fluency and self-sustained reading TEKS talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--self-sustained reading. The student reads grade-appropriate texts independently.

Track student progress quantitatively. To monitor student stamina, a time-tracking line graph can be used. Make note of the number of minutes or number of pages students were able to read without getting off task. To monitor a student’s ability to self-select, a rubric scale can be used.

Sample rubric:

  1. The student does not attempt to choose books without adult assistance.
  2. The student chooses books that are not appropriate to her ability and does not take interest into consideration when choosing.
  3. The student chooses books that are of interest to her, but they are too easy or too difficult for her to read.
  4. The student chooses that are at the appropriate ability level for her and chooses books that are interesting to her.
Self-selecting is the act of the student choosing her own book to read based on her interests. It allows the student an opportunity to apply skills learned in other literacy lessons, exposes the student to a broad range of books, and helps the student analyze and understand why she makes her reading choices. Teachers can prompt this behavior by asking questions that lead the student to self-select, completing a presentation of “book teasers” or giving the student three options from which to choose.
A first-grade student who can focus on the text in front of her with little adult assistance is exhibiting self-sustained reading. This can look different from student to student. One student may look at pictures in a book and try to identify known words or letters, while another may read independently in a whisper phone. Teaching self-sustained reading requires lots of practice, significant modeling, clear expectations, and, most importantly, motivation.