By: Lynne Kulich, PhD & Timothy Rasinski, PhD

Attempts to improve reading outcomes, especially among students who struggle to become proficient reading, have been in the reading spotlight in the past few years. The solution that is most commonly offered is a stronger emphasis on direct systematic phonics instruction (e.g. Sold a Story podcast, 2022).   While we completely agree that phonics is essential to reading success, phonics itself is only one part of the equation to develop proficient readers.

The aim of phonics instruction is for readers to be able to decode words accurately.  However, consider a reader who is able to decode words accurately but does so in an overly slow word-by-word manner without paying any attention to phrasing or expression. Clearly, we would not consider such readers proficient.  Truly proficient readers not only decode words accurately, they also decode the words they read effortlessly and they read text with good phrasing.    

Fluency in reading involves teaching students to read text not only accurately but also automatically or effortlessly.  The significance of automatic word recognition is that readers no longer have to employ their cognitive resources to decode the words in text – the words are instantly decoded with minimal use of cognitive resources.  Those freed up resources can then be employed to the more important task in reading – comprehension.    

Fluency also involves reading with what linguists call prosody.  We prefer to call it reading with expression and phrasing that reflects the meaning of the text.  In order to read with prosody, readers need to be attending to the meaning of the text. Thus, prosodic reading aids in comprehension.

Studies by the National Assessment of Educational Progress have shown that large numbers of lower performing fourth grade readers tend to struggle in both automatic word recognition and prosodic reading.    Clearly, then, developing fluency in these students, both automaticity and prosody, will significantly improve reading proficiency.    Fluency instruction must be a part of any science-based reading curriculum.

The Tools for Developing Fluency

• Modeling Fluent Reading.   Young readers need to hear fluent reading in order to understand reading fluency.   This means teachers, parents, and others should read to their children regularly and make sure that when they do they read with expression that marks fluent reading.
• Wide Reading.   Fluency in anything requires practice.   Wide reading involves reading as much as possible.   Recent research (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2021) has shown that reading volume is associated with reading achievement.
• Deep (Repeated) Reading.  Fluency often requires the learner to practice a text (or other activity) multiple times in order to achieve fluency.  Research (Rasinski, et al, 2011) has shown that repeatedly reading one text leads to improvements in new texts never before read.   The key to repeated reading (i.e. rehearsal) is to make it authentic.    If a text is meant to be performed for an audience it needs to be rehearsed- not for speed but for developing a sense of expression that an audience with find satisfying.    Texts such as readers theater scripts, poetry, song lyrics, and other are meant to be read aloud for an audience and are thus excellent choices for repeated reading.
• Assisted Reading.   If a text is challenging having an assist or scaffold from a more fluent reader can lead to fluent reading.   Assisted reading can take the form of choral reading as a group, paired reading where the partner is a more fluent reader, or reading while simultaneously listening to a prerecorded version of the text.    Assisted reading (Rasinski, et al, 2011) has been shown to be a powerful tool for developing fluency and overall reading proficiency.
• Phrased Reading.  Less fluent readers / tend to read / in a word-by-word manner / that disrupts the natural language / of the text / and makes  comprehension difficult. //   Helping students / read in phrases / by marking a text / with phrase boundaries / can move students / to more natural and meaningful phrasing / that will improve reading fluency / and comprehension.//

These basic fluency development tools, by themselves, can move students toward higher levels of fluency and reading proficiency.   However, if we can combine these tools into a single lesson format we get synergy – a situation where the benefit from a whole lesson combining these elements is greater than the sum of the parts alone.  This is where the Fluency Development Lesson (FDL) comes in.   

The Fluency Development Lesson

The FDL is a systematic, explicit, science-backed instructional practice that when implemented regularly closes reading gaps for all students, including multilingual learners (National Reading Panel, 2000; Kulich 2009; Zimmerman, et al., 2019). While the FDL supports all foundational reading skills, it targets fluency since reading difficulties often manifest in this area (White, et al., 2021), and its flexible design supports readers of all ages.

Implemented in 15-20 minutes, the FDL includes effective assisted reading practices like choral, echo, and partner reading. Initially, the FDL was created to be delivered in a single day using short, grade-level passages (Rasinski, 2010; Rasinski, Padak, Linek, & Sturtevant, 1994). Research suggests that scaffolded, repeated reading of a single text over the course of a week leads to gains in fluency and comprehension skills (Stahl & Heubach, 2005). So, we encourage students to read the same text throughout the school week with a variety of scaffolds. Additionally, you’ll find embedded activities to target all literacy skills, i.e., listening, speaking, reading, and writing. You’ll also notice activities for students to continue developing all foundational reading skills, such as phonemic awareness and phonics. 

