Literacy Observation 5: Domain 3: Fluency

TC NAME: Lacey Bridges

RICA Domain: Fluency

RICA Competency: 9- Instruction and Assessment

Grade Level: 5th

INSTRUCTION:

            My teacher tells the students they will be reading an excerpt from the book called The Fear Place by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.  She went over vocabulary they would see in the story.  Rather than just having the students read the story silently, or having the students read out loud to one another, the teacher played the CD audio version of the story.  So, the students are receiving audio assistance as they follow along in their books.  This helps provide the students with a good model of reading at the proper rate as well as with appropriate prosody.  The audio assisted reading reads at the correct speed, so students see that the text should not be read too fast, nor should it be read at a broken or slow pace.  Also, the proper expression and emotion with which the text should be read is modeled on the CD, so students will see how they need to read with excitement when there is an exclamation point, how they should vary their intonation, and how to decide what words should be emphasized.  Experiences reading with the audio assisted CD will help students with their fluency because they can apply the skills that were modeled for them in their own reading. 

            I have seen other ways that the teacher has worked towards building her students’ fluency in other lessons.  The students do silent reading every day in class and for homework, and then they take comprehension AR tests on them.  The teacher reads aloud to them from a book every day to provide a model of how to read at an appropriate rate, with appropriate prosody and with accuracy.  Students also read aloud during rotations in small groups with the teacher where she is providing immediate feedback, giving the students the opportunity to practice the elements of fluency.

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:

            The students sat in their desks with their books on their desks.  The book was also projected onto the screen at the front of the room with the document camera.  The audio version of the text was being played on the stereo at the front of the room.  The teacher walked around the classroom to make sure everyone was following along.