Fluency means Comprehension has been achieved...

The title statement reflects my thoughts on fluency. I emphatically believe if a child is reading fluently then comprehension must have been achieved.
Fluency is the “the ability of readers to read quickly, effortlessly, and efficiently with good, meaningful expression” (Rasinski, 2003, p.26). To reach this point or this stage in reading you must understand what has been read. Without comprehension fluency in my opinion cannot be achieved, I feel the two components in reading go ‘hand in hand’.
The ultimate goal of reading is meaning, but when we have fluent readers we assume that reading is achieved, we do not concentrate on the aspect of comprehension/meaning. The components of fluency are speed, accuracy, expression and comprehension. However, teachers usually focus on speed with respect to improving fluency they do not involve exercises that would improve all the facets of fluency. On the other hand in another article the components of fluency are ‘prosody, rate and accuracy’. Repeated readings not only should focus on speed but also on meaning. ‘Prosody refers to reading smoothly, effortlessly, and with proper phrasing and expression.’ ‘Prosody may provide a link between fluency and comprehension. The ability to properly chunk groups of words into phrases and meaningful units is an indicator of a reader’s comprehension’ (Kuhn, 2003).

I can describe myself as a fluent reader, I would also describe all the students in the M.ed Reading programme fluent readers after all they are doing a masters! But when asked to read an excerpt from a statistics book they stumble at nearly every word. Are you going to redefine these masters’ level students as struggling readers after hearing them try to decode a passage from a statistics book? I think not!! I feel this explains my point of view clearly since a child must understand what they are reading to be a fluent reader.

References:
Rasinski, T.V. (2003). The fluent reader: Oral reading strategies for building word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. NewYork: Scholastic.

Kuhn, M.R. (2003) Fluency: A review of developmental and remedial practices. Journal of EducationalPsychology, 95(1),3-21. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.95.1.3

OMG!!

"OMG! we were in class n d teacher was laughin so much she fell off d chair.was so funny LMAO!ROTFL!LOL!"
Translation:Oh my goodness!we were in class and the teacher was laughing so much she fell off the chair. It was so funny.Laugh my ass off!roll on the floor laughing!laugh out loud!
This language we can refer to as 'text language' this is the language that this generation is so accustomed.It has become so infectious that lecturers of tertiary education institutions complain that students are writing essays and using this infamous 'text language'.
I cannot imagine students doing this but because these students spend so much of the time talking to their friends on facebook or texting on their cellphones, this new written language becomes second nature and may just slip!
"A new study conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has revealed that around two-thirds of middle school and high school pupils in the United States are guilty of incorporating lazy instant messaging (IM) and phone text language into their written work." "One in four respondents admitted to dropping emoticon symbols directly into their school work", some students even lament that they guilty of using digits in their essays but then when reading over come across the mistake and laugh to themselves.
How do you get students to separate text language with Standard English which should be used when writing letters and essays.

Reference: Smith, S.(2008)OMFG! Kids are using text language in written schoolwork
http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200818/824/OMFG-Kids-are-using-text-language-in-written-schoolwork

My New and Improved Reading Comprehension Lesson

Hypothetically speaking...I first set up my multimedia projector showing my students some pictures (pictures I have permission to use) based on the topic deforestation. If the projector does not work I would have printed pictures ready -my contingency plan!!Then initiate a discussion using the pictures of areas that are deforested. I would then record the students' observations. After which, I would elicit a definition of the term deforestation. The students will then discuss the negative and positive aspects of deforestation. The students will be provided with a graphic organizer, a table labeled, positive and negative effects of deforestation. The students will use this graphic organizer to record their ideas. Students will then be given a sheet with information on deforestation to review the table. I will place the students in groups of four to creatively produce an informed podcast (the students would have a prior knowledge of a podcast) defining deforestation and outlining the positive and negative effects of deforestation. Oh! I nearly forgot my contingency plan. I could allow the students to do a performance for the class presenting their information.
It is a work in progress!

My Woes....

I have a group of students in my class who I would describe as the weakest students. In light of our classes on ebooks I have allowed this group of students to explore level F on the site www.raz-kids.com, it is a great site and it is under the umbrella of learninga-z.com which includes site such as readinga-z.com which offers a plethora of books that you can download and print for your children there are also projectable books. I encourage anyone to subscribe to these sites, however, if you have a child at home I recommend raz-kids.com since it offers a host of ebooks along with questions. My group of weak students I allowed to explore their level, initially the children rushed at the activity every evening they would ask for the computer to work on their reading and time would be of no consequence. However, after some time their excitement ceased, they rarely ask for the computer and I had to ensure that it was done.
I was also beginning to feel that may be I was wasting time but from my readings the authors have always insisted that continuous reading will develop fluency which improves comprehension. I really hope this works because I really do not have the time to give them that they really need to improve drastically, in time for the exam.

