The following is an instructional unit aimed at improving reading fluency. For daily lessons please reference the links in the sidebar. For an entire packaged unit plan in one file please reference HERE.

Overview of Instructional Unit

The instructional unit which follows is created to employ multiple research based approaches together to improve the fourth and fifth grade student’s reading fluency. With the use of these strategies and approaches we strive to positively impact ELA and cross-curricular student performance using short, frequent and authentic episodes of practice on a regular basis (Felton, n.d.). The unit takes place over the course of seven, one hour lessons which are intended to be completed one lesson per day. The fluency practice and self-evaluation can be extended throughout the year as the teacher deems appropriate.

Instructional Audience

According to the Tennessee’s State English Language Arts Standards, students must “read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.” (Tennessee State Board of Education, 2010a, 2010b). However, many fourth and fifth-grade students at Hickerson Elementary School (HES), where I teach as an Interventionist, do not demonstrate sufficient reading fluency. Scholars Pikulski & Chard (2005) state that “Reading fluency refers to efficient, effective word recognition skills that permit a reader to construct meaning of text. Fluency is manifested in accurate, rapid, expressive oral reading and is applied during and makes possible, silent reading comprehension”. The difficulty with fluency inhibits the student’s ability to process and synthesize standard grade-level texts. The ultimate result is a negative impact in all subject areas where the effective processing of written language and construction of meaning is necessary (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000).

Ultimately, the interaction with the text and construction of meaning is a prerequisite required for students to convey the necessary skills or standards mastery in formalized written assessments and constructed response tasks. This is required under the guidelines for the new TNReady testing format, which students will take for the first time this year (Tennessee Department of Education, 2015a, 2015b).

Students need further instruction to improve their reading fluency. As Appendix A summarizes, the most recent benchmark, the winter AIMSweb Reading Curriculum Based Measure (R-CBM) (Appendix C), indicates that one in five students lack sufficient reading fluency (Reinholtz, 2016).

Reading fluency is a primary skill necessary for student success in comprehension. Consisting of three main parts, fluency is the ability to read accurately, at a sufficient speed, and with appropriate prosody relevant to the text. In order to interact with written text and construct meaning, a learner must be able to efficiently consume and process the text first. According to Rasinki, “If students are using too much of their cognitive energy to decode words in text, they have little remaining for the important task in reading – comprehension (2012). Ultimately, students need to export their knowledge and mastery of the content, yet this end result hinges on the student’s ability to read fluently so that their available mental resources can be focused on constructing meaning.

According to the HES teachers, who are my colleagues, they indicate common concerns about the student’s reading fluency and performance which they indicated on the Teacher Fluency Survey (see Appendix B). They agree that the impact of this reading fluency deficit spans the curriculum. Teachers indicate they show optimism in their ability to positively impact the student’s reading ability through their instructional practices. However, teachers unanimously agree that they do not have enough time to work with students one-on-one (Reinholtz, 2016).

The data shows that students need further instruction to increase their reading fluency. Teachers feel that they are capable to increase this deficit through their teaching practices and instruction. Students are expected to perform across multiple subject areas and on the TNReady examination. A primary foundation necessary for success is the ability to interact with written text in order to construct meaning. Ultimately students need to prove knowledge of the content, yet this end result hinges on the student’s ability to read fluently. Students need meaningful and relevant instructional activities to assist gains in their reading fluency.

Students attend HES which is a rural, Title I, school in Coffee County, Tennessee. It has 220 students whereas 78% are economically disadvantaged. The student body has a very homogenous composition consisting of 94% Caucasian. Students are heterogeneously grouped and departmentalized by grade level where one teacher per grade level is responsible for ELA instruction.

The teachers of these students also indicate from the Teacher Fluency Survey have consensus that students become frustrated when reading and that they prefer the passages read to them. The teachers are also neutral in their opinions that students enjoy reading for pleasure. Teachers strongly agree that students do not have sufficient fluency for the state mandated testing.

In my experience with this student population I agree with the teacher’s perceptions of the student’s view of reading. Many students’ motivation and enjoyment of reading is directly linked to their reading fluency. I observe the top performing students often with a book reading for pleasure while, generally, the lower performing students are rarely reading on their own or for mere enjoyment. The lower performing students often perceive reading as a burdensome task.

The group of focus is the fourth and fifth grades. There are 36 grade 4 students and 45 grade 5 students. There is an equivalent distribution of male and female students within grade levels. The fourth grade class is 100% Caucasian. The fifth grade class is mostly homogenous, being 93% Caucasian. One native English speaking Latino student and one African-American student are members of the fifth grade class. The population for this learning analysis and instructional unit in total is 98% Caucasian. All students in the population are native language English learners. 80% of the students come from homes which are economically disadvantaged.

