Week 8 Blog Kelsi Vidal

The readings for this week proved to me that fluency, word identification, and comprehension are all interrelated concepts that are essential for reading and writing.   I think it is also important to remember that reading and writing go hand in hand and that to be fluent in one is essentially to be fluent in the other.  One statistic I found interesting was that for first grade students the 300 high frequency words account for 72% of the words that they read.  This conveys to me how truly important it is for students to develop word recognition and fluency through practice and experience to become successful readers and writers.  I think the book also brought up a good point that many students do not come to school with the experiences and exposure to a literacy rich environment and that is something we need to remember as future teachers.  Also, although students may be able to read words and seem as though they can read fluently, they may not be comprehending what they just read.  I tutor students in literacy twice a week and many of them are able to read fluently, but have difficulty with comprehension.  This is something we are told to address as tutors because students often do not monitor their comprehension while they are reading independently so this is something we try to encourage.  

A mini lesson in fluency for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry could involve the teacher first reading a passage from the book aloud while the student follows along silently.  Then, after the teacher finishes reading, the teacher and student could read the passage together.  Finally, the student can read the passage aloud independently and hopefully feel confident.  This is a strategy we have been taught to use in tutoring because it takes the pressure off students if there are unknown words and gives them multiple opportunities to follow along and then try reading it on their own.