Planning 

First, choose a grade-level text aligned to a reading scope and sequence, theme, or phonics skill.  The FDL supports your core curriculum. While any genre will do, our favorite is poetry.  Given its rich, rhythmic language, poetry is an obvious choice. This is particularly true for multilingual learners who benefit from the rhythm, rhyme, and repetition that poetry offers (Vardell, Hadaway, & Young, 2006).

Next, select the assisted reading practices needed to support your students, and plan to explicitly teach new vocabulary.  Remember students will need more scaffolding earlier rather than later in the week. Prepare to discuss the poet’s purpose, word choice, and theme because comprehension is always the goal.

Include opportunities for students to read aloud for different audiences, e.g., principal, custodian, etc., and include a written response activity. Reading and writing are synergistic, so be sure students write about the poem and share their responses. This experience helps develop the necessary dialogic communication skills students need and will use.

Finally, the FDL supports home-school partnerships. Students can read their weekly poems to someone at home.  Consider hosting classroom poetry parties and invite families to listen to students read their favorite poems.

Implementation

Monday: Present the new poem.Model fluent reading. Discuss poet’s purpose, word choice, and style. Identify rhymes, antonyms, hyperbole, etc. Students chorally echo read.

Tuesday:Reread poem.Review components of fluency (rate, accuracy & prosody).Students chorally read poem.Small groups of students read different lines or stanzas.Students locate words with r-controlled vowels, consonant clusters, homonyms, etc.

Wednesday:Teacher and students chorally read.Students partner read and provide feedback.Students volunteer to read for class.Students complete word activities, such as a Word Ladder.

Thursday:Students chorally read and self-evaluate.Volunteers read for class.Students read poem for families.Students complete writing activity.

Friday:Students read poem with different emotions.Students perform for different school audiences.Teacher records mystery readers.

Conclusion

I (Lynne) implemented the FDL with my elementary students, and no other instructional practice proved to engage my students and advance their reading skills like the FDL. One year, 12 first graders out of 27 were performing below grade level based on general reading outcome measures in the fall.  In addition, five of those students were multilingual learners. Due to limited bandwidth, not all 12 students qualified for Title 1 services.  I (Lynne) knew I had to leverage evidence-based reading practices – core instruction had to be solid.  Besides using the district’s curricular resources, which included an explicit phonics program, I (Lynne) implemented the FDL each day for 15 – 20 minutes.  All 27 students were reading on or above grade level by the spring.  The following year, none of the students qualified for Title 1 services (Kulich & Evanchan, 2007, 2008).

Pre and post reading data from my (Lynne’s) doctoral research (2009) with Karen children revealed the reading growth three students made during the summer and after-school sessions with the FDL. During this 9-week summer program for a total of 4½ hours a week, and the afterschool sessions from September through December for 1 hour a week, the multilingual learners made between two to three years of reading progress.  In addition, their attitudes towards reading significantly improved.

Fluency instruction can be engaging, authentic, and effective all at the same time.  The Fluency Development Lesson combines all the evidence-based tools for fluency instruction into a synergistic practice that closes reading gaps and promotes the joy of reading.

References (Lynne)

Allington, R.L., & McGill-Franzen, A.M. (2021). Reading Volume and Reading Achievement: A Review of Recent Research. Reading Research Quarterly, 56(S1), S231– S238. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.404

Kulich, L. S. (2009). The English reading development of Karen children using the Fluency Development Lesson in an intensive English language program: Three descriptive case studies (Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron).

Kulich, L. S., & Evanchan, G. (2007, November). The Fluency Factor: How did the fluency development lesson impact the literacy development of thirteen “at-risk” first grade readers? Paper presented at the Fiftieth Annual Meeting of the College Reading Association, Salt Lake City, UT. 

Kulich, L. S., & Evanchan, G. (2008, November). The Final Fluency Factor: How did the fluency development lesson impact the literacy development of thirteen “at risk” first grade readers? Paper presented at the Fifty-First Annual Meeting of the College Reading Association, Sarasota, FL. 

National Reading Panel. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching children to read. Report of the subgroups.  Washington, DC:  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health.

Rasinski, T. V. (2010). The fluent reader: Oral reading strategies for building word recognition, fluency, and comprehension (2nd ed.). Scholastic.

Rasinski, T. V., Padak, N. D., Linek, W. L., & Sturtevant, E. (1994). Effects of fluency development on urban second-grade readers. Journal of Educational Research, 87, 158–165.

