Comprehension.... Our Goal!
Have a student cold read a grade-level, content-based passage for one (timed) minute. (Be sure to have your own paper copy so you can record mistakes and mark the last word the student reads when the minute ends.)
1-Provide the Words Correct Per Minute and the number of errors, using the format shown in the Example above;
2-Complete these rubrics for Prosody; and lastly,
3-Have the student complete (or complete together with “young-uns”) this self-reflection on their reading.
Provide this information on your blog with any observations you may have.
To test a theory, I gave the same student, four different passages in the contents Literature, Science, and Social Studies (informational and narrative). This student is a very strong reader and there were minimal differences in the prosody rubrics and self-reflections between content areas, but more significant differences in her ORFs:
ReplyDeleteEmily is a 3rd-grade student:
-In LITERATURE, she read 169 words in one minute. She made 0 mistakes. 169-0=169 WCPM. Her ORF score for LITERATURE is 169 WCPM.
-In SCIENCE, she read 136 words in one minute. She made 3 mistakes. 136-3=133 WCPM. Her ORF score for SCIENCE is 133 WCPM.
-In SOCIAL STUDIES (informational), she read 121 words in one minute. She made 9 mistakes. 121-9=112 WCPM. Her ORF score for SOCIAL STUDIES (informational) is 112 WCPM.
-In a second SOCIAL STUDIES (narrative) passage, she read 155 words in one minute. She made 2 mistakes. 155-2=153 WCPM. Her ORF score for SOCIAL STUDIES (narrative) is 153 WCPM.
Because her Literature and narrative SS scores were significantly higher than informational SS and Science scores, I would attribute the discrepancies to gap in academic vocabulary and background knowledge.
One good reason why it's so beneficial to enourage background knowlege. So glad we are doing this through morning announcments.
DeleteI had a similar experience with 7th grade and the term Neanderthal. They had never seen it and could not phonetically sound it out- but we got better once we practiced and explained the term.
DeleteI like that you did her ORF in different subject areas to compare. This really highlights the whole "background knowledge" piece we have focused on this year.
DeleteEach week, I assess students reading fluency through the Acadience program . The county uses this program for progress monitoring for Tier 2 and 3 students. However, I also assess students through fluency journals where they record themselves reading a paragraph 3 to 4 times a week. I really have enjoyed listening to their progress each week from the first recording to the last one. This also allows me to assess prosody in addtion to rate and accuracy.
ReplyDeleteToday I assessed one of my students in the Acadience Program.
She scored 89 WMP with 100% accuracy. According to Acadience , she should be reading at 121 words per mintues. However, if a student reads that many words with little prosody and struggles to retell, I am not sure this number is relevant.
Her reading fluency has improved lots since last year. However, she does still have trouble recalling what she read.
On the self reflection she rated herself a level 2 which I thought was very accurate. She does read some sentences with expression and some are more labored. In addition to the prosody, she does struggle some with comprehension.
I am very glad that we are moving from only assessing the words per minute, and beginning to focusing on prosody.
I am attempting to get my middle school students into the habit of reading a section then immediately summarizing so we can help with retention of important information. I am hoping this practice can help with recall and understanding.
DeleteAmanda, I hear you doing this next door, and I absolutely love it. I also think it will help them with paraphrasing which is something they definitely struggle with. I think the summary graphic organizers Diffit offers are a great way to address this. I know we're both big fans of Diffit!
DeleteI have been trying to stop periodically while reading a text with students so that we can talk about what we just read to help their overall understanding. I have been trying to model rereading the section and then circling or underlining key words or phrases. I then have them circle or underline as well. We have been talking about text features and reading a lot of non-fiction texts, and I can tell that this has helped them, especially when they are answering questions about the text.
DeleteHeather, I too am enjoying the fluency recordings with my students. I have found that the students tend to do better reading when they are recording than if they are just reading aloud to me. It also allows me more time to analyze their readings. The students also enjoy going back to listen to compare their cold read to their final recording of the passage and seeing how much they improved.
DeleteMalachi is a 2nd grade student. The passage he read had words that go with the spelling pattern for the week (-y saying the long e sound). He read 83 words in one minute. He made 3 mistakes. 83-3=80 WCPM. His ORF score is 80 WCPM.
ReplyDeleteSome observations I made while he was reading included: His reading was monotone in some parts, he grouped words together into two and three words phrases, he did not stop at periods and paused in the middle of sentences to breath, he had to stop a couple of times to sound out a word, and his pace was mostly fast but it did slow down when he came to a word he had to sound out or needed to self-correct. Looking at the Measures of Prosody/Expression chart, I would say he is at a Level 2.
