Building fluency is a two-part process: Building sight word knowledge, and building decoding skills.
Sight words—To build sight word knowledge, students must repeatedly read the same stories over and over. Research suggests that somewhere between 5 and 7 re-readings of the same text are required to build automaticity with that text.
Decoding Fluency-- Many readers have trouble when they reach the fourth grade level and beyond if they do not have a fundamental understanding in how to decode words rapidly. To help a child build decoding fluency at middle-and upper elementary levels, they should be taught to recognize chunks of words. For instance, when reading the word “celebration” they should be encouraged to take the word and break it into easy to recognize chunks like cel/eb/ra/tion. This is a syllabication activity. Have children do this with any words that they encounter. Do not ask them to sound it out letter by letter unless they are unable to do anything else. Ask them to try different pronunciations like, “I see the letters c-e-l, it could be keel, seel, sel or kelWhen we go to the e-b we can say it as eeb, or as eb. Now look at r-a. It could be ray or ra. The t-i-o-n is a special ending that is always pronounced shun. Lets try different combinations. . .
One fun way of working on fluency and vocabulary is by using music.
When using the music, do the following:
1. Have your child read the lyrics without listening to the song. Have them decode any unknown words using the chunking strategy.
2. Have your child re-read the lyrics, again decoding any words that they still miss.
3. Discuss the vocabulary in the song and what the meaning of it is.
4. Listen to the music without singing.
5. Listen to the music and sing along with it using the lyrics sheet.
6. Repeat on a periodic basis, but always with the lyrics sheet in front of the child.
LITERATURE RESPONSE IDEAS THAT ARE FUN
There are two goals for a reading teacher that override all others. First, and most importantly, a child must enjoy reading and see a valid purpose in doing it. Second, a child should understand what they are reading. These activities are intended to support both goals at home.
Remember: One of the most difficult things a child has to learn is to be able to think about their own thinking, so when discussing a book or any other life experience, emphasize that they explain why your child has certain viewpoints or opinions. You will be amazed what they will tell you!
1. Find something that is unique about the book that you can react to in real life. For instance, if the story is about living in the arctic, make an igloo and while you are doing it discuss how it relates to the book. If you are reading a story about a boy and his dog, visit the pound and try to locate dogs that have similar appearances or similar personalities to the dogs in the story, all the while, discussing comparisons to the book.
2. Research a non-fiction topic related to the book. For instance, if you are reading about children who try to help re-establish salmon populations, look on the internet and find out about the decline of salmon. Find out why they are doing this. Again, discuss the connections to the book.
3. Make a model of a key part of the story. This is sometimes called a diorama, but it doesn’t need to be the standard one in a shoe box showing a key scene. For instance, if a key part of a story is the location where it takes place, create a model or a map of that location.
4. Extend the story. If the story makes it possible, write a chapter to follow the last one in the book. Discuss the logic of twists in the plot in the new chapter and how they fit in with the rest of the book.
6. Draw pictures from different parts of the book. Discuss how those pictures relate to the words. This is an excellent way to get a child to create a mental image of what is going on. If the book describes a tall, skinny girl with red curly hair, wearing a yellow polka-dot dress, then the picture should have those details (maybe not all of them, but there shouldn’t be anything contradicting important details—like her being short and fat.)
7. Make comparisons between events and characters in the book and your child’s own experiences. If your child is into karate and you read a book about another child who goes to karate classes, discuss that. Discuss how the character is reacting to different situations and if your child would react that way or not. Have them explain WHY.