Rasinski, T. V., Reutzel, C. R., Chard, D. & Linan-Thompson, S. (2011).  Reading Fluency.  In M. L. Kamil, P. D. Pearson, B. Moje, & P. Afflerbach E (Eds), Handbook of Reading Research, Volume IV (pp. 286-319).  New York:  Routledge.

Stahl, S., & Heubach, K. (2005). Fluency-oriented reading instruction. Journal of Literacy Research, 37, 25–60.

Vardell, S. M., Hadaway, N. L., & Young, T. A. (2006). Matching books and readers: Selecting literature for English learners. The Reading Teacher, 59(8), 734–741.

White, S., Sabatini, J., Park, B. J., Chen, J., Bernstein, J., and Li, M. (2021). The 2018 NAEP oral reading fluency study. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics.

Zimmerman, B.S., Rasinski, T.V., Kruse, S.D., Was, C.A., Rawson, K.A., Dunlosky, J., & Nikbakht, E. (2019). Enhancing outcomes for struggling readers: Empirical analysis of the fluency development lesson, Reading Psychology, 40(1), 70-94. DOI: 10.1080/02702711.2018.1555365

By Evan Robb

Are you searching for a quick-fix solution to improve reading scores? If so, I must disappoint you because I have nothing to offer. Improving reading scores, or any test scores for that matter, doesn’t involve silver bullets or magic tricks. Unfortunately, it’s common for school stakeholders to jump to conclusions about a school’s quality, teachers’ effectiveness, or even the superintendent’s leadership based solely on test scores from a single day. Let’s shift our focus towards practical strategies that can genuinely enhance reading skills and subsequently improve scores.

Let’s start by acknowledging a straightforward yet crucial principle: practice leads to improvement. However, practicing with purpose using research-backed strategies significantly enhances the likelihood of improvement. For students to excel in reading, they must engage in purposeful reading activities.

Here are some valuable tips and cautions to steer a successful reading program:

Rule #1: Read Aloud Sessions

Allocate five to ten minutes daily for read-aloud sessions, depending on class duration. This provides an opportunity to model reading, ask thought-provoking questions, and implement taught strategies effectively.

Reminder: Simply reading a favorite book throughout a class period, no matter how engaging the delivery, won’t necessarily enhance students’ reading skills.

Rule #2: Instructional Reading

Deliver purposeful reading instruction focused on applying strategies and skills to texts to improve students’ reading proficiency. State standards and extensive research can guide the selecting of specific strategies and skills necessary for better reading. It’s crucial to assess students’ lexile levels and tailor genre-focused instructional reading units accordingly to meet individual needs.

Reminder: Avoid a one-size-fits-all approach; instructional reading should cater to each student’s unique instructional needs. If the teacher reads aloud during this segment, students miss the opportunity to practice reading independently. Activities like popcorn reading serve as time fillers and don’t contribute to overall reading improvement.

Rule #3: Independent Reading

Encourage and promote independent reading throughout the school environment. This can include budgeting for books, organizing school-wide campaigns, and celebrating independent reading achievements. Foster a culture where students always carry an independent reading book related to topics they enjoy, thus boosting their motivation to read. Assign thirty minutes of independent reading as the primary homework task, and designate two days per week for in-school independent reading sessions, recognizing the value of classroom reading time.

Reminder: Focus on motivating students to read rather than solely holding them accountable or implementing punitive measures for lack of reading. Explore creative ways, such as monthly book talks, contracts, or logging completed books, to incentivize reading.

I urge a commitment to genuine reading experiences rather than mere reading programs focused on passages and questions or texts beyond students’ reading levels. Embrace research-based reading instruction to witness tangible improvements in students’ reading abilities. Encourage students to read at least three self-selected books monthly alongside instructional texts throughout the year, enhancing test scores.

As professionals, let’s reclaim proven methods backed by research. Ditch ineffective practices and prioritize reading quality literature. Reading educators should strive to master reading instruction, assessment, strategies, and necessary skills to nurture better readers. Let go of strategies that don’t yield results, avoiding being swayed by flashy programs prioritizing profit over education.

For more valuable insights on this topic, I recommend reading “Read Talk Write” by Laura!

By Timothy Rasinski and Lois Letchford

In a previous posting on the Robb Review (9.12.2020),  I (Tim) described how much poetry has to offer for the teaching of reading.  It is an engaging, joyous reading, and it offers opportunities to develop essential reading competencies in students.   However, one of the most significant attributes of poetry is its ability to improve the reading outcomes of children identified as dyslexic or learning disabled and, indeed all children who struggle to become proficient readers.  