When doing the self-reflection together, he agreed that he was not always reading like he talked and that he was reading too fast in some parts so it was hard for others to hear the text clearly. He also said that he was proud of himself for knowing/reading the words that fit our spelling pattern.
Anna, I notice too that the monotone/robot voice seems to take over the students especially if they are struggling with decoding or if they are just reading too quickly. I am thinking I could add some simple silly sentences that the students could practice reading as an exit ticket from class.
DeleteI have to be honest and say that assessing reading fluency during a Physical Education class may not be the most practical or effective approach. I have never been trained to administer any kind of test like this. However I can support the practice by integrating educational games that involve both physical activity and reading comprehension. For example, I will try to create a scavenger hunt around the house where students have to find items with written clues or riddles.
ReplyDeleteI love this scavenger hunt idea! I thought it was great when you did that at the park as well. Such a unique way to add some fun and movement into literacy! While the digital ones wouldn't necessarily support movement, this made me think that another great way to address literacy skills in somewhat the same manner would be digital escape rooms.
DeleteI love the written clues or riddles idea! You would be surprised how many students hate reading, except when playing a game! Plus, that's a small dose of practice that can go a long way!
DeleteI do not assess reading but over the last few months I have been planning and teaching with literacy in mind, more so than I have in the past. One thing that has stuck with me over the past two weeks is the background of each individual student contributing to their literacy, particularly their vocabulary. In an attempt to meet all the students where they are and provide them the background they need to understand I have been making sure to slow down, give more cues, repeat, give examples and use more hands on "musical practicing" of the fancy musical vocabulary to further strengthen memory.
ReplyDeleteI think we all could benefit from just slowing down and taking time to help all students increase their background knowledge, as well as when introducing new vocabulary. I often feel like I have to rush to get everything in, but am reminding myself to slow down so students can actually learn new vocabulary and to allow time for us to have discussions surrounding the words we are focusing on.
DeleteI wonder if Annie and I could coordinate with the lower band classroom teachers to incorporate some text/reading about music and movement?
DeleteWhile my class has several literacy components, I do not assess for reading. What I can speak to is what happens in a middle school science class when students do read alouds. Yesterday, the students read a passage about hybrids created by Diffit from a NY Times article. It was their choice to read aloud and I noticed a couple of things. Number one, students rush. This is no real surprise. Nerves can often make a student feel like they need to hurry up and finish even when it is their own choice to read. I had the thought of helping them slow down using metronome sounds or a slower beat to help pace their reading aloud. I know rushed reading in read alouds can also lead to rushed personal reading which greatly reduces comprehension. I also had several students stumble over the term "Neanderthals". I asked them to pause and look at the word. I asked if anyone had seen the term before or knew what it meant. I then took the time first break down the word phonetically, asking them to repeat each part with me. Then I explained what a Neanderthal is. By the time my students read that word again in the passage, they still stumbled over it- but only by a few phonemes- not by missing the whole word. So, of course, we practiced again!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree about the rushing and nerves! In fact I STILL remember an instance from 3rd grade when my teacher was doing a fluency probe and I misread the word "stared" as "starred." Those things do stick with us! Often too, when we know that others are listening to our fluency (teachers or other students) we are so focused on not messing up that comprehension goes out the window.
DeleteThat reply was from me :)
DeleteDue to the emphasis on standards based learning attainment in middle schools, I have never systematically used my class to access student fluency individually. Literacy is an undeniably important skill in all classes, including social studies, and I have tried to be more consistent and systematic in my implementation of middle school appropriate reading strategies within my content area. In my class, we often do read aloud. I always try to begin by modeling. I became increasingly aware of breaking down morphemes for content specific words this year. Some areas I have noticed many readers struggling with in class is inflection, intentional modulation, and prosody. For classes with a large number of struggling readers, I try to alternate between choosing a student to read and reading a paragraph myself. In doing so, more opportunities to model are provided. An additional method I'd like to try to incorporate to improve these areas is the use of the teleprompt feature within flip. I hope by having students write out what they plan to say will further support improvement within these areas.
ReplyDeleteI also alternate between student readers and reading myself to model prosody.
DeleteMy student read 103 wpm - 4 errors = 99 wcpm.
ReplyDeleteFluency - 3
Multidimensional Fluency Scale
Expression and Volume - 2
Phrasing - 3
Smoothness - 3
Pace - 2
She rated her own fluency as a 3.
She read a social studies passage about the 13 colonies.
