[Music] in this video we are going to give you an overview of fluency a component of literacy instruction that is one part of the interrelated areas of Rhian development we are going to discuss why fluency is so critical to reading by touching on the connection between fluency and our readers motivation and confidence and by discussing how fluency acts as a window into the development of readers in other words when we listen in to a child's fluency we get lots of information about what they need to learn when we understand why fluency is so important will naturally want to understand what the elements of fluency are so that we can know how to support readers as they develop their fluency fluency is defined as the ability to read words accurately quickly smoothly and with expression first we'll talk about why fluency is so critical to reading development have you ever listened to a child read who sounded a little bit like this Jack and Josh Jill went up the hell it sounds painstaking for this child to persist through the text like this this reader is not yet reading fluently they're reading slows down periodically and it is difficult for them to make meaning from the text because so much of their mental energy is devoted to deciphering words for Emma reading is a labored tedious task that is almost completely devoid of meaning satisfaction and enjoyment if reading always took this kind of work it would come as no surprise to anyone when emma becomes a resistant reader the good news is that we can prevent children from going down a path of disfluency by deeply understanding what fluency is and how to support readers as they develop fluency let's talk now about what fluency is fluency is important because it provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension fluency allows readers to make meaning from a text on the run they seem to be able to move through text easily they can read words accurately and automatically they read in an appropriate rate and with good expression they chunk words into phrases and read with intonation let's consider the separate but interrelated elements of the fluency diamond one side of the diamond is accuracy accuracy is the ability to read the words in the text as they are written the goal of accurate reading is automatic and effortless word recognition no decoding no word solving just reading the words easily the opposite side the diamond is rate rate is the speed at which a person reads text the goal is for the reader to have the ability to read the text at the appropriate speed and to determine what is appropriate based on the nature of the text one of the other sides the diamond is phrasing phrasing is the ability to group words together as a normal speech pausing appropriately between phrases clauses and sentences phrasing requires readers to read text in meaningful chunks paying attention to prepositions and punctuation the final side is expression expression is the ability to read words and text with the appropriate stress and intonation it's often called reading with feeling prosody is the defining feature of expressive reading it requires proficiency in all the variables that speakers use to convey aspects of meaning and make their speech lively rate phrasing and expression now let's return to Emma how can we support Emma on her journey to becoming a fluent reader so that she can flourish and excel instead of becoming unmotivated and resistant we can support Emma's fluency in three important ways first we can read to children so they hear what fluent reading sounds like we need to model and be explicit about what it takes to read accurately at an appropriate rate and with appropriate phrasing and expression when we do things like point to text to demonstrate how our voice changes when we arrive at a question mark we are modeling for readers that reading sounds a lot like talking and that we understand reading better when it sounds like talking when we read characters voices with certain tones and intonation we are bringing characters to life for children so they can relate to them and understand them when we explain why punctuation helps us to slow down or that scooping words into phrases helps us to regulate our reading rate we are making explicit for children the critical connection between fluency and comprehension second we provide Emma with supportive practice and applying the skills that fluent readers demonstrate using text that we can share the reading of we could do things like have children read a repetitive rhyme together so they begin to feel the patterns and rhythm and text this can help them to carry their reading along they can also rely on the voices of the other children and their teachers support their reading finally we can provide Emma with instructional level text and guide reading and demonstrate skills like how to tackle the handful of unknown words she encounters so she can read with accuracy third we can give Emma lots of time to read in her own so she can apply and practice these skills with books she can actually read when she reads and rereads easy text independently she'll be able to read it quicker and smoother each time as her fluency increases so will Emma's motivation to read at this point we've talked about one reason why fluency is so critical what fluency is and how to support readers in becoming fluent now let's address another way in which fluency is critical it provides a window into children's reading development to illustrate what we mean let's go back to Emma and practice listening into her fluency as a clue to what skills she needs to develop as a reader it is essential that we spend time listening to our readers read as a means of determining what to focus on in our instruction if when listening to Emma read we hear her read the sentence we put the clothes into the laundry as we put the cold into the lawn what does it show us that emma is and isn't doing as a reader we now know that she can automatically read some high frequency words like put the and in - we also know that she is paying attention to first letter sounds like the enclose and the OL in laundry but we can also tell that emma is guessing at words since Emma's guesses don't make sense we can tell that she is struggling to decode longer words and is having trouble making sense of her reading once we notice these things we can create a plan to help Emma become a more fluent reader we want to ultimately help Emma understand that learn to read laundry and clothes automatically is worth it because she gets the reward of understanding what she is reading while she is reading it one important caution for us as educators when we consider the benefits of observing readers oral reading is not to overly rely on a score that is calculated from the number of words they read accurately divided by the number of words in the passage like 86% or a number associated with the rate in which children read like 23 words per minute what seems to have occurred in the last several years is fluency being mostly defined by only two of its elements rate and accuracy this probably happened because rate and accuracy are easier to measure and quantify than phrasing an expression the overemphasis on rate and accuracy can result in children racing through text to achieve higher numbers the harm in this over emphasis is that it takes attention away from phrasing expression prosody and the real goal of fluency which is comprehension we need to consider that these numbers are only one part of the picture of a reader's development paying attention to a child's phrasing and expression are all signals that they are comprehending what they are reading comprehension is always the end goal of reading so even when we do assess reading fluency with all elements of fluency in mind we need to consider the results of that data as part of a larger picture for example English language learners with limited proficiency in English may be particularly shy about reading aloud and self-conscious about making errors in fact any child may be shy about performing reading out loud or have a tendency towards reading slowly but if they understand what they are reading their reading rate or expression may not be an issue again we do children a service when we consider the entire picture and then make instructional decisions accordingly in this video we explained why fluency is so critical serene development what fluency is and how to support readers on their path toward fluency we did this by learning about the four sides of the fluency diamond thinking about the ways that we can support Emma to develop her fluency demonstrating how fluency acts as a window into a child's reading development and cautioning educators to evaluate all elements of fluency in our next video series we will talk about specific strategies to support the elements of fluency we learned about today we will deeply examine evidence-based instructional methods for developing accurate readers who read in an appropriate rate and with proficient prosody we will watch Emma flourish and excel as she develops her confidence and motivation for reading as she hears herself read fluently and recognizes that she is comprehending what she reads she begins to develop the identity and habits of a reader [Music]