The brevity of most poetry for children as well as the rhythmical, melodic, and rhyming patterns in poetry (and songs) allow even the most struggling of readers to achieve success.    Research tells us that human beings have what appears to be an innate ability to detect patterns in our environment.   Seeing patterns allows us to better negotiate our worlds.    The patterns in poetry allow children to negotiate their language worlds.   All of us know young children who have learned to recite the words to a familiar rhyme or song.  While memorizing the lines of poetry and songs is not reading per se, giving children visual access to the written words in those poems and songs can be a beginning step to reading.    

Several years ago, I met an amazing woman named Lois Letchford.  She had just written a book entitled Reversed which described the journey that she and her dyslexic son Nicholas who went from “learning disabled” to a skilled reader, and highly successful adult. Writing and using poetry was one major transformative component of our literacy story.   

Lois’ Story:

In 1994, my son Nicholas went into first grade. He failed. Throughout this year, he bit his fingernails, wet his pants, and stared into space. At the end of the year, standardized testing sealed expectations revealing he could read ten words, displayed no strengths, and had a “low IQ.”  

I had the opportunity to homeschool Nicholas for six short months, hoping for a turn-around. Armed with a book series labeled, “Success for All,” I too, failed. Stress levels skyrocketed, and progress remained at zero. 

It was my mother-in-law who came to my rescue, offering simple yet profound advice: “Lois, put away what isn’t working and make learning fun.” Her words compelled me to reevaluate my approach to this daunting challenge. But where should I begin? Where did Nicholas excel? Her advice encouraged me to rethink and redesign my approach. But what could I do?  What could Nicholas do? 

I recalled Nicholas and I previously working with spelling patterns. He could do that. He recognized the patterns and learned all those words. How could I use this strength? 

I thought about rhyming words and how to use them. Could I write a short poem to help Nicholas? When desperation reigns, one can only try to find solutions. 

I wrote one simple poem and read it to Nicholas. We read it together and found the rhyming words. That first poem titled A Mug of a Bug, was a huge success. He relaxed and recalled it. He was engaged, we talked about the meaning, found the rhyming words, and recited the poem.  

One poem led to the next and the next. Each poem added to his knowledge, enjoyment, and purpose for reading and writing. My first poems focused on words with short vowel sounds. Poems then include our travel experiences. One poem was about visits to the thousand-year-old church of St. Nicholas. The memory I treasure is one of Nicholas running ahead of his Grandma to visit it, shouting, “Nana, Nana! They named this church after me!” Connections were growing.

Nicholas’s reading growth appeared slow, each poem seemingly added just a drop into the ocean of required literacy knowledge. Yet, in a poem using the “oo”  words as in ‘cook, look, and book,’ I wrote about the last of the great explorers, Captain James Cook. My poem: 

Captain Cook had a notion there was a gap in the map in the great big ocean.

He took a look, without the help of any book, hoping to find a quiet little nook. 

Captain Cook had a notion there was a gap in the map in the great big ocean,

He took a long look, and filled a whole book which caused the whole world to look! 

Poetry is simple. Ideas embedded in poetry were extraordinary. The exploration of this poem tapped into Nicholas’ curiosity, resulting in his asking questions I could not answer.

“Who came before Captain Cook?”  was his first question.  

“Oh,” I replied, “that’s easy. That was Christopher Columbus.”

“And who came before Columbus?” He shot back.

And I was stunned. It was not a question I had ever considered. His question turned me into a curiosity-driven researcher determined to find answers to his questions. 

Though Nicholas’s knowledge of letters and sounds had grown slowly, his intellectual curiosity was boundless. 

Why was poetry such a powerful tool for Nicholas’s learning? 

Prof Sansislas Deheane’s book How We Learn has a chapter on the four pillars of learning. These pillars are Attention, Active Engagement, Error Feedback, and finally, Consolidation. 

Every day, I had Nicholas’s attention. He was actively engaged in listening, reading, and responding to details of all poems. Poetry was building his knowledge base, providing a purpose for using those challenging letters and sounds and building an understanding of patterns in language. Finally, the consolidation through repetition by reading, writing, and reciting these poems aided growth. 

It took almost 25 years to appreciate the impact of this foundational knowledge. In 2018, Nicholas defied the odds and completed his PhD in Applied Mathematics from Oxford University. 

As for me, my book Reversed: A Memoir tells the longer literacy journey from failure to academic success.

By Dennis Schug

Do you ever stop to think about the chapters of your “reading life”?

