Case Study 4 - Fluency

Anne

Strengths:

Since Anne has a passion for history and science, and works well with textbooks, charts and graphs of that genre, this works FOR her. Another strength is that she loves to learn about history and science, so that allows her to enjoy school as well, which is always a plus even though reading can be difficult for her, especially the fluency component. Her vocabulary is pretty strong, so this should help with word recognition in all genres.

Needs:

Anne's word attack, fluency, and comprehension all fall below 6th grade reading level. This definitely creates a challenge, making reading not fun for her. Anne should find text she can relate to and connect with, and overall enjoy. One way of increasing fluency is by reading more of the types of books she finds interesting. Research states that children need to be motivated to learn decoding skills necessary for becoming a fluent reader. Research also states that the total amount of reading done in the beginning stages of reading has a large effect on developing reading skills such as fluency.

At Home:

Anne's parents should be encouraged by the teacher to check out various history and science books for Anne at the school and/or public library. These should be books that are at her comfortable reading level. She should practice repeated reading of the books on her comfort level at school as well as at home. The first time she goes through a book she may have to slowly decode a word, but the next few times she should be able to read it more fluently, thus increasing her confidence. She should also read books with her parents. Practicing reading aloud for them will only help her fluency and confidence. Her parents should also be encouraged to read to her, modeling accurate expression and pausing for punctuation. Hearing fluent readers read aloud is a great way to promote fluency for the struggling reader.

Teacher:

The teacher should provide history and science books for Anne that are a good fit for her, on her reading level that she can choose from. Research suggests that struggling readers tend to be the very ones who find books that are too difficult for them, thus finding them frustrating and not enjoyable. Since her reading comprehension and work attack skills are at the 3rd and 4th grade level, those book levels are the reading materials which should be supplied for her in the classroom so that she can do less decoding and more fluent reading. During student conferences, Anne should stick with the same book of interest for several days, and at each conference, the teacher should teach a different fluency strategy or goal, like working on recognizing punctuation a and how to modify her expression with these punctuation marks. The teacher should also pair Annie up with a stronger reader that will take turns reading and "being the teacher/leader" while looking at the words. She may also want to record Annie reading so that she can hear herself and take note of times her fluency is lacking. The teacher should also be working with her on phonics, word recognition, and comprehension strategies, because these all go hand in hand with the ability to read fluently. In addition, modeling fluent reading during shared reading activities is a crucial component!