Open to ideas that would not be a time constraint; a site I can perhaps allow students to use to improve their reading and comprehension skills. Take into consideration that these students have an exam to take next year.

Continued Comprehension....

In the previous blog I shared the sentiment that the students' results in comprehension usually brings down their marks in language arts on a whole. For some reason children are entering this standard four stage without possessing what I will refer to as the factors which influence reading comprehension (you can read the previous blog to get an idea of them).
The assumption is that these 'comprehension problems are limited to disadvantaged' or children who are described as struggling readers. There are students who we describe as avid readers who are not able to comprehend text especially the passages give at the standard five level which sometimes have vocabulary that we, adults have to seek a dictionary.
When teaching comprehension we should follow principles for teaching comprehension
• Solid fluency allows the mind to concentrate on making sense of what we read.
• Broadening vocabulary increases comprehension and helps further learning, and
• Possessing a wide background in domain knowledge (prior knowledge) increases fluency skills, further expands vocabulary and enables the learner to have a greater understanding. (Hirsch, 2003)
Using these principles as a guide along with the factors that influence reading comprehension we could better structure activities to get the most out of every teaching moment.
References:
Hirsch, E.D., Jr. (2003). Reading comprehension requires knowledge of words and the world. American Educator, 10-29

Factors that Influence Reading Comprehension

As a teacher at the SEA level I realise how crucial the ‘Comprehension’ section is to the student’s final mark. For those unaware, Comprehension accounts for forty out of the total, one hundred. Unfortunately, we sometimes do not concentrate on this area until the children reach to this level. Reading has been traditionally done as ‘Round Robin’ where children stand and recite passages for the class. Sometimes we are guilty of not making comprehension an important aspect of everyday lessons.
Children should not reach the Standard four level lacking the “four important factors influence reading comprehension:
• Command of the linguistic structure of the text,
(readers need to know how to decode text easily so that their cognitive energy is not drained)
• Adequate vocabulary in the content area,
(when a reader stops frequently to determine the meaning of a word , comprehension suffers)
• Degree of metacognitive control of the text, and
(readers must know how to self-monitor and reflect on their level of understanding during the act of reading)
• Adequate domain knowledge
(background knowledge helps us to connect to the text we are reading)”
We have to first overcome these challenges to positively influence children’s reading comprehension skills.

References:
Tankersley, K.,(2005).Literacy Strategies for Grades 4-12:Reinforcing the Threads of Reading. Alexandria, VA, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Ebooks and Fluency...

Some time ago I tried making 'something' on the computer I feel it was supposed to be an ebook, after class I realised how simple it was to put together an ebook by using a simple program that we use so often.
We do not always consider that children have different learning styles. The learning styles could be descrided as visual, auditory, kinesthetic and tactile. Visual learners prefers to have a picture to view when something is being described to them; ebooks help to achieve this since they have pictures to view with the written information. Students, on the other hand, who are auditory learners remember best through verbal repitition and also remember verbal instructions well, through the use of ebooks students who may be auditory learners will be able to comfortably use the technology. Ebooks offer the repition of words if needed by the struggling reader who may be an auditory learner. The ebook can be used for retelling which will eventually improve comprehension skills.'Retellings and other response activities encourage students to create versions of text of their own language. Students reconstruct stories they practice sequencing events',which is a compehension skill that also helps with writing, one of the writing traits being organization.(Milby & Rhodes, 2007)

References:
Milby, T.M.,& Rhodes, J.A.(2007).Teacher-created electronic books:Integrating technology to support readers with disabilities.
The Reading Teacher,61(3),255-259.doi: 10.1598/RT.61.3.6

My Student Blogged

I was so excited when I checked my gmail account and realised that one of the students in my class had posted a comment on the class blog. I set up a blog based on the book that we are currently doing in class 'The Chocolate Touch'. I demonstrated how to use the blog and I went further to send that student a link. She is the only one in my class who has an account and the internet at home. She is also one of the students in my class who is a struggling reader but she tries.She only gave one line but its a start and I am so excited.
Throughout the ICT classes I felt a sense of dissappointment in the system in which I teach, we do not have the necessary technology to ensure that Web 2.0 tools are used in the classroom.
I have been reading the articles and came across a teacher who teamed up with preservice teachers who were willing to participate in the project as 'reading partners with the children'.The preservice teachers set up blogs and over a period of time interacted with the children.(Anderson & Balajthy,2009)This would be a great way to put learning in the hands of the students, the teacher only has to guide the discussions to an extent,since the professor was also guiding the blog posts of the preservice teachers.
My little step towards this goal was a bit of a relief, maybe one day I will be able to truly engage in a project as I described.

