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Literacy Professional Learning Resource – Teaching Strategies

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Literacy teaching strategies: VELS 1 & 2 | VELS 3 | VELS 4 | VELS 5 & 6

VELS level 1 & 2 – Teaching reading fluency

Guided fluency instruction moving students to independence (a model, not a prescription):

Guided fluency instruction: modelling

  • helping students see (and hear) what fluent reading of a targeted text is like.

Fluency instruction: assisted practice

  • teacher and student share responsibility for the reading.

Guided fluency instruction: independent practice

  • instruction responsibility shifts almost entirely to the student.

Notes

Although these individual methods and principles will have a positive impact on readers’ fluency and overall reading development, it is important for teachers to combine, orchestrate or integrate these individual methods so that the instruction has a more powerful, synergistic effect (Rasinski 1988, 2003).

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Fluency instruction

‘Fluency instruction’ is part of the publication entitled Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read, Kindergarten Through Grade 3.

This publication was developed by the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA) and was funded by the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) through the Educational Research and Development Centers Program, PR/Award Number R305R70004, as administered by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education.

Read the NIFL’s web pages on fluency instruction (http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publicatons/reading_first1fluency.html)

However, the comments or conclusions do not necessarily represent the positions or policies of NIFL, OERI, or the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

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Guided fluency instruction: moving students independence

Dr Timothy Rasinski, Kent State University , Kent, Ohio, is an expert in guided fluency.

Read Dr Timothy Rasinski’s Formula Fluency (PDF – 408Kb) (http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/fluencyformula/pdfs/Instruction.pdf)
This document presents Dr Rasinski’s theory focusing on modelling, assisted practice and the teacher’s role in this process.