Do middle and high school students need fluency instruction and what counts as instruction?

 

Teacher Question:

An educational consultant came to our district and she and I disagreed over the idea of fluency instruction in the middle school. Our middle and high school classrooms are mostly homogeneously grouped, with many struggling readers three or more grade levels.

She said that if we are teaching fluency, there should be a plethora of data to support it, and that all students do not need fluency work. I disagree with her, but I was not sure if I should push it because maybe we are not exactly "teaching fluency." (We are less teaching fluency, than having students practice it). If all the students in a class are more than two years behind grade level, would you encourage fluency work (partner reading, echo reading, choral reading, repeated reading, etc.)?

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Shanahan responds:

I agree with your consultant that not all students require fluency instruction.

The fluency development of average students often plateaus at about the 8^th or 9^th grade. Proficient readers tend to read aloud at about 160 words per minute, and it is common that many students accomplish that by the time they enter high school (Rasinski, et al., 2022). Those students are not likely to benefit much from fluency work.

There can be exceptions to this, of course. Even if students read that automatically, if their reading doesn’t reflect the meaning of the text (respecting the punctuation, pausing at meaningful boundaries, etc.), I would continue. Also, even if students are generally fluent, they may not be able to accomplish such fluency with special texts – like algebra books or Shakespeare. Some targeted teaching there makes sense, too.

If students are two or three years behind their grade level in reading, then it would not be surprising that they would require fluency instruction throughout high school.  

I’m uncertain as to what a plethora of data would look like. Listen to kids read some grade level texts. If they are reading with those kinds of accuracy, speed, and prosody, then don’t bother with fluency. If they can’t, there should be some fluency work.

Why do I give that advice?

The importance of fluency instruction does decline as students advance up the grades. That may explain your consultant’s reticence. However, even by 8^th grade, fluency continues to explain 25% of the variance in reading comprehension. That means if we could get all students to read fluently, the differences in comprehension would be reduced by 25% -- which is substantial (Tosto, et al., 2017). This only works if fluency has a causal relationship with reading comprehension – which it does (National Reading Panel, 2000).

Also, Tim Rasinski and his colleagues have conducted studies showing fluency problems with large numbers and percentages of high school (Rasinski, et al., 2005). That suggests a strong possibility that many of your students will need fluency teaching.

As for your concern as to whether you are teaching fluency or just having students practice it, I think that is a definitional problem.

Fluency is an action, not a form of declarative knowledge. You don’t tell someone how to be fluent, you guide them to do that. It is not terribly different than learning to dance or skate or ride a bicycle.

How do you usually teach actions?

Modeling helps. Read a sentence or short paragraph and then have the students give it a try. Provide opportunities to engage in the action and offer both feedback or advice and opportunities to repeat the action to improve on the attempt.

All those approaches to teaching fluency that you noted provide that kind of “teaching.”  One more thing needed for effective fluency instruction is text challenging enough to require fluency improvement. With students who are two and three years behind, fluency work with their grade level textbooks should be just what the doctor ordered.


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References

National Reading Panel (U.S.) & National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U.S.). (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching children to read : an evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Paige, D. D., Rasinski, T. V., & Magpuri-Lavell, T. (2012). Is fluent, expressive reading important for high school readers. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 56(1), 67-76. https//doi.org:10.1002/JAAL.00103

Rasinski, T., Galeza, A., Vogel, L., Viton, B., Rundo, H., Royan, E., Shaheen, R. N., Bartholomew, M., Kaewkaemket, C., Stokes, F., Young, C., & Paige, D. (2022). Oral reading fluency of college graduates: Toward a deeper understanding of college ready fluency. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 66(1), 23-30.

Rasinski, T. V, Padak, N. D., McKeon, C. A., Wilfong, L. G., Friedauer, J. A., & Heim, P. (2005). Is reading fluency a key for successful high school reading? Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 49(1), 22–27. https://doi.org:10.1598/JAAL.49.1.3

Tosto, M. G., Hayiou-Thomas, M., Harlaar, N., Prom-Wormley, E., Dale, P. S., & Plomin, R. (2017). The genetic architecture of oral language, reading fluency, and reading comprehension: A twin study from 7 to 16 years. Developmental Psychology, 53(6), 1115-1129. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000297 

 

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