Ch5 Tompkins

In the last section of the chapter, Tompkins focuses on reading and writing fluency and how they are intertwined. Students who have a high fluency in reading are able to write more quickly and efficiently than a student that is not a fluent reader. Using word walls and high-frequency words, students that are more fluent in reading are able to compose sentences and paragraphs without having to constantly think about where their sentences are going or what their writing passage is about. Quick writes are useful for students and teachers because students get the practice of pulling these high-frequency words from their memory and teachers are able to gauge also the student's fluency as a writer and as a reader. In my CT's classroom, students worked on a writing assignment about their favorite part of their holiday break. I have been working with students on editing, and have noticed that there is a wide range of writing fluency in her classroom. After reading this chapter, I have been thinking about which students would or would not qualify as fluent readers and writers. One student in particular, has had trouble with writing high frequency words such as "saw" (as in, "I saw a movie this weekend") and spell it as "sal"; which is the saw she also pronounces it. With this evidence I would conclude that she is not only low on the writing fluency scale, but that she would is probably low on the reading fluency scale as well. This was confirmed when I asked her to read her story back to me, and she could not even remember what she had written because there were many spelling errors. When reading, she also did not use any prosody, which is also an indication she is low fluency because when reading a story about Christmas day and presents, you would definitely assume there would be some sort of excitement and inflection in her voice, but there was none. I am interested in learning more about the students in the classroom during their literacy period and seeing if this one student in particular will be improving in fluency by the end of the year.
I have also seen/heard the difference reading fluency levels in the classroom when the students have read aloud. There are a couple students who have a lower reading proficiency that still volunteer to read aloud, which gives them good practice. However, it slows the pace of the story down and other students become distracted. I have seen the fluency also becoming a problem after students have started their lit circles. The students with the lower fluency levels happen to be in a group together and are falling behind in the chapters they are required to read because they read slower than the other groups. Maybe the teacher should have picked a lower reading level book to make sure they could keep pace or let the students read at their own paces.