Wednesday, January 25, 2012
2:29 PM on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The six dimensions of reading fluency
By Allison Reigel
As part of semester grading and reporting, K-2 teachers assessed students using the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment to determine the current reading level of each child.
This standardized assessment is administered one-on-one and provides teachers with information regarding a child's reading accuracy, reading comprehension and reading fluency. This allows the teacher to differentiate instruction within the classroom.
Reading accuracy refers to the student's ability to decode words in text and is measured in percentage of total words the student has read correctly. Reading comprehension refers to the degree to which the student demonstrates understanding of the text's key ideas.
But what is reading fluency? According to Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell, leading researchers in literacy education, there are six dimensions of fluency that are evaluated when a student is reading aloud.
These dimensions are as follows:
Pausing refers to the way the reader's voice is guided by punctuation (for example, short breath at a comma; full stop with voice going down at periods and up at question marks; full stop at dashes).
Phrasing refers to the way readers put words together in groups to represent the meaningful units of language. Sometimes phrases are cued by punctuation such as commas, but often they are not. Phrased reading should sound like oral language, although more formal.
Stress refers to the emphasis readers place on particular words (louder tone) to reflect the meaning as speakers would do in oral language.
Intonation refers to the way the reader varies the voice in tone, pitch and volume to reflect the meaning of the text - sometimes called expression.
Rate refers to the pace at which the reader moves through the text - not too fast and not too slow. The reader moves along steadily with few slow-downs, stops or pauses to solve words.
Integration is a summary of the previous five dimensions and involves the way the reader consistently and evenly orchestrates pausing, phrasing, stress, intonation and rate. The reader moves smoothly from one word to another, from one phrase to another and from one sentence to another.
When all dimensions of fluency - pausing, phrasing, stress, intonation and rate - are working together, the reader will be using expression in a way that clearly demonstrates that he/she understands the text.
(Allison Reigel is a first-grade teacher and the primary literacy coordinator at Eagle View Elementary School.)
Note: Comments are not edited and don't represent the views of Echo Publishing. Please read our posting rules in the terms of service policy. To report a post that may be inappropriate, click the triangle alert icon.
|
