The readings this week focused on reading comprehension and strategies for students to comprehend text. There is an important relationship between comprehension and reading fluency. Reading fluency is the ability for our students to read text accurately while comprehending the text. The students need to use their decoding skills, word recognition, and more in order to be reading with fluency. In other words, reading fluency allows students to begin to comprehend text. If a student is a fluent reader they are able to focus more on the meaning of the text and how to reflect upon what they have read. Mosaic of Thought introduced seven principle comprehension strategies that can be used and focused on, "listening to the voice in your mind that speaks while you read" (Keene and Zimmerman, page 14). These strategies can be used with fluent readers in order to monitor their comprehension. The strategies revolve around students reading the text and using strategies to listen to the text and the reflections that occur within their mind as they read. In order for students to be successful in comprehension of text they need to have the bridge built, which is fluency.
Within my classroom, fluency is assessed during literacy instruction and using the Development Reading Assessment (DRA). The students have recently been asked to read aloud text with the class. This has helped my CT and I assess the students that have difficulty identifying words and if this affects their comprehension of text. In addition, we have been finishing up with our DRA testing that allows us to obtain our students levels in literacy. We have students with varying levels of fluency and comprehension. I have students who are fluent readers and able to comprehend text, while others struggle with fluency and comprehension of text. The assessments we have incorporated into the classroom and through DRA have helped us focus on students and help to develop fluency skills with students that will lead to comprehension.
In order to fully understand my students' reading development I need to know what skills are challenging for my students. I need to know if my students need more development with decoding, word recognition, sentence structure, etc. to help them have reading fluency and comprehension. To find this out, I could read individually with students to understand how they read and which areas of text they struggle. In addition, I could give students a mini-lesson or assessment that involves different reading strategies to identify which students or areas that require more support and/or development.
Reading comprehension is important for our students to be able to develop. However, in order for students to comprehend text they need to have reading fluency. The two literacy aspects are interconnected and important to develop successful readers!
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteOur posts were very similar; we both discussed how comprehension and fluency are interconnected and crucial to the development of young readers. In my classroom, reading comprehension and fluency are assessed through the DRA test, as well (a long with other informal assessments in the form of observation, work samples, and anecdotal records.) I have found that the DRA process has been very insightful and has allowed me to see what my students are capable of and with which area (comprehension and/or fluency) they are struggling. Additionally, it provides a number that correlates to leveled book that helps when trying to find “just-right” books for students. However, like you mentioned, it does not give you much information about which specific area (decoding, word recognition, etc.) of literacy the student or students need further assistance. To fix this problem, I really like your idea of reading one-on-one with a student and assessing their learning that way and then conducting mini-lessons based on their individual needs. You could find students that are facing similar struggles and pull entire groups (composed of 2-4 students) that will benefit from the same mini-lesson. This could also be used as on opportunity to provide extensions to higher-level learners!