Creating Fluent Readers Dr. Tim Rasinski

1
Creating Fluent ReadersDr. Tim Rasinski

• http//www.timrasinski.com/

2
Effective Teaching of Reading- The Essential
Elements1. Phonemic Awareness2. Phonics (Word
Decoding)3. Vocabulary (Word Meaning)4.
Reading Fluency a. Automaticity b. Expressive
(prosodic reading) c. Accuracy5.
Comprehension6. Professional Development
3
Effective Teaching of Reading- The Essential
Elements1. Phonemic Awareness2. Phonics (Word
Decoding)3. Vocabulary (Word Meaning)4.
Reading Fluency a. Automaticity b. Expressive
(prosodic reading) c. Accuracy5.
Comprehension6. Professional Development
The first three are the foundation which feed
into fluency. Fluency feeds into comprehension.
Comprehension is, of course, the ultimate
goal.
4
Reading Fluency a. Automaticity b.
Expressive (prosodic reading) c. Accuracy
?
Effortlessly, you have to practice in order to
dig into deeper meaning.
5
Reading Fluency a. Automaticity b. Expressive
(prosodic reading) c. Accuracy
?
Accuracy depends upon a students word decoding
and vocabulary.
Approximately, 95 word recognition accuracy is
considered adequate for instructional level
reading.
6
Prosodic or expressive reading conveys
meaning.For example, dude as a greeting
with consternation like youve won the lottery
7
Prosodic or expressive reading conveys
meaning.Tom borrowed my new lawnmower.Can you
read this in a way that makes it sound like Tom
borrowed the lawnmower and not Joe or Larry?Can
you read this in a way that sounds as if you have
more than one lawnmower?
8
Research supports oral reading for struggling
readers and beginning readers.NOT round robin
readingUse GOOD materials for oral
readingTeaching the heart, not the head
9
What materials are GOOD for reading orally?
Readers theater Song lyrics Poetry Nursery
rhyme Important speeches and letters from
history Read from handout.
10
What did Rasinski mean by teaching to the heart,
not the head?
11
A Few Interesting Tidbits1. Phonemic
awareness was found to be a better predictor of
6th grade reading ability in young children than
IQ.2. 90 of comprehension problems are due to
fluency.
12
A Few Interesting Tidbits3. Singing is a
natural form of repeated reading. In one study
Rasinski cited singing 3x a week for 30 min. for
12 weeks with children who were going to be
retained yielded a years worth of progress.
13
A Few Interesting Tidbits4. An international
study of factors that discriminate between highly
effective and less effective schools in literary
achievement found the United States to rank where
in 2nd and 8th grade reading achievement?
In the top third!
14
A Few Interesting Tidbits4. The top factors
of a highly effective school in this
international study were
1. Parent Involvement
2. Amount of Reading done at Home
3. Amount of Reading done in School
15
Words Per Minute is only an indicator, not a
recipe for instruction. What are Rasinskis
components of effective fluency instruction?
16
Components of Effective Fluency Instruction

• Accuracy in Word Recognition
• (decoding and vocabulary)

Making and Writing Words- variation of Pat
Cunninghams Making Words p.23
Word Ladders Grades 1-3 Grades 3-6
17
Components of Effective Fluency Instruction
2. Model Fluent Expressive Oral Reading for
Students
3. Repeated (Practiced) Reading of Authentic
Texts (How do you get students to read something
15 times?)
4. Assisted (Scaffolded) Reading
18
Components of Effective Fluency Instruction

• Focus on Phrased Reading
• Developing Reading Fluency

6. Be sensitive to text difficulty.
7. Create Synergistic Instructional Routines.
19
A strong correlation between quality of voice
fluency and silent reading comprehension
exists.NAEP Oral Reading Fluency Scalep. 5
20
A funny poem for teachers!