This week our readings focuses on fluency. I was really interested in the article that focused on one-minute fluency tests because I am somewhat familiar with them. As part of my job this last summer assisting with a summer school I was involved in giving fluency tests to several children. I was not that familiar with the process before working with the summer school program, and at the time had my doubts on how accurate the assessments were. This reading sort of echoed some of my own thoughts, and strengthened some of my thoughts on these fluency tests.
According to "One-Minute Fluency Measures: Mixed Messages in Assessment and Instruction," fluency tests usually only test for accuracy and rate, forgetting the fact that comprehension is also really important. Fluency tests do not give a reason for why or why not a student is fluent, or a way to correct it. It also does not give an accurate view of how a child may read a larger portion of material on their own. A child may be able to focus for one minute with his or her teacher, but reading a book during 30 minutes of free reading time may be different for the child. The article ends with some suggestions for making these fluency assessments more relevant and some improve ways to use them in the classroom.
From my own experience I could see that some children reacted much differently to one-minute fluency tests. Some of them did really well and seemed to understand what they were reading during the time. Others would rush through it just to get their word count high. Others would do decent that could barely read anything on their own. We did employ some of the suggestions that the article had for improving fluency. We did not rely on the tests a lot for comprehension measures. We also let the children reread the text for a few days and retested them after they were more familiar with it as part of the process. I expected that most of the children would do better after seeing the readings that much, but some of them barely improved or even went down a little.
In my future classroom I think I can use my experience to my advantage. I already somewhat understand the process of doing these fluency assessments and understand that they can be abused, and can yield results that really do not tell us much. By using some of the tips from the reading I think I can make it a useful tool. I need to remember to combine it with other activities and be more open with what the assessment is about, and then choose more interesting readings, reread them with the students, and to engage parents of the students into the process.
Are any of my blog readers familiar with giving fluency assessments? Have any of you ever noticed how some children rush through them, or how others put on a really good front while doing them?
I am familiar with fluency assessments. I remember being tested at the beginning of each year in elementary school for fluency and rate. My teachers did a good job of not creating a competition among the students like we mentioned in class earlier. However, I have not witnessed a fluency test. I am curious to see how students react when they are being timed while they read.
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