Reading Fluency Factors into Reading Success

This week when I read the article Creating Fluent Readers by Timothy Rasinski (2004) I personally could not relate, because I have alway had a high rate of reading comprehension and fluency. However, as I read about Jonah I was reminded of my mother. She hates to read. She has always said it is because she can read the words over and over again, but it is like they just do not sink in, so she cannot tell you exactly what it is that she read. As Rasinski would put it she has not developed enough, "control over the surface level text processing," so that she can, "...focus on understanding the deeper levels of meaning embedded in the text" (2004).

Or in terms of the three dimensions of reading provided by Rasinski my mom like many struggling readings has accomplished the first dimension, but with the other two dimensions I am not so sure. Below are the three dimensions given in the article.

• Accuracy in Decoding Words- ability to sound out words in text with minimal errors.
• Automatic Processing- expending as little mental energy as possible as you read through the text by automatically recognizing the words on site.
• Prosodic Reading- the ability to phrase the text into units that are semantically appropriate.

To assess each of these here are some ideas provided in the Rasinski text.

• To tell if a person is reading in the first level of the dimensions calculate the accuracy of their reading by dividing the amount of words that they pronounced, or did not know by the amount of words read. If they are reading grade level material below an accuracy level of 90-95% they need help in this area.
• For this second dimension listen to how the child reads aloud. Ask yourself questions like are they rushing through the material to fast or slow.
• A way to tell that a person is in the prosodic dimension is the inflictions of their voice when they read. If they breeze through punctuation, and/or do not change their tone they probably are not here yet.

And once you know where a child is do practice with them to help them move forward to the next dimension! Below is a link with ideas for reading in the classroom readers:

10 Activities for Students to do in Reading Groups

So today I am going to leave you with these questions: 1. What would would you do to help someone who reads such as my mother, or Jonah? 2. How would you help you children who are learning to read to become more fluent? 3. In accordance with the dimensions where did you fall? Was it what you expected?