What is Reading Fluency
Reading fluency is the ability to read and comprehend text. It involves three main components: reading rate (speed), accuracy (decoding), expression (prosody and intonation). Reading rate refers to the speed that a student reads at. Reading accuracy refers to the ability of a student to recognize words automatically or decode unfamiliar words utilizing phonemic principles (within 3 seconds). Reading expression refers to a reader's ability to read with proper intonation and prosody. They read by scooping phrases together as opposed to word for word, and read with the author's intended tone. Fluent readers read effortlessly and with proper expression by following the author's tone, word choice, and internal punctuation. Fluent readers read naturally; not choppy or word-for-word. When readers are able to read effortlessly, they are able to gain meaning from text naturally. For fluent readers, because less focus is placed on the decoding of words, they are able to concentrate on discovering the meaning of the text. For their dysfluent counterparts however, comprehension suffers as more effort is placed on the acquisition and decoding of words.
A National Concern
Reading fluency has become a national concern as we see an alarming rate of primary age children progressing though elementary school that do not qualify as fluent readers. According to a recent study, the measure of oral reading fluency taken from a representative sample of elementary students throughout the United States revealed that only fifty-five percent of them qualify as fluent readers (Pinnell et al., 1995) leading to concerns that students are not becoming fluent readers at the second and third grade levels where fluency should be defined and comprehension skills become more of a main focus. Quite commonly, fluent readers focus their time and attention on comprehension tasks and making connections among the ideas in the text and their background knowledge during the second and third grade years because unlike their dysfluent counterparts, they do not need to spend as much of their time, energy, and attention on decoding individual words. Students who struggle with reading in first through third grades are at a serious disadvantage often for the rest of their schooling experience (Early Reading Expert Panel, 2003).
“The connection between reading speed and comprehension; a film is made up of still images flashed in rapid succession to simulate movement. Slow down the film, and the movement and meaning slows and the film's impact is diminished. Viewers won't learn as much about the film as if it were shown at normal speed. With reading the same thing can happen. When a person reads word by word, like frame by frame, they are not reading on the level of ideas. You need to read on some level that's more conversational and allows things to coalesce into ideas themselves.” |
"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all" Oscar Wilde
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