I DON’T WANT MY STUDENTS TO READ JUST AS FAST AS THEY CAN!

I DON’T WANT MY STUDENTS TO READ JUST AS FAST AS THEY CAN!

Many teachers have students who are struggling and not meeting the fluency rate for their age level. These teachers have said to me, “I don’t want my students to just read as fast as they can, they need to read with expression.” There is no question that ultimately our goal is to have students read fluently, and with expression, along with understanding what they read. Many students who are struggling with fluency and have their decoding skills are still missing the skill of automaticity, where they are able to rapidly recall phonemes and syllables parts as they read. 

If a student is struggling with automaticity, which is holding them back from becoming a fluent reader, forcing them to read as fast as they can is the scaffolding needed to build this skill and train the student’s brain to put the words, and repetitive phonics into their metacognition. This then allows the student to recall the word quickly along with attaching the meaning of the word for understanding. If the student is focusing on decoding they are less apt to recall the meaning at the same time. Activating the automatic recall in our brains takes lots of practice, and this is where asking the student to read as fast as they can builds this skill. 

Once students are able to read at the appropriate fluency level it is then time to scaffold to the next skill of comprehension. Students reading smoothly and with expression are demonstrating the understanding of the text. Students who struggle with expression and are just reading words need additional support on vocabulary. Unless the vocabulary is in the student’s lexicon they won’t know how to read the word with expression, thus demonstrating the need for additional support in vocabulary. 

Student is not fluent, then check:

Are they accurate?

If not accurate you need to go back and isolate the skill they are struggling with in decoding.

Accurate but not at correct fluency level.

Students who need the forced practice to become fluent. Over the year the observation students who reach about 90 words words per minute often struggle to make that 112 to 115 words per minute. Once students hit 115 words per minute they really take off and start building. It has then become automatic. 

Take some time and evaluate your students and see just where they are on the scaffolding ladder to help your students hit that next benchmark in reading. 

Fluency Practice Activity: UP - UP - UP

Objective: Students will increase their reading fluency and recall.

Materials:

• Reading passage at or below the student’s reading level.
• Way to time for 1 minute (timer or use the clock).

Steps: 

• Student reads the passage for 1 minute.
• Marks the last word read.
• Students reads the same passage again for 1 minute.
• Mark the last word read.
• Student reads the passage one more time for 1 minute and marks the last word read.

• Students counts how many more words the read the last time compared to the first time.

Rational: The students are allowing their brain to process and recall the information. When the brain is forced to recall the same information it activates the long term memory. Some students have no problem activating their long term memory and recall other need additional practice, this is one form. 

Options:

Use a list of words instead of a passage.

Rational: Reading a list of words is harder for the learner. This is because there are no context clues. Therefore, they are forced to use their decoding skills. Often, if you have older students struggling with decoding, this option will force them to use their metacognition to read the words. 

Student is not fluent, then check:

Are they accurate?	If not accurate you need to go back and isolate the skill they are struggling with in decoding.
Accurate but not at correct fluency level.	Students who need the forced practice to become fluent. Over the year the observation students who reach about 90 words words per minute often struggle to make that 112 to 115 words per minute. Once students hit 115 words per minute they really take off and start building. It has then become automatic.

 Fluency Practice Activity: UP - UP - UP

Objective: Students will increase their reading fluency and recall.	Materials: ●      Reading passage at or below the student’s reading level. ●      Way to time for 1 minute (timer or use the clock).
Steps: ●      Student reads the passage for 1 minute. ●      Marks the last word read. ●      Students reads the same passage again for 1 minute. ●      Mark the last word read. ●      Student reads the passage one more time for 1 minute and marks the last word read. ●      Students counts how many more words the read the last time compared to the first time.	Rational: The students are allowing their brain to process and recall the information. When the brain is forced to recall the same information it activates the long term memory. Some students have no problem activating their long term memory and recall other need additional practice, this is one form.
Options: Use a list of words instead of a passage.	Rational: Reading a list of words is harder for the learner. This is because there are no context clues. Therefore, they are forced to use their decoding skills. Often, if you have older students struggling with decoding, this option will force them to use their metacognition to read the words.

