Literacy StrategiesBuilding a Bridge from Fluency to Comprehension

True or False?

• There’s more to fluency than just rate & accuracy.

•A student can be “fluent” and still struggle with comprehension.

Fluency is the ability to…• read accurately and quickly

• Recognize words automatically

• Group words quickly to make meaning

• Read aloud effortlessly and with expression

Level 1 – word by word

Level 2 – 2 word phrases

Level 3 – 3 or 4 word phrase groups

Level 4 – larger, meaningful phrase groups

Fluency can be our bridge if we go beyond rate and accuracy. Fluency gets us to the text. Prosody helps us understand the text.

3 Components of Fluency

• Automaticity (accuracy & rate) – gets you through the text

• Prosody (expression) – carries the meaning of the text & allows you to understand the text

• Thought (fluidity of thought) – allows us to glean concepts from text, pull it together, and apply it

Turn and Talk – How do each of these components help with comprehension?

Just My ThoughtsStrategy

Just My Thoughts

• Read the article excerpt

• Without discussing, write a thought you have about what you read on your group’s chart.

• Move to a new group. Read others’ thoughts, and add your thought about one of their thoughts.

Turn and Talk – How could you use this strategy with your students?

Read AloudStrategy

Yo! Yes? By Chris Raschka

Turn and Talk – What are other ways you could use this text to model prosody?

What other mentor texts have you used to model prosody?

Silly SentencesStrategy

Silly Sentences

Turn and Talk – How do each of these components help with comprehension?

• Models the power & meaning of punctuation

• Provide sentence with no punctuation

• Groups rewrite the sentence 3 times, adding punctuation differently each time to give each sentence a different meaning, due to prosody.

They went in the old house

Punctuation Matters!

Reader’s Theater & Choral Reading

Strategy

Choral Reading

• Models fluent reading for struggling readers

• Gives all readers practice and a chance to read fluently

• Strong support for memory of sounds in words

• Students practice prosody with the stress points and push & pull of rhythmic language in poetry

Turn and Talk – What did you notice about the different interpretations of the poem?

What strategies can you take back to use with your 3rd graders?Click here to share.