Improve Fluency and Comprehension

Watching the Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction (EBLI) videos with Nora Chahbazi was very interesting and I was able to understand more about fluency with the alphabet and fluency with comprehension. The fluency and comprehension video was very informative and one that I was interested in as I would like to be teaching older students when I complete the education program. To have fluency and comprehension, you must have built a “house.” The foundation is phonemic awareness, phonics concepts and skills. The rest of the house is handwriting, vocabulary, spelling, fluency and comprehension. If you do not have a concrete foundation than the rest of the house will not hold up; literacy is the same way.

           Fluency is reading like how you talk. You do not want students to read like a robot, you want them to read smoothly. So, following along with a finger gliding under the words will allow for flow. Students need to know that reading is a form of talking and that words in a book are the author talking to you. Modeling reading out loud to the students is a key point for their learning to be successful. The video talked about and showed how to train fluency with students which has three goals: accuracy, model fluent reading and student reading fluently to comprehend. The training of fluency can be done at the start of the school year with check-ins throughout the school year and a final check-in to know where the student is at the end of the school year. These check-ins will provide information for the teacher, student and parents as to what needs to be worked on, what level of reading they are at and how they can continue to improve.

           Comprehension is the goal when students are reading fluently. Students need to know what they are reading and be able to talk about what they just read. When the student is talking with the teacher about what they read, you want to discuss like you were talking with a friend. The teacher can ask leading questions, vocabulary words and summarize what was read. Another way for comprehension to be built is to read a novel aloud to the class. You want to pick a book to read that is just above the highest reader in the class. This was something that I did in my practicum. I read aloud Bridge to Terabithia while the students followed along with their copy. I found that the students were able to engage more with discussion after a chapter reading and it was a way for inclusion to happen for the lower readers. Before each chapter, we would go over the vocabulary words with their meanings, recap what we read the day before and make a prediction of what might happen in the next chapter based on the chapter title and clues from what was already read. I found that the students followed along better when I was reading and they were always asking to continue on when we were done for the day. I believe reading out books/texts to students allows for their brain to comprehend a bit more and they really enjoy listening.

           I have found that in my years of working in schools, reading fluency and comprehension have always been very weak spots for students. When I was working in the high school, I had students that were in grades eleven and twelve that were reading at a grade two-level. No one had taken the time to help these students when they were younger with their reading. Students are being pushed through grades with no concern for how they will struggle later in their school life and adult life. Within my Humanities course, I have learned a lot about the language essentials that need to be taught to students at a young age. Even though I would like to teach the older students, I can see the benefits and need to keep language essentials taught each year and making sure that material is being used in a cross-curricular manner. Students need to know how to read and need to know what they read because our society is all about words and if you cannot comprehend what is on the paper in front of you, then you will struggle in society. We as teachers need to make literacy a priority and to help students reach their potential in reading fluency and comprehension.