Lecture Notes on Fluency and Vocabulary

Overview

Definition: Ability to read a text accurately and quickly with appropriate pacing and intonation.
- Components: Speed, accuracy, and prosody.
- Students must recognize and decode words, chunk them into phrases and clauses.
- Combination of skills: Automaticity in word recognition, prosody, expression.
Challenges:
- Difficulties faced by students with reading challenges in decoding and comprehending.
- Activity Example: Misunderstood Minds via PBS.org simulates reading disabilities impact on fluency.
Instructional Strategies:
- Model fluent reading and practice repeated reading.
- Provide guidance and feedback to improve word recognition and accuracy.
- Use assistive technology for modeling fluent oral reading and providing on-demand help.
- Tools like Read Naturally and One Minute Reader for research-based fluency support.

Importance: Expanding students’ breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge is crucial for reading comprehension.
- High vocabulary correlates with high reading comprehension.
Instructional Methods:
- Explicit instruction: Vocabulary lists and tests.
- Implicit instruction: Exposure to and discussion of keywords before reading.
- Multimedia methods: Visuals, semantic feature maps, and sign language.
Practice: Essential for vocabulary acquisition.
- Associations with previous knowledge through feature mapping.
Math and Vocabulary:
- Importance of teaching math vocabulary similarly to language vocabulary.
- Impact of vocabulary knowledge on understanding math concepts and word problems.
Task Restructuring:
- Focus on understanding context, not just individual words.
- Adapt tasks for at-risk students.
Vocabulary Tiers:
- Tier 1: Basic, everyday words.
- Tier 2: More complex, abstract words.
- Tier 3: Content-specific, complex words (e.g., variable, exponent).
Assistive Technology:
- Use to remove barriers in decoding and focus on content.
- Preview tools for understanding and acquiring vocabulary.