Fluency at the Middle School Level
Fluency is the "ability to read accurately, at an appropriate rate, using expression" (Miller & Veatch, 2011). It is essential that middle school students develop fluency in order to comprehend what they are reading in the various content areas. Fluency develops continuously as a reader gains vocabulary and reads more difficult texts. Teachers must model fluency, guide fluency, and provide students with practice for fluency across the content areas and core classes.
Fluency includes:
Rate- The rate, or automaticity, refers to the student being able to simultaneously see a word and be able to read it. Rate is measure by words per minute and is impacted by the level of difficulty of the text.
Accuracy- The accuracy of a reading is the lack of errors and omissions. It is important that reading is done with accuracy in order to build comprehension and prevent misunderstandings in the reading.
Prosody- The prosody is the intonation, expression, and phrasing of the read.
(Miller & Veatch, 2011)
Fluency includes:
Rate- The rate, or automaticity, refers to the student being able to simultaneously see a word and be able to read it. Rate is measure by words per minute and is impacted by the level of difficulty of the text.
Accuracy- The accuracy of a reading is the lack of errors and omissions. It is important that reading is done with accuracy in order to build comprehension and prevent misunderstandings in the reading.
Prosody- The prosody is the intonation, expression, and phrasing of the read.
(Miller & Veatch, 2011)
Fluency is said to be the bridge between word recognition and comprehension
(Vaughn & LinanThompson, 2004).
(Vaughn & LinanThompson, 2004).
