In reading, the rich get richer
and the poor get poorer…
Good Reader Vs. Poor Reader
Becomes a better, faster
reader
Finds reading easy.
Reads slowly, with effort.
Demands increase.
Finds reading difficult.
Reads a great deal.
Good Reader
Poor Reader
Reads very little.
“This cycle must be broken
if poor readers are to
become proficient readers.”
Felton & Lillie, 2001
Putting it all together: the development
of reading fluency
To be a fluent reader:
 A child must be able to recognize most of the words
in a passage “by sight”
 Children must correctly pronounce words 5-10 times
before they become “sight words”
 Children must make accurate first guesses when they
encounter new words or the growth of their “sight
word vocabulary” will be delayed.
J.Torgesen, 2003
National Reading Panel On Fluency
 Guided, repeated oral reading with guidance
from teachers, peers, or parents…
 Improves word recognition, fluency and
comprehension across the grades.
 Helps good and poor readers as well as special
education students.
National Reading Panel, 2000
Text Fluency
“students rarely have the opportunity to
perfect their performance of a passage,
as most texts tend to be read only once”
National Reading Panel, 2000b
National Reading Panel On Fluency
 While silent reading is important, the NRP found
no significant effects on fluency for reading
programs such as…
 DEAR (Drop Everything and Reading)
 AR (Accelerated Reader)
 Reading Workshop
 SSR (Sustained Silent Reading)
National Reading Panel, 2000
Unit 8: Developing Automaticity
And Fluency
 Understanding Fluency and Automaticity
Issues
 Instruction for Fluency and Automaticity
Fluency Instruction:
Principles and Strategies
 Establish accuracy and then automaticity and
fluency
 Provide practice at the letter-sound, word, phrase
and text level
 Use a variety of Repeated Reading strategies
 Model phrasing and reading with expression
Felton & Lillie, 2001
Fluency Instruction:
Principles and Strategies
 Provide short frequent practice sessions
 Establish goals and measure rate and accuracy
 Document progress
 Provide incentives
 Combine fluency training and comprehension
Felton & Lillie, 2001
For the More Impaired Readers
• Provide more adult guidance during reading
• Use more decodable text
• Practice words and phrases before reading
• Use shorter passages
• Model expressive reading
• Provide multiple daily sessions
• More incentives may be necessary
Fluency Practice: Phrase Level
Phrases
on the path
at their house
with her friend
can you play
have a drink
from a book
all this junk
our favorite book
baking a cake
walking to school
Fluency Practice: Text level
 Choose passage on instructional level.
 Preview story using titles and pictures.
 Teacher reads story with expression to model
 Teacher slides finger along words as student
watches
Felton & Lillie, 2001
Fluency Practice: Text level
 Teacher and student read together; student reads
alone.
 Teacher graphs correct words per minute.
 Student reads at least 2 more times.
 Student (and teacher) set goal and work toward
it.
Felton & Lillie, 2001
Repeated Reading
1st Read
Read Silently, text
orientation
2nd Read
Read Aloud, Timed, Set
Goals, Graph
3rd Read
Read Aloud, Timed, Set
Goals, Graph
4th Read
Next Meeting: Read Aloud,
Timed, Assess goals, Graph
Katie's Repeated Readings
160
Words Per
Minute
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1
Reading 1
Reading 2
Reading 3
2
3
Session
4
5
Katie's Oral Accuracy
100
90
80
70
60
Percent
50
Correct 40
30
20
10
0
1
2
3
Session
Reading 1
Reading 2
Reading 3
4
5
Katie’s Pre- Post Comparisons
200
184 180
150
Words Per
Minute
135
153
151
100
81
50
0
Feb
Reading 1
Reading 2
Reading 3
April
Reading Levels
 Independent level: 98-100% accuracy
 read without assistance
 can be used for fluency practice
 Instructional level: 95-98% accuracy
 read with assistance
 used for fluency after accuracy practice
 Frustration level: below 95% accuracy
 too difficult
 not used for instruction
Scaffolding Instruction for Fluency Success
 Review decoding skills
 Review vocabulary and proper names
 Discuss story, pictures; students make predictions
 Teacher reads aloud prior to student
 Teacher/student read together
 Teacher reads leaving certain words for student
 Student reads silently first
Felton & Lillie, 2001
Prosody




Rhythm
Intonation
Expression
Phrasing
ABCD? EFG. HI? JKL. MN! OPQ. RST?
