Fluency and SLPs

Systematic and explicit reading instruction is necessary because:

• it prevents teachers from inadvertently reteaching reading skills from the previous year.

• it helps ensure that all skills are mastered within the assigned time frame.

• reading skills are scaffolded, build in complexity, and rely on mastery of earlier skills.

• it helps ensure that a student moving from one school to another will receive uninterrupted reading instruction.

In a second grade class, a teacher selects a small group of students to sit with her and read a new nonfiction text. As they read, the teacher points out important text features and answers individual student questions. Which type of reading instruction is the teacher using?

• independent reading

• reader's theater

• guided reading

• shared reading

A third-grade teacher plans a lesson that begins with each student independently reading the same text, followed by a writing activity completed in partner sets, and ends with a class discussion about the text and their writing. The teacher checks in with students throughout all parts of the lesson then collects their writing to score with a rubric. This lesson would be best described as an example of:

• small group instruction

• integration of language skills

• an informal assessment

• differentiation

A kindergarten teacher has implemented reading instruction to help students master the basics of phonological awareness, phonics, and print awareness. Instruction is systematic and explicit, and the teacher presents skills in an order consistent with the developmental reading continuum. To best meet the instructional needs of each student throughout the year, the teacher should:

• provide uniform instruction to everyone in the class to provide equal learning opportunities.

• introduce new phonics skills in several ways to account for various learning styles.

• regularly send home results of student assessments to increase parental involvement.

• frequently assess each student's reading development and adjust instruction accordingly.

A running record is a reading assessment tool that:

• enables the teacher and student to discuss a student's novel selection to gauge student interest and engagement in a text.

• models how to conduct close reading by having the teacher read aloud and respond to the text.

• helps a teacher evaluate a student's reading of individual words and texts as a whole to check for strengths and weaknesses.

• monitors a student's comprehension by asking questions individually of the student while they read.

A fifth-grade teacher has a new student who just moved to their school from out of the country. She is a fluent English speaker, moved here from a predominantly English-speaking country, and is demonstrating grade-level reading skills. Which of the following types of differentiation is she likely to need on occasion despite her reading proficiency?

• pacing adjustment

• identification and support for lower-level skill gaps

• complexity of text

• schema or background knowledge support

A first-grade teacher plans her reading lessons so that they always include time for the teacher to read at least part of the text aloud to students. What is one way in which teacher-modeled reading can benefit students' fluency skills?

• Listening to the teacher read allows students to focus on comprehending the text without decoding the individual words.

• Listening to the teacher read will help students decode sight words.

• Listening to the teacher read helps students with phoneme-grapheme correspondence.

• Listening to the teacher read will help students learn to develop prosody in their own reading.

A selection of students has been called aside for individual instruction based on the area they struggled in on a recent assessment. The teacher presents the students with a simple sentence, such as, "The cat ran very fast." The teacher reads the sentence one word at a time with no intonation or expression. Then, she models how when people read and speak, it is natural to emphasize certain words in the sentence. She tells the group, "Today we will be working on adding emphasis to a sentence and thinking about the effect that has on our understanding. I will call on you and tell you what word to emphasize, and then you will say the sentence, saying that specific word strongly." The teacher models once again, this time reading, "The CAT ran very fast."

Based on the nature of this activity, which area of reading fluency did these students need additional instruction in?

• accuracy

• prosody

• speed

• automaticity

Following the second reading fluency assessment of the school year, a third-grade teacher noticed that a few of her students have shown no or very little fluency growth from the first assessment nine weeks before. Which of the following would be the least effective way to support their fluency development?

• provide them opportunities to reread texts

• increase the difficulty of their independent reading

• facilitate opportunities for the students to read aloud to themselves or with a partner

• incorporate choral reading into the classroom routines

Students who read below grade level and are working to improve their fluency should:

Select all answers that apply.

• practice reading aloud.

• read books above their current reading level.

• read books at their current independent reading level.

• reread books that they have already enjoyed.