Re: [MOSAIC] Fluency
I am working on my MA in Educational Literacy. Fluency is important, as reading is a form of communication. If the children can't read, they aren't able to communicate of be communicated to by the author. Just as we make sure our students are using sentence fluency in writing, oral reading for fluency is just as important. The way that I incorporate fluency in my 4th grade class is by making a copy of the Passage Summaries (We also use Houghton Mifflin). For the students that are below grade level, I use the ELL Handbook Summaries-as they are not as wordy. For those that need a lot of work, I even send it home and have them practice with their parents. I have seen so much improvement. By using the summaries, the students are exposed to the story. I hope that this helps! Julie - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org Sent: Thursday, February 8, 2007 6:17:09 PM (GMT-0800) US/Pacific Subject: [MOSAIC] Fluency I am sorry if this sounds negative but I am trying to get some clarification on something. My school is a low-performing school that is required to teach exclusively from the Houghton Mifflin basal. We MUST do a fluency record on each child who is not reading at grade level every week. We are the lowest level third grade leveled reader passage for the fluency record. Most of my students being checked weekly are reading at least a grade below. My first question is: Should these checks be done after the student has been exposed to the passages? They are taken directly from the leveled reader that we read each week, however, I test most of my students prior to us reading the leveled reader. My theory was if they were fluent readers, it shouldn't matter if it is a cold reading. I got a sticky note today telling me that I need to consult with the literacy coach on fluency strategies since my students fluency is dropping. Seems perfectly natural to me since the texts we are reading are becoming more and more difficult and the vocabulary mose sophiscated. What is the point of this weekly recording? It isn't making them better readers. Is this just a cover your rear type of documentation? Help Rosie ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
Re: [MOSAIC] Fluency
Rosie, I'm sorry you are being subjected to weekly notetaking that takes away from teaching time. I heard a great word yesterday: administrivia and that's where I put this. But that's just me. Your theory that if your students were fluent readers it wouldn't matter if it were a cold reading makes a kind of surface sense from one perspective. But think of your own experience with reading. I know that I read much, much faster and with more comprehension when reading silently than when reading aloud, and that sometimes when I am reading aloud in a hurry, I make more mistakes than if I slow down. As we subject children to fluency tests that depend largely on time, I believe that their actual fluency will go down. I'm not a scientist; I haven't tested this. It is my opinion based on years of teaching and listening to children read. But these days that doesn't count for much, does it? To me, reading aloud is a performance, pure and simple. In the real world there is no other reason to read aloud than to relay information to someone else in a manner that passes on information in an understandable way. To me, fluency is at least 90% expression and at best 10% speed. But the thing that sticks with me most about your post is that you are doing these fluency checks weekly. Let's see 20 students 5 minutes per students (the test itself plus all the transition time and notetaking) that's 100 minutes a week that you are not teaching. How do you feel about this? I would be interested in knowing what strategies you can get from your literacy coach. Renee On Feb 8, 2007, at 6:17 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am sorry if this sounds negative but I am trying to get some clarification on something. My school is a low-performing school that is required to teach exclusively from the Houghton Mifflin basal. We MUST do a fluency record on each child who is not reading at grade level every week. We are the lowest level third grade leveled reader passage for the fluency record. Most of my students being checked weekly are reading at least a grade below. My first question is: Should these checks be done after the student has been exposed to the passages? They are taken directly from the leveled reader that we read each week, however, I test most of my students prior to us reading the leveled reader. My theory was if they were fluent readers, it shouldn't matter if it is a cold reading. I got a sticky note today telling me that I need to consult with the literacy coach on fluency strategies since my students fluency is dropping. Seems perfectly natural to me since the texts we are reading are becoming more and more difficult and the vocabulary mose sophiscated. What is the point of this weekly recording? It isn't making them better readers. Is this just a cover your rear type of documentation? Help Rosie ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/ mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a communist; Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a socialist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me-- and there was no one left to speak out for me. -Pastor Martin Niemöller, 1945 ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
Re: [MOSAIC] Fluency
