BE HOT! - timrasinski.com

1 516. THE INSIDE TR ACK. W H Y RE ADI NG. F LU ENC Y. SHOU LD BE. Timothy V. Rasinski HOT! I. n 2009, an annual survey of experts (Cassidy Why fluency Is Not Hot & Cassidy, 2010) in reading determined that There are several reasons why fluency has lost its reading fluency was no longer a hot topic allure among reading educators and experts. The for reading . Moreover, those same experts first problem lies in the way that fluency is generally determined that fluency should also not be measured. reading rate (the number of words a reader considered a hot topic. The 2010 survey reports the can read on grade level text in a minute) has come to same results (Cassidy, Ortlieb, & Shettel, 2011). How be the quintessential measure of reading fluency . This could this be? comes from studies that have shown high correlations The National reading Panel's (NRP; 2000) survey between reading rate and reading comprehension. of research in reading determined that reading This correlational research has evolved into a fluency was, indeed, one of the pillars of effective definition of reading fluency as reading fast.

2 As a reading instruction. Subsequent summaries of result, reading fluency instruction has become in reading research have also determined that there is a many classrooms a quest for speed. Students are solid body of research that supports reading fluency provided with instruction that emphasizes increasing instruction (Chard, Vaughn, & Tyler, 2002; Kuhn & reading rate. Stahl, 2003; Rasinski, 2010; Rasinski & Hoffman, If fluency is nothing more than reading fast, then 2003; Rasinski, Reutzel, Chard, & Linan-Thompson, fluency instruction should be considered cold. In its 2011). In this article, I explore why fluency has become such a pariah in the reading field, and I. also discuss why it should be a central element to Timothy V. Rasinski is a professor of literacy education at Kent State any effective fluency curriculum and how this can University, Ohio, USA; e-mail happen. R T The reading Teacher Vol. 65 Issue 8 pp. 516 522 2012 International reading Association 516 4/25/2012 11:35:52 AM.

3 517. W H Y R E A DI NG F LU E NC Y SHOU LD BE HO T! fullest and most authentic sense, fluency is reading with and for meaning, and shown high correlations any instruction that focuses primarily on between reading rate and As a speed with minimal regard for meaning is wrong. result, reading fluency instruction has become in A second reason for fluency 's demotion is that it is associated many classrooms a quest for speed.. primarily with oral reading (NRP, 2000), and because most of the reading instruction in which the aim of students' task in reading comprehension. These that is done beyond the primary grades reading is comprehension (Rasinski, students are marked by their slow, is silent reading , then oral reading 2006). With the simple model of reading laborious, and staccato reading of texts. fluency instruction must have little I propose next, I hope to address the Our goal should be for readers to value. Why teach oral reading fluency preceding concerns about fluency read the words in texts accurately and if students will rarely employ it beyond and demonstrate how it is a critical automatically.

4 When the words in text grades 2 or 3? Indeed, Chall's (1996). component for effective instruction. are identified automatically, readers can model of reading development places Pikulski and Chard (2005) employ most of their limited cognitive fluency as a competency to be mastered described fluency as a bridge from energy to that all-important task in in the early stages of reading . Why word recognition accuracy to text reading text comprehension. For bother, then, with fluency beyond comprehension (see Figure). I think many readers, comprehension while grades 2 or 3? they are right on with this metaphor. reading suffers not because the readers Third, as one of the five pillars of fluency has two essential components: have insufficient cognitive resources to effective reading instruction (NRP, automaticity and prosody. Automaticity make meaning out of the text read, but 2000), fluency is often taught as a refers to the ability to recognize words because they depleted those resources separate area of the reading curriculum, automatically or effortlessly (LaBerge & by having to employ them in word distinct and apart from authentic Samuels, 1974).

5 Prosody completes the recognition. These are the same readers reading students do during guided bridge by connecting to comprehension. who would easily understand a text if reading or reading workshop a time it were read to them when someone when the teacher's stopwatch comes out and students read orally for speed. Automaticity The Link else takes on the task of decoding the In many classrooms today, students to Word Recognition words, they can employ their cognitive It is not enough for readers to read resources to making meaning. are being asked to reread a reading the words in text accurately they Readers develop their word passage from the core reading series need to read the words automatically. recognition automaticity in the same or a fluency program four, five, even LaBerge and Samuels (1974) posited way that other automatic processes in six times until they can read it at a that all readers have a limited amount life are developed through wide and speed deemed appropriate for their of attention, or what I have come to deep practice.

