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Reading Fluency

Reading Fluency: Part 1

Reading with fluency is like driving on a well maintained road.

Reading fluency is the ability to identify words quickly ,  accurately,  and  understanding their meaning.  Learners develop  reading fluency  by reading daily at their reading level.  This reading level is constantly changing .Learners start developing fluency at an easy reading level.  Then they move on to the next book, which  will be slightly more difficult, but not much, as to not frustrate the reader.  Therefore, reading fluency and reading a lot are linked together.

 

Lack of reading fluency is like driving on a road full of pot holes.

Dysfluent Reader

A dysfluent learner cannot decode words quickly ( phonological awareness and sound identification are not in place) and accurately. They will stop frequently trying to ‘sound out’  word after word. This causes learners to lose speed and comprehension, which leads to frustration and lack of motivation to read. In this case there is no reading fluency.

 

It’s important to get to the root cause of fluency difficulties.

Reading fluency problems don’t fix themselves and learners become dysfluent.  This needs to be corrected so that learners continue to acquire vocabulary and knowledge through reading whether reading silently or orally.

Can’t or won’t?

Reading is Empowering

Some fluent readers are  voracious readers, others read because they have to and others don’t like to read.  I find that if a person can read  fluently with comprehension and says, ‘I don’ t like to read’, it is usually the type of reading material that turns them off reading. Especially in school settings where learners have to read what they are told to read, instead of what they like to read.  Reading is reading whether you read a magazine, a book, a newspaper, internet materials…and so on.

On the other hand, some people would like to read, but they can’t. This is a technical difficulty that can be remedied with the right tools, time and practice. Everyone can learn to read.  It empowers people!

Reading fluency is a very important part of the reading process.  It is important to access  and develop it.

Love, Light and Gratitude,

Alda

 

Quote

“Start by doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”     (St. Francis of Assissi)

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Phonemic and Phonological Awareness

 

 Phonemic Awareness

Phonemes are the smallest part of sound in a spoken word.  For example, if you change the phoneme /h/, in the word ‘hat’, for the phoneme /c/ you make the word ‘cat’.  Therefore,  phonemes make a difference in the word’s meaning. Phonemic awareness is not phonics– that’s  a different puzzle piece. Phonemic awareness is understanding that the sounds of spoken language work together to make words. As seen above the phonemes /h/a/t/ work together to make the word ‘hat’. This is about hearing and processing  sounds. Phonemic awareness is a subcategory of phonological awareness.

Children who have phonemic awareness skills are likely to have an easier time to learn to read.

Phonemic awareness is… ·  …       the ability to hear, identify and manipulate individual sounds –phonemes- in spoken words
Phonemic awareness is important because… ·         it improves children’s word reading and reading comprehension.

·         It helps children learn to spell
Phonemic awareness can be developed through a number of activities… ·         Identify phonemes

·         Categorize phonemes

·         Blend phonemes to form words

·         Segment words into phonemes

·         Delete or add phonemes to form new words

·         Substitute phonemes to make new words
Effective phonemic awareness instruction… ·    …     When children are taught to manipulate phonemes by using letters of the alphabet

·   …      When instruction focuses on only one or two types of phoneme manipulation

 

Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness identifies and manipulates larger parts of the spoken language, such as words, syllables and onsets and rhymes as well as phonemes.

So when children:

  • identify and make oral rhymes- “The cat sat on the mat”
  • identify and work with syllables –clap syllables of their name :” An-drew”
  • identify and work with onsets and rimes – the first part of sip is s-/the last part of win is –in
  • identify and work with individual phonemes is spoken words – the first sound in sat is /s/.
 Training

Training is the key to breaking the  chains that keep children from successfuly learning to read.  Many children acquire these skills effortlessly, if they were raised by adults who talked to them constantly, played word games incessantly and read aloud nursery rhymes and poetry at bed time. Some have an innate ability to process sounds/language; however, there are  many others  who find these skills difficult.  This skill is crucial to acquiring the English language code necessary to master reading. Children, who lack these skills, need to be trained in developing them.  Children do not outgrow phonological awareness deficits or develop phonological awareness skills with physical maturation (Liberman & Shankweiler, 1985) cited in “Teach Them All to Read” p.33. These skills have nothing to do with IQ levels.

Success in acquiring phonological Awareness comes from teaching it systematically, explicitly within a supportive environment. Attention in training blending, segmenting , auditory processing and code knowledge (alphabet sounds) are really important in this process.

The sweet taste of success is very powerful. The good news is that not only can children overcome it by training, but that parents can help them do it.  Carmen and Geoffrey MacGuiness in their book ‘Reading Reflex- the foolproof phono-graphix method for teaching your child to read” do just that.  I found this resource to be pretty empowering.

With Love and Gratitude

Alda

Sources:

Teach Them All to Read by Elaine McEwan

Reading Reflex by Carmen and Geoffrey McGuinness / www.readamerica.net