Increasing Explicitness in Fluency Instruction

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Increasing Explicitness in Fluency Instruction

• Michael C. McKenna
• University of Virginia

Sharon Walpole University of Delaware
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Speed test . . . ready?
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The Herdmans were absolutely the
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worst kids in the history of the
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world. They lied and stole and
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smoked cigars (even the girls) and
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talked dirty and hit little kids and
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cussed their teachers and took the
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name of the Lord in vain and set
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fire to Fred Shoemakers old
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broken-down toolhouse.
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Rate 265 words per minute
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• Is speed reading real? Take a minute to read
  about Mike McKennas experience with a
  speed-reading course.

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Todays Goals

• Review the relationship between decoding,
  automatic word recognition, and fluency for
  beginning readers
• Read about instructional procedures for combining
  attention to decoding and automaticity

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Back in School

• Apply concepts from todays work to plan
  needs-based instruction that includes both
  individual word reading and decodable text
  reading or reading for accuracy, comprehension,
  and rate
• Test your plan for three days
• Consider strategies to share what you learned
  with the rest of your instructional team be
  prepared to share at our next regional meeting.

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• In its beginnings, reading fluency is the
  product of the initial development of accuracy
  and the subsequent development of automaticity in
  underlying sublexical processes, lexical
  processes, and their integration in single word
  reading and connected text.

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• These include
• perceptual letter recognition?
• phonological segmentation and blending?
• orthographic graphemes and spelling patterns?
  and
• morphological grammatical morphemes? prefixes
  and suffixes?
• Processes at the letter, letter-pattern, and word
  levels, as well as semantic and syntactic
  processes at the word level and connected-text
  level.

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• After it is fully developed, reading fluency
  refers to a level of accuracy and rate where
  decoding is relatively effortless where oral
  reading is smooth and accurate with correct
  prosody and where attention can be allocated to
  comprehension.
• (Wolf Katzir-Cohen, 2001)

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Fluency requires the child to use phonics and
spelling knowledge automatically
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Fluency requires the child to automatically
integrate phonics and spelling knowledge to
recognize entire words
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Fluency requires the child to link recognized
words into natural phases, with appropriate
enunciation and emphasis
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Fluency in Connected Text (textual)
Fluency at the Word Level (lexical)
Fluency within Words (sublexical)
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Coaches Corner

• What does that complex definition of fluency
  actually mean?
• Can you think of examples of children in your
  school who get stuck at the first, second, or
  third level in the pyramid?

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Some GARF Assumptions

• Beginning readers may be able to work with words
  and sounds in isolation, but have trouble with
  oral reading fluency
• Your core program includes some materials
  designed to help students apply phonics knowledge
  in decodable text
• Teachers tend to rely on traditional guided
  reading procedures when they use these texts in
  small groups
• We can use more explicit strategies to direct
  children to coordinate their early word
  recognition strategies with their early text
  reading

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What about the NRP report that said that guided
oral reading procedures were effective?
We have noticed that teachers guidance is
typically limited to choral, echo, and repeated
reading procedures. We want to consider word
recognition guidance as well.
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Remember direct instruction?

• Tasks, even complex tasks, can be decomposed into
  specific components.
• Each component can be taught and practiced to
  mastery.
• Components can then be coordinated to accomplish
  higher-order tasks.

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• A Closer Look at Direct Instruction
• During the 1970s and 80s, researchers worked to
  identify the characteristics of effective
  teaching. They asked two key questions
• What do more-effective teachers do that
  less-effective teachers dont?
• If less-effective teachers learn and apply these
  techniques, will the learning of their students
  increase?
• In 1986, a now-classic article by Barak
  Rosenshine appeared in Educational Leadership.
  In it, he summarized the findings of the huge
  body of effectiveness research.
• The result is a teaching model called explicit
  instruction, or sometimes direct instruction.

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The explicit teaching model is sometimes divided
into three phases
1 2 3
Guided Practice
Independent Practice
Introduction of new material, organized into
clear objectives, tied to previous learning, and
accom-panied by modeling and monitoring by the
teacher
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Keep in mind that most of the researchers who
studied effective teachers were not specifically
interested in reading instruction. This is why
the model sounds generic. It can be applied to
nearly any content subject! When reading
researchers, such as the National Reading Panel,
say that research favors explicit, systematic
instruction, this is the model they mean. Now
lets look more closely at the characteristics
Rosenshine extracted from the research.
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For your teaching to be explicit, you should

• Begin the lesson with a short statement of goals.
• Begin the lesson with a short review of previous,
  prerequisite learning.
• Present new material in small steps, with student
  practice after each step.
• Give clear and detailed instructions and
  explanations.
• Provide active practice for all students.
• Ask many questions, check for student
  understanding, and obtain responses from all
  students.
• Guide students during initial practice.
• Provide systematic feedback and corrections.
• Provide explicit instruction and practice for
  seatwork exercises and, where necessary, monitor
  students during seatwork.
• Continue practice until students are independent
  and confident.
• Rosenshine (1986), pp. 60, 62

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Direct Explicit
Some confusion can occur when the phrase, direct
instruction is used interchangeably with
explicit instruction. This is because a
publishing company has long used Direct
Instruction in the name of its commercial
products. One way to avoid confusion is to say
Little d-i when referring to explicit teaching
and Big D-I when referring to the product. Of
course, you can also avoid confusion by using the
phrase explicit instruction.
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Our book study today is designed for teachers who
want to apply specific procedures from little
d-i to their own core scope and sequence. Some
of the authors have been associated with Big
D-I curriculum design, and they have written
this book specifically for an audience not using
DI.
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Jigsaw Procedure

• Break into an even number of groups of
• 4-5 members
• Pair the groups together, with one group assigned
  to chapter 12 and one to chapter 13
• Plan 45 minutes to read and prepare the chapter
  presentation and 1 hour to share the summary and
  demonstrate the lesson
• During the share time, the paired groups will be
  working together to share what theyve learned

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Beginning Reading Groups

• Read chapter 12, pp. 145-161.
• Discuss the main ideas in the chapter, and
  prepare a chart paper summary to share.
• Prepare a teaching demonstration for needs-based
  instruction including both word reading in
  isolation and reading of decodable text. You can
  use procedures in the chapter to make up your own
  decodable text.

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Primary Reading Groups

• Read chapter 13, pp. 163-179 .
• Discuss the main ideas in the chapter, and
  prepare a chart paper summary to share.
• Prepare a teaching demonstration for needs-based
  instruction that includes reading for accuracy,
  for comprehension, and for fluency. Consider
  whether you can accomplish this without
  round-robin reading.

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Lets Plan . . .
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Back in School

• Apply concepts from todays work to plan
  needs-based instruction that includes both
  individual word reading and decodable text
  reading or reading for accuracy, comprehension,
  and rate
• Test your plan for three days
• Consider strategies to share what you learned
  with the rest of your instructional team be
  prepared to share at our next regional meeting.

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References

• Carnine, D. W., Silbert, J., Kameenui, E. J.,
  Tarver, S. G., Jungjohann, K. (2006). Teaching
  struggling and at-risk readers A direct
  instruction approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ
  Pearson.
• Rosenshine, B. V. (1986). Synthesis of research
  on explicit teaching. Educational Leadership,
  43(7), 60-69.
• Wolf, M., Katzir-Cohen, T. (2001). Reading
  fluency and its intervention. Scientific Studies
  of Reading, 5, 211-239.