I am SO interested in this book ~ I am working with teachers in schools and we are looking carefully at the co-relation between fluency, comprehension and studnet achievement. THanks for the suggestin...I just ordered Goodbye Round Robin by Rasinski from Chapters. Caroline Vien Literacy/Intervention Lead Superior Greenstone District School Board 807-229-3050 807-229-7625 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Fri 09/02/2007 9:52 AM To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Fluency I am a K-1 Title I reading teacher upstate NY. The best source for authentic fluency practice ideas that I've found is in the book No More round Robin. The activities that Rasinski suggests can be integrated smoothly into whatever text you are using with your students. They also help the children direct their own fluency work by using real reasons to do repeated readings of material. I do find with the population that I work with, fluency work helps all areas of their reading development. Cathy -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org Sent: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 9:10 AM Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Fluency I am working on my MA in Educational Literacy. Fluency is important, as reading is a form of communication. If the children can't read, they aren't able to communicate of be communicated to by the author. Just as we make sure our students are using sentence fluency in writing, oral reading for fluency is just as important. The way that I incorporate fluency in my 4th grade class is by making a copy of the Passage Summaries (We also use Houghton Mifflin). For the students that are below grade level, I use the ELL Handbook Summaries-as they are not as wordy. For those that need a lot of work, I even send it home and have them practice with their parents. I have seen so much improvement. By using the summaries, the students are exposed to the story. I hope that this helps! Julie - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org Sent: Thursday, February 8, 2007 6:17:09 PM (GMT-0800) US/Pacific Subject: [MOSAIC] Fluency I am sorry if this sounds negative but I am trying to get some clarification on something. My school is a low-performing school that is required to teach exclusively from the Houghton Mifflin basal. We MUST do a fluency record on each child who is not reading at grade level every week. We are the lowest level third grade leveled reader passage for the fluency record. Most of my students being checked weekly are reading at least a grade below. My first question is: Should these checks be done after the student has been exposed to the passages? They are taken directly from the leveled reader that we read each week, however, I test most of my students prior to us reading the leveled reader. My theory was if they were fluent readers, it shouldn't matter if it is a cold reading. I got a sticky note today telling me that I need to consult with the literacy coach on fluency strategies since my students fluency is dropping. Seems perfectly natural to me since the texts we are reading are becoming more and more difficult and the vocabulary mose sophiscated. What is the point of this weekly recording? It isn't making them better readers. Is this just a cover your rear type of documentation? Help Rosie ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
Re: [MOSAIC] :Louisa Moats - What does Ellin think about this?
I'd love to know what Ellin Keene would say about this. From the few parts I skimmed, it seemed like the author was bashing comprehension strategy (the focus of this list serve) teaching as well as Four Blocks and Reading Recovery. The author says that teachers like us don't do explicit teaching when we do lessons through read alouds (aka think alouds). She says that teacher modeling is most effective, but isn't that what we do with our think alouds? How much more explicit teacher modeling can you get when you are giving children a window into what you're thinking and showing them how to think for themselves? I also found this article offensive since it's touting a few reading programs (McGraw Hill for example) as if they are better than all of the countless hours of research and creative solutions I've tried to better my students' reading. I'd rather use my brain and intelligently choose resources to fit students' needs than to have a program do the thinking for me. Here's to hoping my rant just made sense. . . Kelley/2/IN - Original Message - From: BETH ROTH [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Listserv mosaic@literacyworkshop.org Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 12:33 PM Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] :Louisa Moats I'm confused. What does contributing to a political party have to do with reading programs? From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Lise Sent: Thu 2/8/2007 10:32 PM To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Listserv Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] :Louisa Moats I am suspicious of anything that's supported by Chester Finn and the Fordham Foundation SRA/McGraw-Hill's Open Court, Harcourt's Trophies, and Scott Foresman's Reading Street are all huge donors to the Republican party. You can draw your own conclusions. Lise ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
Re: [MOSAIC] :Louisa Moats
I just ranted about this article because of how it misrepresents certain balance literacy approaches, but looking at it again, here's a positive: the author says that we should protect content areas like science in the primary grades to build students' vocabulary. It's good to find the positive, right? :) - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 9:09 PM Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] :Louisa Moats Anybody have any thoughts on Louisa Moats recent article Whole Language Hijinks... she knocks Four Blocks and Reading Recovery...any thoughts??? http://www.edexcellence.net/doc/Moats2007.pdf ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
Re: [MOSAIC] Fluency
There's a book titled SIX MINUTE SOLUTIONS which has leveled passages and shows how you can train students to coach one another in fluency. It takes less than 6 minutes a day, but it covers all your students. It isn't perfect, but you can go one on one once a grading period to get a more accurate rate. - Original Message - From: Renee [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Listserv mosaic@literacyworkshop.org Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 11:05 AM Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Fluency Rosie, I'm sorry you are being subjected to weekly notetaking that takes away from teaching time. I heard a great word yesterday: administrivia and that's where I put this. But that's just me. Your theory that if your students were fluent readers it wouldn't matter if it were a cold reading makes a kind of surface sense from one perspective. But think of your own experience with reading. I know that I read