Differentiating Instruction for Fluency and Comprehension

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Differentiating Instruction for Fluency and
Comprehension

• Michael C. McKenna
• Sharon Walpole

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Agenda

• Who needs this type of instruction?
• What data must be gathered?
• What planning decisions must be made?
• What are some tricks of the trade?

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• We are combining ideas from Chapters 5 and 7

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Remember our plan
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What are we trying to teach?

• These children possess relatively strong decoding
  skills, but they lack adequate automaticity for
  fluent reading.
• They will work to build fluency in texts that are
  at or slightly below grade level during
  small-group time.
• They will build comprehension through the same
  texts.
• Limited word-recognition instruction may be
  provided.

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How will we know when weve accomplished our goal?

• When childrens fluency reaches benchmark, we can
  redirect our tier 2 time to vocabulary and
  comprehension.
• Remember that our goal is to make each of our
  groupings temporary and targeted.

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In our tiered system, who is likely to need this
type of differentiated instruction?
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What data can we use to identify the children?
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DIBELS Second-Grade ORF high risk or some
riskDIBELS Second-Grade NWF is low risk

• We KNOW These children have mastered short
  vowel patterns but may need work in more advanced
  orthographic patterns. (Remember that NWF is
  limited as an indicator of advanced phonics
  knowledge.)
• We NEED to know Which orthographic patterns they
  still need help with and which high-frequency
  words they need to learn.

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DIBELS Third-Grade ORF high risk or some
riskInformal phonics data reveal mastery of most
vowel patterns.

• We KNOW These children have mastered short
  vowel patterns but may need work in more advanced
  patterns.
• We NEED to know Which orthographic patterns they
  still need help with and which high-frequency
  words they need to learn.

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Lets find out

• Give a phonics or spelling inventory to see which
  patterns they need.
• Do a high-frequency word inventory to see which
  sight words they need.
• Given their decoding foundation, a limited amount
  of targeted instruction may be planned around the
  deficits identified if the needs here are great,
  students should be served in a phonics and
  fluency group.

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What about comprehension?
?

• Do not attempt to identify comprehension
  deficits.
• Using texts that are at or slightly below grade
  level will provide many opportunities to
  reinforce comprehension.
• Children will differ in their ability to apply
  comprehension strategies, but assessing this
  ability is not necessary.

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Now youre ready!

• Do you have one group or two?
• Think about the word recognition data if
  possible group children with similar specific
  needs so that you can address them quickly.
• Think about how slow their oral reading rate is.
  Will you be able to use grade-level texts, or
  will you have to use texts slightly below grade
  level?

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Assessment Data (grouped for all) Assessment Data (grouped for all) Assessment Data (grouped for all) Assessment Data (grouped for all)
Unknown Patterns High-Frequency Words Reading Rate (WCPM) Text Level
Below grade level On grade level
Combining these results will provide you with a
collection of known and unknown items for each
child their needs will probably not be exactly
the same.
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To make your plan, start with words and patterns

• Set aside some time at the beginning of
  small-group work to address them.
• Do not worry that the patterns may be more
  familiar to some group members than to others.
  Those who are more familiar will benefit from the
  review.
• Do not limit yourself to
• one-syllable words

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Now find your texts

• Do not use phonics-controlled texts. You are
  looking for texts that
• are at or slightly below grade level,
• are rich in content, and
• represent both fiction and nonfiction.

Some of these texts may already be provided in
your core program!
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Now find your texts

• Try to find enough texts that children are
  reading a new text or a new section of text each
  day part of increasing fluency is increasing
  reading volume.
• This will allow you to choose longer texts you
  can read them over consecutive sessions.

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Now choose your strategies

• Since word recognition needs will be minimal, we
  will not review the methods here. See pp. 62-64
  for strategies that target patterns and 64-67 for
  strategies that target high-frequency words.
• Planning should focus mainly on fluency and
  comprehension we propose a very simple framework.

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Now think about fluency procedures

• Read pages 70-84. You will need to consider
  several things your level of support and
  strategies for organizing repeated readings.
• All effective fluency procedures have certain
  things in common teacher support and repetition.

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Remember the goal is to build fluency. During
each session, you must plan for both repetition
for the children and support from the teacher.
Most support Least support Echo reading The teacher reads a sentence and then the group rereads it aloud.
Most support Least support Choral reading The teacher leads the entire group reading aloud in unison.
Most support Least support Partner reading Pairs of readers alternate reading aloud by following a specific turn-taking procedure.
Most support Least support Whisper reading Each child reads aloud (but not in unison) in a quiet voice.
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Remember that fluency is more than rate!
Consider that reading faster is not the goal
of fluency building. Fluency includes accuracy,
rate, and prosody. Students need teacher modeling
of appropriate rate and phrasing.
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Consider motivational techniques
Students may benefit from timing themselves and
one another incorporate such procedures if they
serve your main goal using your small-group
time to build fluency through repeated (and
assisted) practice.
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Now think about comprehension methods

• Read pages 104-107.
• In order to preserve time for the students in
  this group to actually read repeatedly, we have
  chosen one high-utility comprehension strategy
  that should be useful for most any text.

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Information Text Narrative Text
Summary Questions What is the most important information so far? Give me a summary of the the most important parts of the section on _____? What are the most important details so far? What were the main events in this chapter/part? How did the chapter/story end?
Inference Questions Describe some additional examples of that idea. Explain why these things are similar. What would happen if . . . Describe the feelings of the characters at the end of the story. Why did they feel that way?
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Remember to be strategic!
Your goal is fluency first, and then
comprehension. You will not be discussing the
text at the end of each page rather, you will be
targeting your questioning at strategic spots,
and using repetitive, generic language that
students may eventually generalize to other texts.
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Gather or make all of your materials

• Word lists, books, question scripts, timer,
  recording sheets, notebooks everything you
  need.
• Texts could be selections from the previous
  years core anthology if multiple copies are
  available.
• They could also include texts used in recent
  whole-class read-alouds or trade books, if you
  have multiple copies.
• Remember that our goal is that you plan for three
  weeks of wide, repeated, assisted reading at a
  time.

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A typical group
4 minutes Letter or syllable patterns high-frequency words
7 minutes Choral or partner read, then whisper read. Time and chart if appropriate
4 minutes Ask inference or summary questions
If you can extend the time for this group, add
minutes to the childrens reading time.
Minute allocations are simply an example based
on a 15-minute session.
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Try it out!

• Remember that we are hoping for a cycle, with
  teacher reflection. Your goal is to move these
  children into a vocabulary and comprehension
  group, but youve got to be successful here
  first.
• You may need to repeat a particular lesson for
  two days. Thats fine. You also may need to step
  in with echo or choral reading. Thats fine too.
• At the end of the three weeks, you can use data
  collected as part of the instruction to inform
  your next moves.