Older fluency assessments, such as casual reading inventories, were more concerned with accuracy. The problem with accuracy tests is that they tend to overestimate fast readers who read quickly but correctly.

DIBELS was a significant advancement since it covered accuracy and rate, which is ideal in basic grades. It does, however, show more respect than should be shown to rapid readers who can skim through texts without noticeable reactions.

Fluency monitoring and training are critical, but it appears that they are frequently miss-assessed and under-taught. There are, in any case, a couple of explanations behind this. To begin, educators appear to lack a well-defined fluency concept and specifying its components based on their order of development would not alleviate the problem. It is important to note that fluency is a combination of comprehension and decoding.

Children cannot read if they are unable to detect, decode, and pronounce words. It is for this reason that phonological awareness, sight words, and phonics are taught.

What Is and Isn’t Fluency?

Recognizing words in a list is not the same as reading them horizontally in structured sentences. When reading a collection of words, speed is almost irrelevant. When reading phrases, though, you must be quick.

When a learner reads slowly, it indicates that he or she is using considerable effort to comprehend the text. This indicates that cognitive resources will be unavailable when generating ideas.

It is sufficient to explain that word reading speed is important since it reflects how much the reader will concentrate on the meaning of a text.

The Location of Evaluation

Making meaning of our sentences is another aspect of comprehension that is also a component of fluency. A person listening to your oral reading should be able to understand the message being conveyed.

This should be aided by the fact that you have organized the words into the appropriate sentences and phrases. To read in this manner, you must be able to quickly make sense of sentences utilizing meaning and punctuation.

Educators who believe fluency requires reading the proper words quickly have missed the point. Furthermore, many educators are unfamiliar with the concepts of reading assessments.

The truth is that reading tests aid in weighing pupils’ achievements based on behavioral samples. As a result, the assessment tasks are frequently distinct from the overall behavior in many ways.

Beneficial steps

It is necessary to demonstrate to the children how to complete the jobs correctly. Here are some pointers to assist them to improve their skills.

• Teach the children to read aloud the texts not as quickly as possible, but as well as they can. Also, inform them that they will be required to react to questions about the passages as soon as they complete them.
• Take note of the correct words per minute and whether or not the reading makes sense.

Final Thoughts

The fundamental goal of educators and teachers should not be to teach children how to read quickly and fluently. Great efforts must also be made to instil in them the desire to comprehend the words and make sense of them.