LITERACY

Oral Reading Fluency is one of the screened skills we are monitoring with our DIBELS assessment/screening.
As a parent you can help your student by doing a fluency check with them from time to time. The first step is to select a page of text that is appropriate for your student. You can use the open hand selection technique. Have your child read a page of the book beginning with an open hand. Each time the student comes to an unknown word or a word that causes more than 4 seconds to figure out, put down a finger. If at the end of the page your student has at least the thumb left up, this is probably an appropriate reading book. The next step is to get a timer. You can use the microwave or a watch and set it for 1 minute. Have your student choose a new page in the book and begin reading with the timer. Make a tally mark any time your child makes an error in the reading. Remember that rereading is not an error. At the end of the 1 minute count the number of words read correctly out of the number of words possible and note that there should be a 95% accuracy or not more that 4 or 5 words missed on the page. The words that are read correctly becomes the WPM or words per minute. The following are minimum WPM goals for each grade level.

Kindergarten and First Graders are screened on the ability to recognize and say letter names quickly out of order both upper and lower cased.

Kindergarten and First graders are expected to hear and segment sounds in words. This task is listening and speaking only. The adult says a word like dog. And the child's response is /d/ /o/ /g/ pronouncing each sound separately and distinctly. We use words with two-five sounds in them. We only count the sounds-not the letters. So rich would be /r/ /i/ /ch/ or three sounds.

Kindergarten and first graders are also expected to sound out nonsense words. These words are 2 or three letters and always have the short vowel sound. Some examples are:

biv, cof, lav, pok, rez, sal,

Students are allowed to sound out the words or say the word for credit. They receive credit for each sound in the word that is pronounced correctly, so "vig" is worth 3 sounds. and "ut" is worth 2 sounds, etc.

If you would like any further explanation or have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Our screening results are available for discussion with parents of individual students.

Fluency is one of the three key components that we use to level our students for guided reading. The other two components are accuracy- 97% goal and comprehension.( At least 85% on retells and 92% on comprehension questions. )

Mrs. Givens