Knowledge and Skills Statement
Provide text in a script format for students to read fluently and with good expression. Instruct students to focus on reading the script and not memorizing the text.
Further Explanation
For this assessment, students should be able to demonstrate fluency while reading a script from a play. Practicing fluency with a script requires students to reread the 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. It is important that students read with appropriate speed, accuracy, and prosody (phrasing and proper expression). The speed with which students read should make the text easily understood by themselves and the audience. The decoding of words should be accurate enough to not impede comprehension. Prosody is important, especially in drama, in order to fully express the message a character is sharing. Students should not sound robotic. Fluency should be practiced with a variety of text types at students’ reading levels.
Research
1. Hilsmier, A. S., Wehby, J. H., & Falk, K. B. (2016). Reading fluency interventions for middle school students with academic and behavioral disabilities. Reading Improvement, 53(2), 53+. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A457106412/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=82cc6388
Summary: This study looked at reading fluency interventions and their impact on improving the reading fluency and motivation on middle school level struggling readers. Strategies included repeated reading and oral preview fluency intervention. All participants exhibited growth over baseline performance.
2. Grace Kim, Y. S. (2015). Developmental, component-based model of reading fluency: An investigation of predictors of word-reading fluency, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 50(4), 459–481. doi:10.1002/rrq.107
Summary: The primary goal of this study was to explain the difference between text reading fluency, word reading fluency, and reading comprehension. The study also explores the relationship between each construct. Other concepts involved in the study included listening comprehension, emergent literacy predictors, and language and cognitive predictors. The study investigated the relationship and differences over time (longitudinal scale). The results of the study reveal how each construct interrelates to the development of text reading fluency, word read fluency, and reading comprehension.