Transcript Differentiating Instruction for Fluency and Comprehension Michael C. McKenna Sharon Walpole Agenda     Who needs this type of instruction? What data must be gathered? What planning decisions.

Differentiating Instruction for
Fluency and Comprehension
Michael C. McKenna
Sharon Walpole
Agenda
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Who needs this type of instruction?
What data must be gathered?
What planning decisions must be
made?
What are some tricks of the trade?
We are combining
ideas from
Chapters 5 and 7
Remember our plan
What are we trying to teach?
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These children possess relatively strong decoding skills,
but they lack adequate automaticity for fluent reading.
They will work to build fluency in texts that are at or slightly
below grade level during small-group time.
They will build comprehension through the same texts.
Limited word-recognition instruction may be provided.
How will we know when we’ve
accomplished our goal?
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When children’s fluency reaches benchmark, we can
redirect our tier 2 time to vocabulary and comprehension.
Remember that our goal is to make each of our groupings
temporary and targeted.
In our tiered system,
who is likely to need
this type of
differentiated
instruction?
What data can we use
to identify the children?
Qui ckTi me™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this pictur e.
DIBELS Second-Grade ORF high risk or some risk
DIBELS Second-Grade NWF is low risk
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We KNOW: These children have mastered short
vowel patterns but may need work in more
advanced orthographic patterns. (Remember that
NWF is limited as an indicator of advanced
phonics knowledge.)
We NEED to know: Which orthographic patterns
they still need help with and which high-frequency
words they need to learn.
Qui ckTi me™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this pictur e.
DIBELS Third-Grade ORF high risk or some risk
Informal phonics data reveal mastery of most vowel
patterns.
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We KNOW: These children have mastered
short vowel patterns but may need work in
more advanced patterns.
We NEED to know: Which orthographic
patterns they still need help with and which
high-frequency words they need to learn.
Qui ckTi me™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this pictur e.
Let’s find out
Give a phonics or spelling inventory to see which
patterns they need.
 Do a high-frequency word inventory to see which
sight words they need.
 Given their decoding foundation, a limited amount
of targeted instruction may be planned around the
deficits identified; if the needs here are great,
students should be served in a phonics and
fluency group.
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What about comprehension?
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Do not attempt to identify comprehension
deficits.
Using texts that are at or slightly below
grade level will provide many opportunities
to reinforce comprehension.
Children will differ in their ability to apply
comprehension strategies, but assessing
this ability is not necessary.
Now you’re ready!
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Do you have one group or two?
Think about the word recognition data; if possible
group children with similar specific needs so that
you can address them quickly.
Think about how slow their oral reading rate is.
Will you be able to use grade-level texts, or will
you have to use texts slightly below grade level?
Assessment Data (grouped for all)
Unknown
Patterns
HighFrequency
Words
Reading Rate
(WCPM)
Text Level
Below grade level
On grade level
Combining these results will provide you with
a collection of known and unknown items for
each child; their needs will probably not be
exactly the same.
To make your plan, start with
words and patterns
Set aside some time at the beginning of
small-group work to address them.
 Do not worry that the patterns may be
more familiar to some group members
than to others. Those who are more
familiar will benefit from the review.
 Do not limit yourself to
one-syllable words
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Now find your texts
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Do not use phonics-controlled texts. You
are looking for texts that
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are at or slightly below grade level,
are rich in content, and
represent both fiction and nonfiction.
Some of these texts may already
be provided in your core program!
Now find your texts
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Try to find enough texts that children are
reading a new text or a new section of text
each day; part of increasing fluency is
increasing reading volume.
This will allow you to choose longer texts;
you can read them over consecutive
sessions.
Now choose your strategies
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Since word recognition needs will be
minimal, we will not review the methods
here. See pp. 62-64 for strategies that
target patterns and 64-67 for strategies that
target high-frequency words.
Planning should focus mainly on fluency
and comprehension; we propose a very
simple framework.
Now think about fluency
procedures
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Read pages 70-84. You will need to
consider several things: your level of
support and strategies for organizing
repeated readings.
All effective fluency procedures have
certain things in common: teacher support
and repetition.
Remember: the goal is to build fluency. During
each session, you must plan for both repetition for
the children and support from the teacher.
Most support
Echo The teacher reads a sentence and
reading then the group rereads it aloud.
Choral The teacher leads the entire group
reading reading aloud in unison.
Partner Pairs of readers alternate reading
reading aloud by following a specific turntaking procedure.
Whisper Each child reads aloud (but not in
reading unison) in a quiet voice.
Least support
Remember that fluency
is more than rate!
Consider that “reading faster” is not the
goal of fluency building. Fluency includes
accuracy, rate, and prosody.
Students need teacher modeling of
appropriate rate and phrasing.
Consider motivational techniques
Students may benefit from timing
themselves and one another; incorporate
such procedures if they serve your main
goal – using your small-group time to
build fluency through repeated (and
assisted) practice.
Now think about comprehension
methods
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Read pages 104-107.
In order to preserve time for the students in
this group to actually read repeatedly, we
have chosen one high-utility
comprehension strategy that should be
useful for most any text.
Information Text
Summary What is the most important
Questions information so far?
Give me a summary of the
the most important parts of
the section on _____?
Inference Describe some additional
Questions examples of that idea.
Explain why these things
are similar.
What would happen if . . .
Narrative Text
What are the most
important details so far?
What were the main
events in this
chapter/part?
How did the
chapter/story end?
Describe the feelings of
the characters at the
end of the story.
Why did they feel that
way?
Remember to be strategic!
Your goal is fluency first, and then
comprehension. You will not be discussing
the text at the end of each page; rather,
you will be targeting your questioning at
strategic spots, and using repetitive,
generic language that students may
eventually generalize to other texts.
Gather or make all of your
materials
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Word lists, books, question scripts, timer, recording
sheets, notebooks – everything you need.
Texts could be selections from the previous year’s core
anthology if multiple copies are available.
They could also include texts used in recent whole-class
read-alouds or trade books, if you have multiple copies.
Remember that our goal is that you plan for three weeks
of wide, repeated, assisted reading at a time.
A typical group*
4 minutes
7 minutes
4 minutes
Letter or syllable patterns; highfrequency words
Choral or partner read, then whisper
read. Time and chart if appropriate
Ask inference or summary questions
If you can extend the time for this
group, add minutes to the
children’s reading time.
*Minute allocations are simply an example based on a 15-minute session.
Try it out!
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Remember that we are hoping for a cycle, with
teacher reflection. Your goal is to move these
children into a vocabulary and comprehension
group, but you’ve got to be successful here first.
You may need to repeat a particular lesson for
two days. That’s fine. You also may need to step
in with echo or choral reading. That’s fine too.
At the end of the three weeks, you can use data
collected as part of the instruction to inform your
next moves.