Page 35 - ABCTE Study Guide_Neat

42 + 16.8 = 58.8

Improvement in fluency
Juanita’s baseline (and current, score that will indicate Fluency score in WCPM
in this case) fluency score that Juanita is making that Juanita needs to
have attained to be on
expressed in WCPM adequate weekly track
progress

Question

Which of the following statements is true?

A All students use the same text in their fluency assessments.

B A student’s fluency score is calculated by dividing WCPM by age.

C Baseline fluency scores should be determined in the last week of school.

D Students should be able to improve fluency scores by 1 WCPM per week.

Answer

Answer choice D is the correct response. With exceptional effort, some students may be able to
improve their fluency scores by about 2 WCPM per week, but improvements of about 1.5 WCPM are
more reasonable and sustainable.

What If the Needed Rates of Improvement Are Higher than Two WCPM per Week?

If needed rates of weekly improvement exceed two WCPM—even for the lower acceptable
expectation—then you may be assessing with a text that is not at the student’s independent reading
level. Even leveled texts that have your correct month and grade level on the cover may not be right
for every student. Your assessment results will help you choose an appropriate text for each student;
that is, a text for which the student misses no more than 5% of the words.

If you selected an appropriate text at the beginning of the year but the student is not achieving his or
her weekly goals, then it may be necessary to re-evaluate your instructional strategies. Of course,
talking with your students one-on-one will help you determine whether a student’s performance is
being adversely affected by conditions outside of the classroom.

Promoting Fluency

In an ideal world, parents read with their kids each night. The child sits in mom or dad’s lap as mom
or dad reads from a book. The book is arranged in such a way that both parent and child can see the
text, and mom or dad points to each word while reading aloud. In this way, parents model fluent
reading for their children, often reading the very same story many times.