Her 3 errors were difficult words to pronounce, such as Massachusetts. I believe her background knowledge and academic vocabulary gave her a higher fluency score than if she did not have those components. The main thing lacking is her prosody, but it has improved throughout the year.
I'm noticing that background information is really improving student's current knowledge base. With background knowledge, it helped the student to read more fluently and smoothly. Without BK, the student could have possibly "stumbled" over more than three words.
DeleteI believe prosody increases with practice and also with confidence.
DeleteLeigha is a 7th-grade student.
ReplyDelete173 wpm- 1 error=17 wcpm
The one error made was in a sentence that was worded a little unnaturally in my opinion, so the mistake seemed appropriate.
I rated Leigha at a 4 on the Prosody rubric. I considered a level 3 because she seemed a little "flat" but she does not typically speak with great expression. Because of this, I felt 4 was appropriate to her and her nature.
Leigha rated herself at a 4. She recognized the error she made and stated she felt the wording of the sentence tripped her.
***172 wcpm
DeleteThis is great to be able to access our older students!
DeleteI chose a first grade student that is reading on grade level. She read 80 wpm (on grade level is 50+) with no errors. Her fluency is level 3, expression and volume level 3, phrasing level 3, smoothness and pace are also level 3. On the self reflection she chose a level 2. In answer to the questions “explain what you did well” and “what do you want to try or do better” she responded: “I am happy that I knew all the words and can read them. I think I can read it better though. I think I can do it better and read it with more expression, like you say, and like we are talking or like when you and Ms. Hines or the other people read to us.” My observation of this student is she has a family that is very involved in her education. She has been read to from a very young age and makes weekly trips to the library with her family. She is an eager learner and thrives on feedback and ways to improve herself.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely a plus to have family involvement and it shows that it does help our students. Another reason to encourage reading at home with the families.
DeleteI am hearing the same thing from many of my students when it comes to reading out loud. They are hesitant to read out loud because they are uncomfortable when they come across unfamiliar words. Today, I previewed next week with my students and let them know that we were going to read a play. Immediately, I get messages asking "Do I have to?" or asking for a small part. To be honest, this makes me sad, and I am so glad that we are all working on literacy!
ReplyDeleteNila is a fourth grade student that read a historical nonfiction novel page to me. She read 98 words in one minute and made no mistakes. Her WCPM and ORF was 98 (98-0). This student reads fluently and very smooth at a rate of 3 1/2. Very close to a level four, she just lacks "a little" expressive interpretation throughout her reading. The student rated herself as a 3, but says that she is very comfortable reading aloud to others.
ReplyDeleteExpression/Volume - 4
Phrasing - 3 (lacks some enthusiasm, but adds some feelings into the text)
Smoothness - 4
Pace - 4
I can recall a student that I had last year, Grayson Pollin, who definitely reads with expression! I have a student this year as well that reads with expression, but is not as fluent of reader as Nila - CH.
I chose an 8th grader who does not volunteer to read in class. He read 142 wpm and made 8 mistakes for a wcpm of 134. He rated himself a 3 but I would have rated him a level 2 because his grouping of words was awkward and he did not self-correct nor was he aware of the mistakes that he "read". When he came to biplane, he read bip/lane and just kept going. Next week, I have decided to have students read a cold fluency passage on Monday, and then I will read it on Tuesday modeling prosody. I will then ask them to rerecord two more times before the week is up and have them reflect on their reading. I like the addition of the reflection piece for students because in the past the focus was on the words read.
ReplyDeleteIt is great to have this tool for all our students and interesting to be able to discuss individually with our students.
DeleteJennifer: it is interesting that she rated herself lower. Definitely her prosody will continue to improve with practice.
ReplyDeleteI tested a 5th grade student who struggles quite a bit in Reading. He read a passage that was a 5th grade level/Lexile. It was sad to see how much he struggled. He read, “Jasmine Jones is a petite, quiet, brainy fifth-grader known for rocking a braided…” That is as far as he got in one minute. He read it as, “Jasmine Jones is a petty, quit, (deleted brainy), fifth-grader know for rocking a (deleted braided).” He tried to sound out brainy and braided but couldn’t, so he skipped them. 14-5= 9. His WCPM is 9. I can imagine how hard it is for him to keep up with 5th grade work/reading when reading is this difficult. He obviously is a level one non-fluent. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the student reflection piece; however, he is confident in many areas in the classroom. I don’t like to say it, but most of it is a false sense of confidence. But, having false confidence is better than no confidence at all.
ReplyDeleteAs for prosody, I think that is the key to students to love reading. I love reading to students and add character to the story. It brings everything to life.