Many teachers focus on fluency and comprehension lessons individually without making the connection between the two. Some other teachers stress that one is more important than the other and thus stress the significance of that one. I believe that reading comprehension and reading fluency go hand in hand. When you really think about it, can you really have reading comprehension if you do not have reading fluency? It would be extremely difficult to understand and make sense of what you had just read if you couldn’t read the text smoothly without extensive reading mistakes. In our guided reading groups, my CT works with small groups of children who have been grouped based upon their DRA independent reading level. Each group is assigned a level appropriate book that will work on skills that the children may struggle with. She sets up mini lessons with these books to work of these areas that affect their fluency. She takes extensive records of their progress and learned skills as the weeks go by. We introduce word wall words or “snap words” in our shared reading lessons every week. These are words the children need to know in a “snap” and are used in many different activities throughout the week. This strategy will help the children’s fluency development because it increases their sight words and vocabulary which allows for a more fluid reading. We need to know what their comprehension level is. As I said before, without reading fluency, comprehension is going to be extremely difficult. Likewise, having reading comprehension increases fluency. When you know what the author is telling you in the story, unfamiliar words are easier to understand when the context of the unknown word is understood. For instance, my children are doing a poetry unit every week. Every Monday they learn a new poem with new snap words. Often, there are words in our poems that are unfamiliar to many of my students. We spend a significant amount of time on explaining the meaning of the poem and what the author is trying to tell us through his words. The children are building up their reading comprehension a great deal from this exercise. On last week’s poem, the word “posts” came up. Several children raised their hands and immediately asked me what posts were. I told them to wait to ask this question until after we discussed the meaning and if they couldn’t figure it out after that then they may raise their hands and ask again. After our discussion, I asked if there were any questions of if their questions were already answered. No one raised a hand so I ask the children if they could answer their own question. The child that initially asked the question raised his hand and said “it’s like a pole right?” This will help him remember the word because he now understands how it relates with the other words in the story.
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Kristen-
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I wanted to comment how I really liked how you backed up your beliefs about reading fluency and reading comprehension with real classroom examples. It really helped me to understand where you were coming from and understand your points better. In talking about reading fluency and comprehension, I agree with you completely, that the two are intertwined. However, I have limited knowledge of how both are taught, because, in my classroom, the majority of my learners have yet to learn how to read words. Furthermore, my CT and I have yet to start guided reading groups. In my class, my learners have their “popcorn” words that “pop” up all the time, similar to your snap words. They do activities with these words during the daily five, where they practice writing them. This is the only time they work with these words, however, unless the words are pointed out in a shared reading group or morning message. Thus, I am curious to see how fluency will be instilled in my classroom, once learners start reading. In contrast, I see comprehension used a lot, throughout making meaning, read alouds, math, science, social studies, and even word study activities. Almost everything my learners do requires them to use comprehension in some way. Unfortunately, the comprehension component and the fluency component of reading are very separated in my classroom, as of right now. I really liked how your classroom brings together fluency and comprehension in your weekly poem. My learners too get a poem each week; however, it has nothing to do with their “popcorn words.” I thought it was really powerful and meaningful that you had learners who were unsure of a word, but used their comprehension skills to deduce the meaning of the word. As you pointed out, it allowed the learners to be in control of their own understanding and it helped the learners to put meaning to the word and put it in context. If they ever were to come across that word again, they could reflect on the poem and it could help them recall the meaning of the vocabulary word. I really liked the idea and think that I might try and figure out ways to incorporate poems in my classroom that involve our popcorn words. Aside from poetry, is there any other times in your day where fluency and comprehension come together and use one another to help learners with each skill?