fluency and self-sustained reading TEKS talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--fluency. The student reads grade-level text with fluency and comprehension.

Use Reader’s Theater as a platform for students to demonstrate fluency. Encourage students to adjust their rate while reading with accuracy and prosody. 

Important Notes:

  • Ensure the text chosen for each student is at the student’s reading level.
  • Remind students to focus on the fluency of the text and not the visual aspects of theatre.
     

Further Explanation

For this assessment, students will demonstrate fluency while reading a Reader’s Theater script. The use of Reader’s Theater supports fluency through rereading of text multiple times. In addition to reading their part of the script, students must also silently read along as others read in order to know when it is their turn. Students should read through their parts of the script with appropriate speed, accuracy, and proper expression. The speed with which students read should be easily understood by themselves and their audience. The decoding of words should be accurate enough that it does not impede comprehension. Prosody is necessary, especially in Reader’s Theater as students read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. They should not sound robotic. Fluent reading is necessary for the readers and listeners to comprehend what is being read. Although Reader’s Theater is a popular way to practice fluency, it should be practiced with a variety of text types.

Students must have the skills necessary to move through a text at a pace that matches the speed at which they can mentally process information. They should be able to connect words and the ideas they represent without significant interruption when they encounter new or complex information.
the vocal intonation and meter of spoken language
Students must have frequent and recurrent opportunities to read a wide variety of texts that are challenging but not overwhelming. The structure and content of the text should reflect the concepts students are expected to understand at their grade level. For example, third-grade students may be challenged but should not be overwhelmed when reading texts that include compound sentences or references to state and national government because both appear in the curriculum for that grade level. However, texts with heavy dependence on compound-complex sentences or that include highly academic discussions of advanced concepts related to state and national government would likely not be appropriate for most third graders.

Research

1. Hosp, J. L., & Suchey, N. (2014). Reading assessment: reading fluency, reading fluently, and comprehension--commentary on the special topic. School Psychology Review, 43(1), 59+. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A364693563/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=af82488e

Summary: This article provides a summary of four articles related to the assessment of oral reading. The authors acknowledge that while there are increasing accountability standards for reading, measuring reading ability remains complex and difficult. The authors make a case for oral passage reading as a way to measure both reading fluency and comprehension.

2. Wise, J. C., Sevcik, R. A., Morris, R. D., Lovett, M. W., Wolf, M., Kuhn, M., & Schwanenflugel, P. (2010). The relationship between different measures of oral reading fluency and reading comprehension in second-grade students who evidence different oral reading fluency difficulties. Language, Speech, & Hearing Services in Schools, 41, 340+. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A230773834/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=79d66536

Summary: The purpose of this study was to examine whether different measures of oral reading fluency relate differentially to reading comprehension performance in two samples of second-grade students. Results of this study indicate that real-word oral reading fluency was the strongest predictor of reading comprehension and suggest that real-word oral reading fluency may be an efficient method for identifying potential reading comprehension difficulties.