much, much faster and with more comprehension when reading silently than when reading aloud, and that sometimes when I am reading aloud in a hurry, I make more mistakes than if I slow down. As we subject children to fluency tests that depend largely on time, I believe that their actual fluency will go down. I'm not a scientist; I haven't tested this. It is my opinion based on years of teaching and listening to children read. But these days that doesn't count for much, does it? To me, reading aloud is a performance, pure and simple. In the real world there is no other reason to read aloud than to relay information to someone else in a manner that passes on information in an understandable way. To me, fluency is at least 90% expression and at best 10% speed. But the thing that sticks with me most about your post is that you are doing these fluency checks weekly. Let's see 20 students 5 minutes per students (the test itself plus all the transition time and notetaking) that's 100 minutes a week that you are not teaching. How do you feel about this? I would be interested in knowing what strategies you can get from your literacy coach. Renee On Feb 8, 2007, at 6:17 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am sorry if this sounds negative but I am trying to get some clarification on something. My school is a low-performing school that is required to teach exclusively from the Houghton Mifflin basal. We MUST do a fluency record on each child who is not reading at grade level every week. We are the lowest level third grade leveled reader passage for the fluency record. Most of my students being checked weekly are reading at least a grade below. My first question is: Should these checks be done after the student has been exposed to the passages? They are taken directly from the leveled reader that we read each week, however, I test most of my students prior to us reading the leveled reader. My theory was if they were fluent readers, it shouldn't matter if it is a cold reading. I got a sticky note today telling me that I need to consult with the literacy coach on fluency strategies since my students fluency is dropping. Seems perfectly natural to me since the texts we are reading are becoming more and more difficult and the vocabulary mose sophiscated. What is the point of this weekly recording? It isn't making them better readers. Is this just a cover your rear type of documentation? Help Rosie ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/ mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a communist; Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a socialist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me-- and there was no one left to speak out for me. -Pastor Martin Niemöller, 1945 ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
Re: [MOSAIC] :Louisa Moats
Money, influence, pocket lining, hidden agendas... On 2/9/07 11:33 AM, BETH ROTH [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm confused. What does contributing to a political party have to do with reading programs? From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Lise Sent: Thu 2/8/2007 10:32 PM To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Listserv Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] :Louisa Moats I am suspicious of anything that's supported by Chester Finn and the Fordham Foundation SRA/McGraw-Hill's Open Court, Harcourt's Trophies, and Scott Foresman's Reading Street are all huge donors to the Republican party. You can draw your own conclusions. Lise ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. -- Lori Jackson District Literacy Coach Mentor Todd County School District Box 87 Mission SD 57555 http:www.tcsdk12.org ph. 605.856.2211 Literacies for All Summer Institute Literate Lives: A Human Right July 12-15, 2007 Louisville, Kentucky http://www.ncte.org/profdev/conv/wlu ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
Re: [MOSAIC] Fluency
In a message dated 2/9/2007 5:41:50 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: But the thing that sticks with me most about your post is that you are doing these fluency checks weekly. Let's see 20 students 5 minutes per students (the test itself plus all the transition time and notetaking) that's 100 minutes a week that you are not teaching. How do you feel about this? I would be interested in knowing what strategies you can get from your literacy coach. Renee I must test each student that is below level grade, for me that is 9 students. One of whom I just test on sight words because he is ESL and hasn't mastered them all yet. I forgot to mention I am supposed to l have each student read the passage three times and then take the best reading for documentation purposes. Yes, I MUST do this weekly, it is not optional. I am not sure if this is politically correct or not but I think my students would make more progress if they were being taught on their reading level, not their grade level. What is wrong with ability grouping for reading? Yes I know that they need to hear better readers, but even within a class of low readers there will still be varying levels of ability. Not to mention that they hear me read to them every day. I make this analogy: If I spend my whole day in a calculus class yet I don't understand sixth grade math how am I to become a better math student? Rosie ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
Re: [MOSAIC] Cheryl's nightmare
Cheryl, This was almost the case at my school, although there was no mandate. Nonetheless, during the time that I used short passages or short stories, my students hated to read. This year, I have leveled the books in my classroom library. At first, I rewarded them for reading 10 minute during the day. Then, I started to take out my own books and read them while my students read. Afterwards, I would make a few comments about what I was reading and soon they all wanted to share what they were reading. Now, my students read and share with a partner. I have said all of this to say, please do find a time in the day when your students can just read and enjoy books. The funny thing about this is now I have to make them put the books away in order to go to lunch. Carolyn ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
