PART A:
After reading Tompkins chapter on fluency and reviewing my TE301 literacy reference project, I’ve learned that fluency is made up of three components: accuracy, reading speed, and prosody. There are many ways to gage a student’s understanding/ability when it comes to fluency, but the best approaches in my opinion are running records, Informal Reading Inventories (IRI), and Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). These three approaches are all used to assess different components of fluency, but if used/administered correctly, will help students become more fluent in their reading.
Fortunately, I’ve seen all three of these assessments administered in my placement this year. My teacher uses running records as benchmarks to see how students are progressing. This particular approach is used to assess word identification and fluency, which (according to my literacy reference project) is a term used to describe the depiction of text with accurate and speedy pronunciation of words. During “Reading Workshop” in the morning, the 4th grade students in my placement are given the choice to silent read, work on their reading journals, review spelling words, or partner up and practice their reading skills. During this time, I’ve seen my CT conduct two or three running records, but I saw more running records being given in my placement last year (1st grade classroom). IRIs are used to assess accuracy and prosody and consists of word lists and passages, however I haven’t seen any administered in my placement. Last but not least, DIEBELS are used to assess reading speed. I’ve seen this approach used many times in the classroom, with one boy in particular, who usually decides to partner up with a friend and they switch roles between being the “student” and the “teacher”. The student reads a passage out loud and the “teacher” sets the timer for one minute and follows along while marking errors made; the two students then switch roles.
From the beginning of the year when I started at my placement, I’ve noticed a lot of improvement when it comes to fluency. My CT emphasizes the importance of using expression while they’re reading which I’ve seen improve over the months, and I’ve also noticed an improvement in word identification with my students in my literature circle group.
PART B:
The book I’m reading for our class’s Book Club is “Number the Stars” by Lois Lowry and here is a mini-lesson plan I created in order to assess students’ fluency.
Rationale:
I will assess students’ fluency by tapping into the three main components of it which are accuracy, reading speed and prosody, and I will achieve this by giving them chapter one to read while conducting a Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIEBELS) assessment.
Objectives:
R.WS.04.03 automatically recognize frequently encountered words in print with the number of words that can be read fluently increasing steadily across the school year.
R.WS.04.06 fluently read beginning grade-level text and increasingly demanding text as the year proceeds.
R.AT.04.01 be enthusiastic about reading and do substantial reading and writing on their own.
-2 copies of “Number the Stars” by Lois Lowry (1 for student, 1 for teacher)
-Timer
-Pen/pencil
-Introduce the student to the book and give them a brief run-down of the summary
-Read out loud the back cover of book and the prologue (background information)
-Inform student to pay attention to expression and that they will read as long as they can for 3 minutes
-Instruct student to read out loud chapter one
-Set the timer and keep track of errors (word accuracy), prosody, etc.
Assessment:
The DIEBELS is what would be used as an on-going assessment to track the student’s progress and improvement.
When I helped out with a first grade class a couple years ago, the teacher used DIBELS all the time with the students to determine their fluency and reading levels. I observed her many times doing this, eventually being able to administer them on my own to the students. I really enjoyed using this particular approach when determining their fluency level because it was very user-friendly and easy to use. The teacher relied a lot on DIBELS because it gave her a range of where the student was and where he or she needed to be, which in the end helped her students learn how to read better. My students right now are learning how to be better, faster readers. However, I have never seen my teacher record anything or test the students. Most of it is self-monitored and the teacher provides the students with skills to check their own reading level.
ReplyDeleteYour mini-lesson is good; it definitely would get the job done with regards to fluency. I really liked how you introduced the book first before making the student jump right into reading it.
Haley, that is really cool that you have been able to see all of those different fluency assessments in your placement this year. Unfortunetly, I can not say the same. Thinking back I do not think I have seen my CT do any of the assessments that were described in the Tompkins chapter. While reading about fluency all I could think of was my TE 301 placement. During this time I was in a second grade classroom and I was able to see many really good literacy strategies and I even participated in giving a few fluency assessments to my focus student. I also ended up being in the classroom one day while the students were being taken out of the classroom by another faculty member to be given an IRI assessment. I was able to actually go with my focus students to watch her perform the assessment and it was very benefitial for me.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked your mini-lesson. The only thing I might have done differently is not used three different GLCEs. I think the first two you stated are good and go along with the lesson, but for me the third one could have been left out. This last GLCE stated for the student to be doing reading and writing on their own and since you are going to be giving them the assignment, I do not know if that would count. Otherwise, I think the mini-lesson is good and it would be a quick way to assess the students fluency.
Wow you're lucky, I havent gotten to witness any of these assessments in my placement. I'm always there during language arts but have yet to see any sort of assessments such as running records, IRI's or DIBELs. Just like Danielle said, in chapter 6 of Tompkins theres a ton of strategies for developing fluent readers and writers but the only place I saw these in action was my 301 placement (kindergarten). This class not only taught me a lot about all these assessments to use with children to develop fluency but I was able to perform them on my study child.
ReplyDeleteI always noticed that early elementary classes always have some sort of 'word wall' or 'high frequency word list' but once you surpass these first couple of years teachers dont make them. I learned in Tompkins that teachers can create word walls for older students too. Instead of using 100 high-frequency words the teacher might use 300. Teachers can also type up individual word lists for the groups of students at a higher reading level.
I thought your mini-lesson was interesting but the last GLCE could have been left out. I think 3 GLCE's are pushing it for a mini-lesson with an individual student. With this said, it's interesting that you decided to use a timer with the student. I think using a timer can make the student show how fluent they are or it might their reading speed increase causing them to be a dysfluent reader. As a teacher we would have to decide in the beginning minute if the timer is a good or bad thing.