The Connection of Fluency and Comprehension in the Classroom

In Mosaic Of Thought, I read about the importance of comprehension and fluency in the classroom, as well as how it connects to our leveled reading for our students. The relationship between reading comprehension and reading fluency is that once you understand what you are reading, then you will become a more fluent reader. Students who struggle with comprehension struggle with fluency because they are having to stop and re-read or struggle to understand what they are reading. Because of this fluency in their reading suffers. I am not seen any approaches to assessing fluency in my classroom thus far. Although we have set time for reading, we have not been teaching strategies about reading yet this year. I think that formal assessments help us to understand where students are at. Having a DRA data for each student is critical in deciding what course of action should be taken to help develop skills in our students. I think we also need to see how much students are comprehending about their reading, if they can connect it to writing or not, and if they are able to form concise responses based on their comprehension of the piece they read. I think it is also important to discuss reading development with our CT’s and with our literacy coach at the school. They are aware of the testing that is done and which ways to assess learning of skills and develop readers on and individual level. I think that we also need to confer and conference with students frequently to make sure they are at the correct reading level and they are being challenged enough. Comprehension is very important and students also need to be able to display and understanding of what they are reading and also be able to develop this understanding in their writing. We use DRA testing to correctly place students at a reading level and work from their on developing comprehension and fluency.