Fluency

Fluency when reading is extremely important.  It consists of three components: accuracy, speed, and prosody.  Something that my class textbook (Tompkins, 2010), and many people believe, is that fluency is compatible with successful comprehension, and vice versa.  Although I believe this to be true most of the time, I have found that it is not always the case.

Last year, I had one student that was a very slow reader.  She was able to decode the words she didn't know well, but her rate of reading was painfully slow.  Most students would not be able to retain what they read if they are concentrating on each word that closely, but she could comprehend everything. I honestly don't think there was one time last year where her comprehension was incorrect.  I worked with her on getting her mouth ready for the words, and focusing more on that first letter and each piece of each word. We also talked about trying to speed up her rate and I modeled what it should sound like.  Even though she was still reading somewhat slow at the end of the school year, her rate of reading sped up and she actually looked and sounded like a fluent reader.

Last year I also had 3 students that read fluently and could decode new words quickly, but their comprehension was not there.  They could read a level 7 text "fluently" but could not comprehend unless they were reading a level 3 text.  That showed me that even though they could read the words, they had no idea what they were reading.  With these students, I had to work on slowing down their rate and to make sure we did repeated readings.  In addition, we worked on previewing the texts more thoroughly so they had a better idea of what they would see in the story.

These two scenarios are very different.  One student would not really be labeled as a fluent reader, but in fact she was a very high leveled reader with great comprehension skills. The group of students that seemed like fluent readers had no idea what they were reading most of the time.  Students' levels of fluency depend on many aspects, and working on their skills often require individualization.

Have you seen similar issues in your classroom?  What do you do when you do not have a fluent reader?  On the other hand, what do you do when you have a fluent reader but they are not comprehending?

Reference: Tompkins, G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.