6 Wide reading refers to the grade level. reading for meaning call cognitive energy. If they have to common classroom practice of reading and enjoyment is not part of fluency use too much of that cognitive energy a text once followed by discussion, instruction. Comprehension and reading to decode the words in text, they have response, and instruction aimed at for pleasure are considered different little remaining for the more important developing some specific reading parts of the reading curriculum apart from fluency . fluency is not viewed as integral to real reading . Figure A Critical Bridge in reading Why fluency Should be hot I believe that fluency should be a hot fluency : Word Recognition Automaticity Comprehension topic for teachers and scholars and Prosody reading . My conception of fluency puts it at the center of authentic reading R T. 517 4/25/2012 11:35:53 AM. 518. W H Y R E A DI NG F LU E NC Y SHOU LD BE HO T! successive reading on in many classrooms. Students graph that text practiced.

7 Their own reading rates to see gain. That's to be I have witnessed students respond expected: Repeated to requests to read orally with Do practice improves you want me to read this story as fast the performance of as I can? I am increasingly hearing the actual activity students describe the best reader practiced. The real in their class as one who reads fast.. value of deep or I know of no compelling research repeated reading that has demonstrated that a primary is shown when focus on increasing reading speed students move on results in improved comprehension to a new and not and satisfaction in reading . Indeed, strategies and skills. The routine then previously read passage. What students I have seen cases in which students'. begins anew with a different text. A learn from the repeated reading of one comprehension actually declines as they general purpose of wide reading is passage partially transfers to the new learn to blow through periods, commas, to increase the volume of reading by passage.

8 Several reviews of research and other forms of punctuation in their having students read one new text after on fluency have shown that word quest for speed in reading . another. This is a type of reading done recognition accuracy, automaticity, Evidence of this emphasis on by most adults, and it is clearly a key comprehension, and attitude toward reading speed can be seen in the ever- component of any effective reading reading have been shown to improve increasing norms for reading rate that program. with repeated readings (Dowhower, have appeared in some commercial Deep reading is more commonly 1994; Kuhn & Stahl, 2003; Rasinski fluency programs (Rasinski &. referred to as repeated reading et al., 2011). Wide reading and deep Hamman, 2010). What was considered (Samuels, 1979). Deep reading occurs reading are foundational to any effective an average reading rate for a particular when a student is asked to read a single fluency program or intervention. grade level 10 years ago is now text repeatedly until a level of fluency The problem with repeated readings considered below average.

9 Although is achieved. Think of those struggling becomes evident when readers intuit the reading rates have increased students who have not yet achieved a purpose for the deep reading that over the past decade, overall reading automaticity in their word recognition. focuses primarily on reading speed and achievement has remained stagnant. They read the passage for the first time away from meaning. Because fluency Specific and intentional emphasis on (and only time, as in wide reading ), (automaticity) has come to be measured improving reading rates simply does and they don't read it very well they by a reader's speed of reading , for not work. know it and you know it. The slow, many students (and teachers), the goal There is no question that we should halting reading that characterizes less of repeated readings has evolved into want students to increase their reading than automatic word recognition will increasing one's reading speed ( , rate. But this should happen in the way have a detrimental effect on the reader's students are required to read passages comprehension.)

10 I think that rather than from their reading book multiple times moving on to the next passage after until they achieve a predetermined some discussion and instruction, as is reading rate). When students engage in done in wide reading , the teacher needs this form of repeated reading and their What students learn to have the student read the passage reading rates are measured weekly and more than once until some degree then charted so that they can see their from the repeated of automaticity is achieved with that passage. gains in speed, speed itself becomes the default goal of repeated readings and all reading of one When readers read a text more than of fluency instruction. to once, it is not unusual that they would It is not difficult to see the demonstrate improvement with every manifestations of fluency instruction the new passage.. R T The reading Teacher Vol. 65 Issue 8 May 2012. 518 4/25/2012 11:35:53 AM. 519. W H Y R E A DI NG F LU E NC Y SHOU LD BE HO T! that reading rate has improved for all of you reading this article through Prosody allows the reader to infer authentic wide and deep reading information that is not explicity practice.