Ahhh Spring Break has totally messed with my schedule. So, I’m not even sure if I’m addressing the right topic in my blog today but I’ll take a shot at it. Assessing fluency and word identification seems like a pretty general topic in the world of literacy. I say this because I’m aspiring to be a lower elementary teacher and I really think that these are large parts of goals for lower ed teachers. I mean, when you think of a successful reader and writer, you have an image of a student who can read and write with out having to stop every two seconds to sound or spell something out. I think that I usually assume that fluency and word identification come AFTER comprehension, but after the readings, I can understand how that is not always the case. I used to think that comprehension was more important that fluency because as long as you understand the reading then it doesn’t matter how fast or slow you read it. However, I now see that if you are fluent in reading, then you may be better able to comprehend because you’re not stuck on how to sound the word out. So ultimately, if you can read more fluently, you can comprehend quicker. This is not to say that I think you should be fluent before you comprehend, because I really think that both concepts should be worked on together.
As far as a mini-lesson goes for fluency, I would say that you could have student’s role play parts in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. You could have them read and re-read the lines until they are fluent in understanding them and then when they come across those words in the future, they would be able to identify them and read them with ease.
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I was completely thrown off by Spring Break too, no worries! I also would like to be a lower elementary teacher and feel like fluency and word recognition are an essential part of reading and writing development. I agree that we can be fooled by students who can read and write quickly and efficiently who portray the image that they are fluent and are comprehending, but this is not always the case. This is something we need to be aware of and assess because if students aren't comprehending what they are reading or writing then they are missing out on the content. I also think both concepts should be worked on together because one cannot go without the other! They are both extremely important parts of literacy learning and essential building blocks.
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