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What should I do if a student is overly concerned with rate when doing one-minute timings?
Fluency is rate, accuracy, and expression leading to comprehension. Read Naturally requires all four of these criteria to be mastered in the pass step, but you might find that some students focus mostly on rate.
A student who is overly focused on rate may read without expression, make many errors while reading orally, or read without attending to meaning. Read Naturally recommends one or more of the following actions.
If a student is making many errors in the interest of increasing rate, then...
- Stop the student while he or she is reading and remind the student that accuracy is very important.
- Require the student to read the story to you accurately before timing the student during the pass step.
- Provide the timer for the student during the practice step only after the student has read the story for you accurately.
If the student reads without expression in the interest of increasing rate, then...
- Remind the student that oral reading should sound like people speaking to one another, with correct pausing and expression.
- Require the student to read the story to you with expression before timing the student during the pass step.
- Model expressive reading of one paragraph for the student at the pass step. Then require the student to practice reading the story alone with expression but without the timer. Return later to hear the student read the story with proper expression.
If the student reads without grasping the meaning of the text, and you think the lack of understanding is due to an overly high interest in rate, then...
- Remind the student that we read to get information from the text.
- Require the student to retell or summarize the story for you before timing the student during the pass step.
On rare occasions, you may need to lower a student’s goal to increase accuracy and expression. However, the high interest in rate can usually be tempered with the less drastic adaptations listed above.