Vocabulary Rich Classroom

According to Lane and Allen (2010)'promoting incidental learning and word conciousness through frequent and deliberate modeling of sophisticated vocabulary can add substantial breadth to students' vocabularies.'.Students who engage in daily activities where they use 'sophisticated' vocabulary will have a larger 'word bank'.
'Mrs. Barker assigned classroom jobs at circle time'to her kindergarten, the jobs assigned simply identified at the beginning of the school year,September, but by February she changed the names of the duties such as zookeeper became "animal nutrition specialist", the cleanup helper became the "custodian" and the line leader was the "class movement coordinator". By changing the names of the duties the sudents are now aware of synonyms of the words they were using originally and since the duty has not changed they are very much knowledgeable about the the meaning of these new sophisticated words.
All teachers should 'model sophisticated vocabulary use' like Mrs. Barker. We should not 'dumb-down our language' for the students, 'simplistic vocabulary may be appropriate for initial instruction, as a supportfor students' understanding of a new concept. But once students develop a basic understanding, it is time to elevate our instructional language to enhance our students' vocabularies'(Lane & Allen, 2010)

'Sophisticated Words to use:
correct: accomplished, appropriate, exemplary, masterful, precise, proficient, proper, superior, suitable.' (Lane & Allen,2010)

Reference:

Allen,S.A. & Lane,H.B.(2010) The Vocabulary-Rich Classroom: Modeling Sophisticated Word Use to Promote Word Consciousness and Vocabulary Growth. Reading Teacher,63(5),362-370.doi:10.1598/RT.63.5.2

Should the terms decoding and phonics be used ‘interchangeably’?

“Decoding is the ability to apply your knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including knowledge of letter patterns, to correctly pronounce written words. Understanding these relationships gives children the ability to recognize familiar words quickly and to figure out words they haven't seen before”. “Phonics is one approach to reading instruction that teaches students the principles of letter-sound relationships, how to sound out words, and exceptions to the principles”.
These terms in my opinion should not be used interchangeably. I feel that decoding applies to a child’s grasp of phonics and phonemic awareness and is the actual application of that knowledge. I also feel that decoding goes further to assist a child in giving an unfamiliar word meaning; for instance, using a prefix to give the word meaning.
“Without being able to decode the written word, reading comprehension is impossible”. To decode any text a reader must be able to integrate his prior knowledge with the text, make connections so understanding or comprehension would take place.
References:
http://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/phonics
http://www.learninginfo.org/reading-comprehension-problems.htm

Poetry Slam....

My class hosted a poetry slam within the last week of school, it was a success. I feel that my readers will benefit from this experience tremendously. The children practically did all the planning and the hosting of the event. It was part of their project for this term. I felt a sense of pride when my weakest reader with a little coaching and his partner who is a 'semi-fluent' reader were able to go on the stage and present the poem with little mistakes, this is ironic because his partner did not want to work with him initially because he claimed he could not read. This exercise showed me as a teacher that you must give children different opportunities to practise fluency.

Subsequent to the Poetry Slam I read an article by Christy Barnes entitled "Choral Recitation". This artcle reiterated the aspect that reciting poems is so important. At the Rudolf Steiner School the day "begins with speech exercises opr poems recited in unison for speaking awakens the one who speaks.Listening tends to make us sleepy."this is looking at poetry as a way of of keeping the brain active.
The author also refers to the recitation of poetry as the "best possible physical 'breating exercises,' for it requires a natural deep breathing which strengthens the diaphragm muscles."- children's lungs become stronger!

References:
Choral Recitation by Christy Barnes
Education as an Art
published by Waldorf Schools of North America
Vol.31,No.2-Spring/Summer 1973

My children are struggling readers but through library visits and exposure to a wide variety of reading materials some of them have developed a love for reading.

During these weekly visits my students would be very excited to get to the library I guess partly because they are going on a field trip.However, when they get to the library all but one student who I have to coax rush for books. The students look for books frantically especially if they have done something in class that they were interested. Some of the boys look for comics and some only look for stories with sport I encourage them to choose any book. I was advised that I should structure library visits based on genres but then my ultimate goal of these library visits is to foster a love for reading. I truly believe that developing this love for reading would help improve fluency, and other reading skills gradually.