We’ve all got them.  What are the highlights of your chapters?

It’s been a while since I’ve thought about my reading life, let alone written a new chapter.  That is, until now.  

This season is providing time and space to reflect.  It’s giving me confidence to take action.

My Reading Life: Chapter 1

“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” – Margaret Fuller

Some of my earliest childhood memories include being surrounded by words: rich and colorful storytelling, adults who value words, written and spoken, and of course, books.  I read nightly bedtime stories and taught early and often to borrow books from the public library.  At 10 years of age, I’d ride my bicycle to meet the local public library’s summer bookmobile, which uncoincidentally was eventually filled with books from my favorite authors and genres.  Working at the public library as a high school student, I read nearly as many books as I was responsible for reshelving.  As a teacher, I began to remember our classroom library, which I made sure was stocked with more books than there was bookshelf space to hold them.  As a teacher leader, I simultaneously pursued certifications in literacy and school leadership.  Decades later, as a parent, I was afforded opportunities to “spoil” my own children with the gifts of words, like I once was.  I remained a voracious lifelong reader, especially of certain topics and genres.  I knew books made me better for others.

I recognize how fortunate I am to have grown up like this and to have circumstances that have helped me sustain an active reading life.  This has driven me to be a “reading principal,” discussing books with anyone willing to engage.  It’s my responsibility to model being a lifelong reader, create space for others to share, and for students to explore their own reading lives.

My Reading Life: Chapter 2

“The comeback is always stronger than the setback.”  – Unknown.

This became a mantra as our school communities courageously faced, navigated, and conquered myriad challenges of global pandemic times.  Priorities shifted from “getting lost in a good book” to ensuring students had resources to meet basic human needs.  What educators “had to do” replaced what we “got to do.”  Like so many, I found myself leading a team focused on others’ health, safety, and wellness.  It wasn’t only a top priority; it was the only priority.  I was and am fortunate.

The reading life I once knew changed suddenly and drastically.  I felt constantly distracted.  I had difficulty sustaining attention on any reading materials besides critical information to aid our team’s focus on doing what’s best for students.  

In quieter moments, I’d try losing myself in a book but found I just couldn’t.  I was not alone.  The more I spoke with others, the more this seemed to be a common challenge.  We were in survival mode.  After a while, we wondered if or when we’d return to more typical times.

Sometimes, we sensed a slow crawl, walk, and occasional run toward the comeback.  

We wondered, when was it that we’d return to doing what we “get to do”?  

My Reading Life: Chapter 3

“Mood follows action.” – Rich Roll

At the end of another school year (our first with sustained typical routines), I was thrilled to get my hands on a copy of Laura Robb’s latest book, Increase Reading Volume: Practical Strategies That Boost Students’ Achievement and Passion for Reading.  While it was among an ambitious stack of books I’d set out to read, it quickly rose to the top of the stack, becoming the literacy masterclass I didn’t know I needed.  

In one of the first sections that resonated with me as a lifelong reader, Robb emphasized the importance of “keeping in touch with your reading life.”

She explains, “A personal reading life enables you to experience the power of visualizing as a path to understanding, the need to talk to someone about a book resonating with you, and that sometimes, reading can be challenging work.  Your enthusiasm for and engagement in reading can rub off on students as they choose books they want to and can read, ensuring they will be engaged” (Robb, 2022).

These are precisely the words I needed to reignite my purpose for reading.  

My next steps became clear.

My Reading Life: Chapter 4

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” 

– James Clear

First, I listed books I’d been meaning to read, reread, or give as gifts.  I visited the public library, collected gift cards I’d received to make purchases, and splurged a bit at bookstores.  I made an agreement with myself to read every day – a certain number of pages or a certain number of minutes, whichever came first.  I’d use two bookmarks, one marking my starting point and the other my ending point for each reading period.  I’d keep a calendar, making an X each time I read.  Most days, I met my goal.  Some days. I didn’t.  But I never felt the shame of failure, only the opportunity to try again the next day.  Instead, I said to myself I’d never miss two days in a row, marking off two days’ worth of reading, often meeting or exceeding that goal.  I positioned books wherever they’d be most accessible.  Seeing a book next to my workout clothes, the coffee pot, or my car passenger seat were all regular reminders of my commitment to daily reading.    

To date, I’ve read more words, pages, and chapters than I have in many seasons.  I’m finding each book I read is often replaced by two on my “to read” list.  There’s a good chance I’ll never finish my entire stack.  This renewed habit gives me the confidence to talk with others about exploring the next chapters of their reading lives.  Books are making me better.  Books make us better.