A Plan to Attack Fluency
Problems
by Candyce Ihnot, a reading teacher
in the Minneapolis Public Schools. Ihnot developed Read Naturally,
a program which is now used in more than 1,000 schools in sixteen
states.
Struggling readers often have fluency problems. Picture in your
mind one of your struggling readers. Turn on the audio portion of
your brain and listen to that student read. Descriptors you are
likely to use to describe the student's reading include word by
word, halting, slow, and laborious. Students with these reading
characteristics have a fluency problem. Educators often describe
reading problems in terms of fluency, and research demonstrates
a correlation between fluency and reading comprehension (Armstrong,
1983; Breznitz,1987; Knupp,1988; Lesgold, 1986).
Struggling readers do not read enough
Students become fluent readers by reading (Allington, 1980).
Yet in our elementary schools today, students read an average
of only 78 minutes daily (U.S. Department of Education, 1986).
Struggling readers read even less. This is hardly enough time
to become proficient with something as difficult as learning
to read. Struggling readers cannot or will not independently
read the books in classroom libraries, often pretending they
are reading. With increased use of heterogeneous grouping, struggling
readers cannot read the basals and anthologies in use in their
classroom. Also, poor fluency is a self-perpetuating problem.
Struggling readers read so few words during their instructional
and independent reading time that the gap between them and their
peers continually widens.
What do struggling readers need to become
fluent?
Struggling readers need a safe, structured, and highly motivating
opportunity to engage in reading on a daily basis. Research
supports teacher modeling, repeated reading, and progress monitoring
as ways to involve struggling students in the act of reading,
to improve students' reading fluency, and to accelerate students'
reading achievement. Teacher modeling improves the reading fluency
of students (Eldredge and Quinn, 1988; Heckelman, 1969; McAllister,
1989; Reitsma, 1988). Teacher modeling consists of a proficient
reader modeling good, correct reading for a less able reader.
Dyad reading, echoic reading, Neurological Impress Method, and
choral reading are examples of this strategy. Repeated reading
also improves fluency (Dowhower, 1987; Knupp, 1988; Koskinen,
1984; Larking, 1988, Rashotte, 1985; Richek, 1988). With this
strategy, the student reads a passage of 100-200 words many
times until the passage can be read fluently. Finally, daily
monitoring of student progress improves student achievement
(Schunk, 1982). Combining teacher modeling, repeated reading,
and self-monitoring of progress creates a powerful tool to attack
the fluency problem of struggling readers.
Over the past four
years, second- and third-grade students in a large city school
have increased their California Achievement Test scores an average
of 18 points each year with this strategy.
Teacher modeling, repeated reading,
and progress monitoring procedures
In the Teacher Modeling and Repeated Reading (TMRR) program,
each student selects a short, meaningful passage. Every line
of the passage is numbered and its word count is indicated.
The student reads the selected passage orally to a partner or
the instructor for one minute, notes the number of words read
correctly, and graphs that number. Next, the student reads along
quietly while listening to a tape of the passage until s/he
is able to read the passage alone. The tape models correct expression
and phrasing. The passage is read slowly enough for the child
to read along. Using a one-minute timer, the student then practices
reading the passage many times, noting how many words s/he read
and her or his improvement with each practice. The student rereads
the passage until s/he is able to read it at a minimum of 80
words per minute. The 80-word-per-minute goal is an important
starting point; the goal increases as the student's fluency
improves.
Finally, the instructor times the student's oral reading
of the passage for one minute. The student graphs the number
of words read correctly on the graph used earlier. The improvement
is noted by teacher and student alike. The student then answers
a few questions or writes a short summary of the passage. After
checking the answers, the student selects a new passage.
The TMRR strategy involves 20-25 minutes a day, three to
five days a week. Periodically, the teacher assesses the student's
progress to ensure that the correct level of reading material
is being used and that the appropriate fluency goal has been
set.
The results
Over the past four years, second- and third-grade students
in a large city public school have used the TMRR strategy. These
students have increased their California Achievement Test (CAT)
scores an average of 18 percentile points each year. In addition,
each year an average of 45 percent of the Chapter 1 students
using the strategy have _- out of Chapter 1 by scoring above
the 40th percentile of the reading comprehension portion of
the CAT.
Other observations also are noteworthy. Students' time on
task is very high and they are engaged in the act of reading
during most of the instructional time. Behavior problems are
nearly eliminated. The greatest behavior management problem
for the teacher is finding time to listen to the oral reading
of all the children eagerly waiting to demonstrate their improved
reading rates. Students show increased interest in reading class.
They enjoy reading the interesting passages, learning to read
them with ease, and watching their progress on the graphs. Finally,
many students report reading books at home, and parents comment
on the reading and attitude improvements of their children.
Improved fluency makes reading easy enough for many students
to choose to read for pleasure, which is, after all, a goal
of most reading teachers.
For further information and samples, contact Candyce Ihnot
at 612/452-4085.
References
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reading groups. Language Arts 57 (8): 872-75.
Armstrong, S.W. 1983. The effects of material difficulty
upon learning disabled children's oral reading and reading comprehension.
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Breznitz, Z. 1987. Increasing first graders' reading accuracy
and comprehension by accelerating their reading rates. Journal
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Dowhower, S.L. 1987. Effects of repeated reading on second-grade
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