There are six students receiving inclusive special education services. In the fifth grade there are five students and in the fourth grade there is one. The special education students receive paraprofessional support during regular curricular time. They are later pulled out of core instruction to receive additional services from the Special Education teacher (Reinholtz, 2016).

Instructional Strategies

The instructional unit is comprised of several instructional strategies. Together, they comprise a multifaceted approach to help improve reading fluency. Lessons begin with tying back to previous learning or experiences. As lessons evolve, students are building upon the development of small skillsets which, when used together, can foster the emergence of fluency. This is an example of a cognitivist model. There are instances where repeated readings and memorization of sight words and sight phrases which is indicative of the behaviorist model of learning. As students practice the fluency skills and activities they are also called upon to give constructive criticism and evaluations to their peers. Furthermore, they are called upon to share a best practice example of fluency to their peers whereas they are acting as an expert of the content. This is an example of a constructivist learning approach.

The instructional unit was created via the framework of the Dick and Carey (2009) Five Step Instructional Component Model. The Dick and Carey model’s foundation embodies Gagne’s (1988) Nine Events of Instruction which has the following sequential elements:

Gain attention
Inform learners of objectives
Stimulate recall of prior learning
Present the content
Provide learning guidance
Elicit performance or practice
Provide feedback
Assess performance
Enhance retention

Following the model posed by Dick and Carey, the unit of instruction and lessons have been structured into the following successive format:

Pre-instructional activities elicit activation of prior knowledge, gains learner attention, and stimulates interest.
Content presentation occurs in a scaffolded manner which connects to and builds upon the student’s prior knowledge and previous instruction.
Learner participation occurs as students practice the new skills, strategies or approaches while receiving feedback and support from the teacher.
Assessment occurs when students have an opportunity to show their growth and knowledge about the new instruction. The format of assessment considers the unique learner needs in meaningful and genuine ways.
Follow-through activities support content retention and application to future learning or situations.

Performance Objectives

Performance Objective 1: Given oral passages, students will identify examples of proper and improper reading accuracy using a T-chart format with 80% accuracy.

Performance Objective 2: Given oral passages, students will identify examples of proper and improper reading rate using a T-chart format with 80% accuracy.

Performance Objective 3: Given oral passages, students will identify examples of proper and improper reading prosody using a T-chart format with 80% accuracy.

Performance Objective 4: Given a writing prompt, students will identify the three elements of reading fluency and explain the relationship to reading fluency in a written essay with 10 out 12 on a 12-point scale rubric.

Performance Objective 5: Given a recording of their own oral reading, students will evaluate their reading accuracy and rate in accordance to the AIMSweb R-CBM protocols with 80% accuracy as compared to the teacher’s evaluation.

Performance Objective 6: Given a recording of their own oral reading, students will evaluate their reading fluency in accordance to the fluency rubric (Rasinksi, n.d.) with 80% accuracy as compared to the teacher’s evaluation.

Performance Objective 7: Given an instructional level set of Fry Words, students will read 100 words with 95% accuracy in one minute.

Performance Objective 8: Given an instructional level set of Fry Phrases, students will read 100 words (as part of the Fry Phrases) with 95% accuracy in one minute.

Performance Objective 9: Given written passages, students will employ repeated reading strategies to increase their reading accuracy and rate to at least the 50^th percentile as based on national norms.

Performance Objective 10: Given a Reader’s Theater script, students will practice and perform it whereas each student will exhibit 20% growth on the fluency rubric as compared to their initial performance.

Performance Objective 11: Given a prosody mood card, students will read with proper accuracy, rate, and prosody with 80% accuracy based on the fluency rubric

Performance Objective 12: Given an instructional level passage, students will demonstrate an increased reading fluency of at least 10% in accuracy and rate.

Performance Objective 13: Given an instructional level passage, students will demonstrate an increased proficiency in prosody according to the fluency rubric.

Materials and Resources

Selected reading passages / scripts / R-CBM / YouTube videos (Appendix C)
Fry Words & Phrases
Chrome Browser with the Fluency Tutor installed
Internet enabled computing device
Headphones
Microphone
PC with Read Naturally Software Edition
Projector
Rubrics
Fluency Graphs
Writing utensils
Chart paper
Sticky Notes
Recorded digital audio passages
Digital audio playback device
Google Classroom and Site