Juli
Kendall's
2004-05
READING/WRITING
WORKSHOP JOURNAL
Entry #19
A Huge Reading Resource on the Web
I want to move to Florida!
I may live in California and have the same opportunities to be close to a Disney resort and visit the beach every day, but I'm still jealous. Ever since I bumped into the Florida Online Reading Professional Development website on the Internet, I've been green with envy. Talk about an incredible resource for PK-12! I was surfing around looking for what was available about teaching comprehension and reading fluency, and I discovered a treasure chest full of resources. In their March online publication for their professional development participants, FOR-PD's Literacy Newsletter, they feature developing and assessing fluency for their reading strategy of the month. I've been looking for more information about how to use reading fluency to build reading comprehension, and they've done all the work for me. I really like how they define fluency.
What is fluency? Fluency is the ability to read orally with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. Harris and Hodges (in Samuels, 2002) define fluency as freedom from word identification problems that might hinder comprehension. Ensuring that students become fluent readers is one of the major goals of reading instruction (Kuhn, 2004). Based on these definitions, fluency has four components: reading rate or speed, accuracy, appropriate expression, and comprehension (Johns & Berglund, 2002). Reading rate is the speed at which reading takes place. Reading rate is usually determined in words per minute (WPM) or words correct per minute (WCPM).
Fluency also involves the student's ability to recognize words automatically with little effort and attention. At the fluent state, decoding is fast and easy, and students recognize words with ease. Dowhower (1989) describes the element of prosody as the ability to read in expressive rhythmic and melodic patterns. It is the ability to read text orally using appropriate pitch, stress, and juncture, and to project the natural intonation and phrasing of the spoken word upon the written text. Students must use syntactic knowledge when reading.
All three of these components have a profound impact on comprehension. Readers who are able to identify words instantly have enough attention to focus on the text's meaning (Samuels, 2002). To ensure adequate comprehension, automatic word recognition must be developed. Students must develop automatic word recognition through extensive reading of connected text rather then through recognizing words in isolation (Kuhn, 2004).
January – ABC Brainstorm Strategy
February – 3-2-1 Strategy
March – Column Notes
April – Concept Definition Map
May – Anticipation Guide
June – Venn Diagram
July – Cubing
August – Word Builder
September – Story Mapping
October – Making Connections
November – Herringbone Pattern
December – Vocabulary Word Box 2005:
January – Prediction Wheel
February – Modified QAR
March – Developing & Assessing Fluency
There's also a Publications link where you can scroll down and find one-page PDFs that correspond to important concepts for teaching reading. These would make great reminders to put up on bulletin boards or to use as a foundation for professional development in reading. Reading Reminders (one page PDFs) • Lesson 2: Reading and learning to read
• Lesson 3: Exemplary reading instruction
• Lesson 4: Language and print-rich environments
• Lesson 5: Phonemic awareness and phonics
• Lesson 6: Bringing students and text together
• Lesson 7: Strengthening vocabulary development
• Lesson 8: Scaffolding students' comprehension
• Lesson 9: Integrating reading and writing across the curriculum
• Lesson 10: Teaching for understanding in content areas
• Lesson 11: Literacy instruction and non-native speakers of English
• Lesson 12: Instruction for struggling readers
• Lesson 13: Assessment
• Lesson 14: Becoming an effective literacy leader Since my plans don't include moving to Florida, I'm glad that FOR-PD (Florida Online Reading Professional Development) has placed so many resources online. In this way, everyone benefits — even those of us who live closer to Disneyland than Disney World.
Resources page for our Reading/Writing Project