Teacher-Survivor Challenge

Teacher-Survivor Challenge

Last week I was reading where someone was going to make a television show about teachers surviving as teachers like contestants; similar to competing as chefs, or as a bachelor or bachelorette, or for sole survivor. This would be a big mistake. 

How sad! This has the make up of setting teachers up for mockery or the satire of teachers. Teaching involves a component which all the other best of the best competition shows do not include, and that is that they influence other people’s children and no two classrooms are ever the same. Teachers have a profound impact on lives, where chefs may have challenging ingredients, and bachelors/bachelorettes deal with interesting adult personalities. Student behaviors are not something to make light of when judging another person’s performance. For one thing, they are minors, and for another, they are someone else’s child. This is a very sensitive population to be putting under a competition show focus. 

Teaching is not a reality show, but is something which has impact on lives at all ages. We hear often that teachers should be honored. Teacher’s themselves need to take some pride in their profession and start showing the public the impact they have on our society rather than throwing another show out into the media picking fun at instruction. My hope is at some point that strong teachers will stand up and show all that goes within a day of instruction. We can no longer assume as an ignorant population that these people walk in off the streets and make geniuses out of their students. The teaching profession is a rapidly changing field that requires teachers who excel to be constantly engaging in self-reflection and action research within their classrooms and the profession in general. It should be honored, not mocked. 

Importance of Blending & Segmenting Words

Blending / Segmenting for Preschoolers and Kindergartners

Blending and segmenting has been shown to be key for preschoolers and kindergarteners to become strong readers and writers. The question is why is this so key. Why do so many students struggle with these skills?

English is a phonetic language. Linguistically, it is made of sound chunks blended together. As we learn to speak and communicate as young children, we pick up on the pronunciation of the words and add them to our lexicon, along with attaching the meaning of the word. The struggle often comes when we become old enough to start reading and need to decode these words in our lexicon to be able to read and write them. Why some have little difficulty with this skill and others struggle is a great question, but we are able to scaffold the skills back and assist those who struggle so they gain the understanding they need to become strong readers and writers.

Having the children blend and segment words allows them to develop the understanding that our language is made up of groups of sounds and it is key to be able to decode those sound segments as readers and writers. Often students hit second and third grade and need to be able to identify syllables in multisyllabic words and struggle. This is  largely because they have not developed the understanding and skill of segmenting sounds strongly enough in our language. Students entering the upper grades having this understanding have a much easier time identifying the syllable groups or it is at this time they learn to hear the sound groups in multisyllabic words.

Both blending and segmenting are fun and fast skills for students to learn. It is true that our curricula includes blending and segmenting lessons, and the students are taught the skill. The missing link appears to be practice and keeping it fresh in their skill banks until it becomes automatic.

Preschoolers and kindergarteners should start with blending words. The teacher or adult gives the sounds in a word and the child says the word. In order to segment words, the teacher or adult give the word and the child says the sounds back. There are a multitude of activities available for working on these skills. Once it has been taught, children need to be provided with multiple opportunities to use the skills. Look for those opportunities during the day where you can provide the practice needed to keep the skill fresh in their minds and make it automatic. This might be when they are lining up, washing their hands, or waiting in the hall. Use those times to give that little extra practice they need to master these skills. If you have students who are struggling, write their name on an index card to help you remember to make a connection with them at recess or lunch and have them blend or segment a couple of words. This will not only help them with this skill but will also provide a positive reinforcement showing that you care and will help build a stronger relationship with that child in a positive way.

These are skills that have proven to have huge impact on students’ reading and writing in the older grades and are able to be developed as young as four years old. They are skills that can be done in a fun and playful way so the child is completely unaware of the impact you are having on their brain.

Let’s get these little guys blending and segmenting so they will be readers and writers.

Lesson Plan Idea