Differentiating Instruction for Fluency and Comprehension

Michael C. McKenna

Sharon Walpole

Agenda

Who needs this type of instruction? What data must be gathered? What planning decisions must be

made? What are some tricks of the trade?

We are combining ideas from

Chapters 5 and 7

Remember our plan

What are we trying to teach? These children possess relatively strong decoding skills,

but they lack adequate automaticity for fluent reading. They will work to build fluency in texts that are at or slightly

below grade level during small-group time. They will build comprehension through the same texts. Limited word-recognition instruction may be provided.

How will we know when we’ve accomplished our goal? When children’s fluency reaches benchmark, we can

redirect our tier 2 time to vocabulary and comprehension. Remember that our goal is to make each of our groupings

temporary and targeted.

In our tiered system, who is likely to need

this type of differentiated instruction?

What data can we use to identify the children?

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DIBELS Second-Grade ORF high risk or some riskDIBELS Second-Grade NWF is low risk

We KNOW: These children have mastered short vowel patterns but may need work in more advanced orthographic patterns. (Remember that NWF is limited as an indicator of advanced phonics knowledge.)

We NEED to know: Which orthographic patterns they still need help with and which high-frequency words they need to learn.

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DIBELS Third-Grade ORF high risk or some riskInformal phonics data reveal mastery of most vowel patterns.

We KNOW: These children have mastered short vowel patterns but may need work in more advanced patterns.

We NEED to know: Which orthographic patterns they still need help with and which high-frequency words they need to learn.

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Let’s find out

Give a phonics or spelling inventory to see which patterns they need.

Do a high-frequency word inventory to see which sight words they need.

Given their decoding foundation, a limited amount of targeted instruction may be planned around the deficits identified; if the needs here are great, students should be served in a phonics and fluency group.

What about comprehension?

Do not attempt to identify comprehension deficits.

Using texts that are at or slightly below grade level will provide many opportunities to reinforce comprehension.

Children will differ in their ability to apply comprehension strategies, but assessing this ability is not necessary.

Now you’re ready! Do you have one group or two? Think about the word recognition data; if possible

group children with similar specific needs so that you can address them quickly.

Think about how slow their oral reading rate is. Will you be able to use grade-level texts, or will you have to use texts slightly below grade level?

Combining these results will provide you with a collection of known and unknown items for each child; their needs will probably not be exactly the same.

Assessment Data (grouped for all)

Unknown Patterns

High-Frequency

Words

Reading Rate

(WCPM)

Text Level

Below grade levelOn grade level

To make your plan, start with words and patterns

Set aside some time at the beginning of small-group work to address them.

Do not worry that the patterns may be more familiar to some group members than to others. Those who are more familiar will benefit from the review.

Do not limit yourself to one-syllable words

Now find your texts Do not use phonics-controlled texts. You

are looking for texts that are at or slightly below grade level, are rich in content, and represent both fiction and nonfiction.

Some of these texts may already be provided in your core program!

Now find your texts Try to find enough texts that children are

reading a new text or a new section of text each day; part of increasing fluency is increasing reading volume.

This will allow you to choose longer texts; you can read them over consecutive sessions.

Now choose your strategies Since word recognition needs will be

minimal, we will not review the methods here. See pp. 62-64 for strategies that target patterns and 64-67 for strategies that target high-frequency words.

Planning should focus mainly on fluency and comprehension; we propose a very simple framework.

Now think about fluency procedures Read pages 70-84. You will need to

consider several things: your level of support and strategies for organizing repeated readings.

All effective fluency procedures have certain things in common: teacher support and repetition.

Most support

Least support

Echo reading

The teacher reads a sentence and then the group rereads it aloud.

Choralreading

The teacher leads the entire group reading aloud in unison.

Partnerreading

Pairs of readers alternate reading aloud by following a specific turn-taking procedure.

Whisperreading

Each child reads aloud (but not in unison) in a quiet voice.

Remember: the goal is to build fluency. During each session, you must plan for both repetition for the children and support from the teacher.

Remember that fluency is more than rate!

Consider that “reading faster” is not the

goal of fluency building. Fluency includes accuracy,

rate, and prosody.Students need teacher modeling

of appropriate rate and phrasing.

Consider motivational techniques

Students may benefit from timing themselves and one another; incorporate such

procedures if they serve your main goal – using your small-group time to build fluency

through repeated (and assisted) practice.

Now think about comprehension methods Read pages 104-107. In order to preserve time for the students in

this group to actually read repeatedly, we have chosen one high-utility comprehension strategy that should be useful for most any text.

Information Text Narrative Text

Summary Questions

What is the most important information so far?

Give me a summary of the the most important parts of the section on _____?

What are the most important details so far?

What were the main events in this chapter/part?

How did the chapter/story end?

Inference Questions

Describe some additional examples of that idea.

Explain why these things are similar.

What would happen if . . .

Describe the feelings of the characters at the end of the story.

Why did they feel that way?

Remember to be strategic!

Your goal is fluency first, and then comprehension. You will not be discussing the text at the end of each page; rather, you will be targeting your

questioning at strategic spots, and using repetitive, generic language that students may

eventually generalize to other texts.

Gather or make all of your materials

Word lists, books, question scripts, timer, recording sheets, notebooks – everything you need.

Texts could be selections from the previous year’s core anthology if multiple copies are available.

They could also include texts used in recent whole-class read-alouds or trade books, if you have multiple copies.

Remember that our goal is that you plan for three weeks of wide, repeated, assisted reading at a time.

A typical group*4 minutes Letter or syllable patterns; high-

frequency words

7 minutes Choral or partner read, then whisper read. Time and chart if appropriate

4 minutes Ask inference or summary questions

*Minute allocations are simply an example based on a 15-minute session.

If you can extend the time for this group, add minutes to the children’s

reading time.

Try it out!

Remember that we are hoping for a cycle, with teacher reflection. Your goal is to move these children into a vocabulary and comprehension group, but you’ve got to be successful here first.

You may need to repeat a particular lesson for two days. That’s fine. You also may need to step in with echo or choral reading. That’s fine too.

At the end of the three weeks, you can use data collected as part of the instruction to inform your next moves.