UV! WX. YZ!
AB. CDE? FG! HIJK. LMNO. P!
QRS, TUV. W, X, Y, Z!
Prosody
Woman without her man is nothing.
Woman, without her, man is nothing.
The old man the boat.
The old, man the boat.
Marking Text For Phrasing
Phrasing may be
tricky in “unnatural”
decodable text.
Dave saw a black snake in the shade by a
lake. He said, “I will take the snake to be my
pet.” He gave his snake the name Jake.
Students may differ
in the length of
phrase they can
handle.
Dave did not know what a snake ate. Jane,
at the pet shop sold him a rat for the snake.
Dave’s mom said, “No, Jeff. I can take a
snake, but a snake and a rat is too much.”
Jeff took the snake back to the lake and the
rat to the shop.
Teaching Phrasing And
Reading With Expression
 Explain to student importance of phrasing and
expression
 Mark copy of text to indicate natural phrasing
 Model reading with appropriate phrasing and
expression
 Have students practice
 Move toward student marking of text and
independent practice
Rating Prosody
NAEP Rating
Level 1
Word-by-word, infrequent two to three-word
phrases (not preserving syntax).
Level 2
Two-word phrases with some longer – some
word by word may be present. Grouping may
be unrelated.
Level 3
Majority of phrasing appropriate, but with
little or no expression.
Level 4
Meaningful phrases, preservation of syntax,
read with expression.
Use Variety Of Repeated
Reading Strategies
 Assisted reading
 4-way oral reading
 Reader’s theater
 Poetry reading
 Tape Assisted Reading
Fluency Strategies: Assisted Reading
 Pair student with another at same reading level
 Pair students who are compatible
 Students read assigned text aloud in unison
 Reading may be practiced and then tape recorded
 Students and teacher listen to tape and discuss
rate, phrasing, intonation, expression and
comprehension
Fluency Strategies: 4-Way Oral Reading
 Teachers lead reading of text using varying types
of oral reading.
 Students never read individually but read with a
partner or group.
 4 types of oral reading:
1.Unison choral reading
2.Echo reading
3.Paired reading
4.Mumble reading
Fluency Strategies: Reader’s Theater
 Choose text or portion of text that
 is engaging
 has a well-paced storyline
 has lots of dialogue
 Prepare copies of text
 mark different characters parts on each copy
 use highlighter, checkmarks or underlining
Marking Text for Reader’s Theater
Narrator 1
Narrator 2
All
Great Big
Billy Goat
Troll
Then Great Big Billy Goat started across
the bridge. “TRIP-TRAP, TRIP-TRAP, TRIPTRAP.”
The old troll called out, “Who’s that triptrapping over my bridge?”
“It is I, Great Big Billy Goat Gruff. What
are you going to do about it?”
“I’m coming up there to eat you,” roared
the troll.
“Well, come on up,” bellowed the Great,
Big Billy Goat Gruff. I’m waiting for you.”
The troll rushed up to the top of the bridge.
Fluency Strategies: Reader’s Theater
 Students practice individual parts then read
together as a play.
 Discuss expression, phrasing, etc. and
reread.
 Exchange scripts and parts and reread.
Poetry Coffee House
 Students prepare for the Coffee House Party early
in the week.
 Individual poems are selected based on interest and
readability by students and teachers.
 Poems can be read individually or in pairs.
 Daily practice sessions with the teacher serving as
the poetry coach.
 Students practice at home.
Poetry Coffee House
 At the end of the week, the lights are dimmed and
classrooms are transformed to an inviting coffee
house filled with good things to eat.
