Reading Fluency

Reading Fluency is one the five essential components of effective reading instruction.

The National Reading Panel evaluated over 100,000 research studies and determined that there are 5 critical components for reading instruction. There is no longer a debate in education about what a child needs to become a successful reader!

The 5 components are:

• Phonemic awareness

• Phonics

• Fluency

• Vocabulary

• Comprehension

Let’s take an in-depth look into Fluency – specifically Oral Reading Fluency.  At a recent Langsford event, we presented this information to educators from numerous Louisville schools.

Oral Reading Fluency

• • • is the ability to read accurately, smoothly and with expression
    • sounds natural — much like speaking
    • leads to comprehension and motivation to read
    • has 3 key elements to assess and develop
      • Accuracy
      • Rate
      • Prosody (appropriate expression, phrasing, smoothness, and pace)

To assess Oral Reading Fluency, you need to determine accuracy and rate.  The researchers who have set the gold standard for measuring these 2 factors are Jan Hasbrouck and Gerald Tindal.

The Hasbrouck and Tindal Norms, as we call them, offer accuracy and rate guidelines for 1^st through 8^th graders.  This, partnered with a scale to rate prosody based on the Multidimensional Fluency Scale by Tim Rasinski, will give you a good measure of a student’s fluency in only a few minutes.

Here are links for:

• • • Hasbrouck and Tindal Oral Reading Fluency Data
    • Fluency Rubric for Prosody
    • Langsford Fluency Presentation Slides

 

Here’s to reading with fluency and joy!