Enhancing Reading Fluency in the Elementary Grades

If you teach elementary school in North Carolina, you are likely aware of the Read to Achieve legislation, part of the 2013 Excellent Schools Act.  In a nutshell, by the end of third grade, all children will be reading at or above grade level.  If they aren't, their parents will have the option of either retaining them in third grade or enrolling them in a 6-8 week summer reading camp.  

Let's leave aside any editorial comments you may wish to make, such as "Summer reading camps?! What an excellent way to make children hate books!"  Let's also leave aside our vitriol regarding the use of public money to purchase boxed programs for assessing, teaching, and reassessing student achievement.  The money has already been spent, the contracts signed.  To bitch about any of it at this point is a waste of time. Instead, let us turn our attentions to the issue on which we can all agree, viz all children should be reading at or above grade level. 

I taught high school English, so my knowledge of early grades literacy is minimal.  But I like to think of myself as smarter than the average bear.  I did some reading, namely "Put Reading First," (see link below) a concise, wondrously jargon-free guide to the basics of early literacy.  In another nutshell, there are five elements: phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.  It's important to note that these components are separated only for the purposes of talking about them.  They should not be taught in isolation from each other.  

My job requires me to translate research and ideas into actionable classroom behaviors.  The section of the report on fluency--the ability to read words quickly and accurately--noted that "repeated and monitored oral reading improves reading fluency and overall reading achievement" (p. 21).  Because many NC teachers no longer have aides in their classrooms, I wondered how a teacher would find time to monitor this reading and provide feedback to all her students.  What process could I invent that would make this essential step a little less difficult to implement?

I turned on my iPad and checked the app store for a free voice recorder. Quick Voice was the first to pop up, so I downloaded it.  I then test-drove this idea with a group of 15 K-5 teachers.  They recorded themselves reading a passage, then listened to it.  If they like their fluency, they saved the file with their last names.  If not, they erased it and tried again.  Once they had a file they liked, they emailed it from the iPad to me, and I filed each person's work in an e-folder.  At her "leisure," the teacher can listen to the students' reading and work individually with those who are not progressing sufficiently and offer a simple, "Way to go," to those who are.  The files also form a chronological record of each student's progress--very handy for parent-teacher conferences.

It's been a few weeks and the results are better than I anticipated.  The teachers loved the idea and began using it immediately.  Their students have become better at self-assessing.  They listen to their own voices and make comments like, "I sound like a robot."  Ever competitive, even if only with themselves, they have begun monitoring their reading speed using the timer function at the top of the screen.  If they think they can beat their time, they re-record.  

I don't want to break my arm patting myself on the back, but I'm pretty damn proud of this idea.  It costs the school nothing.  It empowers the students.  It frees up teachers to do something else while still satisfying the mania of progress-monitoring.  There is nothing not to like about this.  And for those of you about to whiz on my parade because you don't own an iPad, Iask the janitor to haul out some World War II era tape-recorders, several hundred of which are probably gathering dust in the bowels of your school.

Let me know how it goes.

XOX,
Deb, The Know-it-All