 Some type of performance chair or barstool is
used.
 Teacher reads first and introduces the performers.
 All visitors are requested to bring a poem to read.
 Poems can be discussed between sets.
Audio Assisted Reading
Books on Tape
 Use at instructional and independent reading level
 Student must look at print while listening
 Student practices with tape until ready to
performance read for teacher
Audio Assisted Reading
Computer Based Assisted Reading
 Books are presented in visual and auditory
forms
 Student highlights sentences or unknown words
 Some programs allow student to read and
computer records accuracy and rate
Benefits of Audio Assisted Reading
• Opportunities for repetition
• Practice of high frequency words
• Illustrations to support text
• Modeling of expressive reading
• Exposure to multiple genre
• Provides scaffolding
• Vocabulary development
Combining Accuracy, Fluency And
Comprehension Practice
 Each story is read in 3 different ways:
 Expert reader (accuracy)
 Read for speed (rate, fluency & expression)
 Read for meaning (comprehension)
 Preparation
 Select story based on instructional level and skill to
be taught
 Plan lesson
Morris, 2003
Expert Reader (Accuracy)
 May be preceded by partner reading for practice
 Each student reads 1 or 2 pages.
 Student receives Expert reader score (% correct)
 Below 95% requires more practice and another
check for Expert Reader
Expert Reader
EXPERT READER
Name _____________________
Date
10-15
10-15
10-16
Score
96
98
97
Date
Score
10-18
100
Read For Speed (Fluency)
 Students paired-up
 1st partners from all pairs timed at the same time
for 2 minutes.
 Graph number of words read.
 2nd partners read and graph.
 1st partners, then 2nd partners read and graph a
second time.
Read for Speed Graph
120
111
110
100
99
90
89
82
80
76
70
60
50
40
70
Reading For Meaning (Comprehension)
 Read story in sections.
 Use echo-reading, choral reading, mumble
reading, individual oral reading, silent reading.
 Question and discuss after each section.
 Retelling and further discussion at the end of
story.
Final Words….
Just like decoding accuracy, fluency is a bridge
towards comprehension and the desire to read more,
which will ultimately enable deeper comprehension.
Fluency, therefore, is a means- just like decoding-to a
higher end than itself. For the end of all our efforts is
a child who reads accurately enough and fluently
enough to understand what she reads and to reach for
more.
Wolf et al, 2003
Congratulations!
You have completed
Unit 8: Developing Automaticity And
Fluency
Sources
 Berninger, V. (2002). Referenced in Neuhaus, G.F. What does it
take to read a letter? Perspectives (Newsletter of the International
Dyslexia Association), 28 (1).
 Birsch J.R. (1999). Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language
Skills. New York, New York: Paul H. Brooks.
 Felton, R. & Lillie, D. (2002). Teaching students with persistent
reading problems (a multi-media CD ROM). Greensboro, N.C:
Guilford County Schools.
 Fry E. (2003). How to Teach Reading. Westminster, CA: Teacher
Created Materials.
 Martha Combs. (2001). Readers and Writers in the Primary
Grades. Prentice Hall.
Sources
 Hall S.L., & Moats L.C. (1999). Straight Talk About Reading.
Chicago, Il: Contemporary Books.
 Juel C. (1994). Learning to read and write in one elementary
school. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.
 Morris, D., & Slavin, R. E. (2003). Every Child Reading. Boston,
MA: Allyn & Bacon.
 National Reading Panel. (2000). Report of the National Reading
Panel: Teaching children to read – Reports of the subgroups.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH
Pub. No. 00-4764.
 Rasinski, T.V. (2003). The Fluent Reader. New York, NY:
Scholastic Professional Books.
Sources
 Rasinski, T. V. (2004). Fluency Seminar. Boone, NC.
 Shaywitz, S. (2004). Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and
Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems
at Any Level. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
 Stanovich, K.E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading:
Some consequences of individual differences in the
acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21.
360-406.
 Torgesen, 2003. Speech to American Speech and
Hearing Association.