Fluency and Comprehension

[Minerva]

My son is on the third and final book of Dancing Bears. His decoding skills are getting much better, and I am looking ahead to what we will do once he is finished with DB. He is reading more complex writing, but both his fluency and comprehension need a lot of work. 

 

I am looking for suggestions to attack these specific skills. 

 

Thanks! 

[Storygirl]

I'm not going to be much help. My dyslexic DD has no problems with comprehension, and my DS with comprehension problems does not have dyslexia, and he gets most of his intervention at school. I could describe what is helping his comprehension, but the root of his problems is different.

 

I suspect that the root of your son's fluidity and comprehension problems is the decoding. Even after learning decoding skills, the dyslexic brain has to work harder to use those skills, and with brain power devoted to decoding, there is less thought process available for the comprehension part of reading. Continuing to work on decoding may actually be the key to improving the comprehension.

 

I used Dancing Bears A with DD, and it helped break her word guessing habit and forced her to slow down to sound out words. However, that kind of decoding is unlike what she learns now in her OG decoding lessons (I did not teach her with the OG method but first got her tutoring then enrolled her in a dyslexia school).

 

All that to say that you may find more work on decoding, using other methods, may benefit the comprehension more than using a comprehension program.

 

 

[Storygirl]

Depending on your son's age and reading level, you could look into CLE Reading, grade three and up. (Grades 1 and 2 are a different, learning-to -read format). Comprehension and fluidity are components of the program, but it addresses many other reading skills as well. It's a Christian program, and the stories in the textbook feature Mennonite children, so it's not everyone's cup of tea. It is a textbook plus workbook; you could do the workbook questions orally if writing slows your child down.

 

The program is set up for each story to be read twice -- first silently, then aloud on the second day. I recommend reading the story aloud twice, instead. Reading aloud and reading the same text multiple times are both strategies for improving comprehension.

 

ETA: This is not a decoding program, so this suggestion is in addition to what I wrote in my previous post. You could also use a stand-alone comprehension program, such as Reading Detective from Critical Thinking Company.

Edited May 24, 2017 by Storygirl

[PeterPan]

I'm not up on DB, but what Story is saying makes sense. Barton not only really nails decoding, but it gives you lists to drill for fluency. We also did RAN/RAS work. If he's had the CTOPP, you should have those scores. If he's had language testing, you can see if there's anything in there to explain the comprehension issues. 

 

Another thing you can do is get a basic workbook on reading comprehension, inferencing, etc. from some place like TCR (Teacher Created Resources) and see what happens. You might find with a grade adjustment he's nailing it, boom. Or you might find his inferencing, etc. is not appropriate even with lower level reading material. My ds is that way. He actually needs targeted work on inferencing, finding the main point, finding supporting details, etc. It's not going to come in just because his decoding comes in. For some kids it will. So for him, he has enough isssues with the regular grade-leveled reading comprehension materials from TCR that we know we need to move to therapy level interventions.

 

[MerryAtHope]

At the very least, I would have him read out loud to you for at least 20 minutes a day, so that you can discuss things with him and help him continue to work on word-attack skills. Reading aloud is the only way you'll really know what he's reading fluently, and what is still a challenge for him. One way to work on fluency and comprehension is to pick something that would be on the easier side. Easy reading builds up speed, fluency, and confidence. And, since he won't have to focus as much on decoding in easier books, he can focus more on comprehension.

 

If you feel he needs more direct instruction though, see where he would test in All About Reading. That includes lots of fluency practice, comprehension exercises, and would also continue to reinforce decoding for him (I tend to agree with Storygirl that the issue may be that he needs more practice in decoding so that skill becomes automatic--and then he'll have more brain power for focusing on comprehension.) The upper levels would give him a lot of practice with multi-syllable words and the needed word-attack skills. Here's a link to their placement tests if you want to check that out, and an article on how they approach comprehension.

 

HTH as you see what will work for him!

[PeterPan]

Just to rabbit trail a bit, decoding level and language level don't have to go together. I'm not saying the dc in question does have language issues. It could be as simple as he needs more decoding work, more fluency work, more RAN/RAS, etc.  But I'm looking at those AAS reading level samples and going ok, my ds can decode higher than that but he can't READ that. Right now he's diagnosable with receptive/expressive language delay, just got that. 

 

So that's why I'm saying if you have test scores, look at them. 

[Guest]

We are not dealing with dyslexia but I came across this while looking for something else and thought you might find it useful. Note it's a PDF and will show up as a download when you click on the link.

 

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://readlearningservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/May15ReadingComp.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwjUruW6sonUAhVLxVQKHe23AEAQFghBMAM&usg=AFQjCNEOVdfDOkW_64uE3Md5-ryd7rCtsw&sig2=ss95gwz1_IoyC8zgwc2ObQ

 

This is the title if you prefer to look it up yourself:

Reading Comprehension & Dyslexia - R.E.A.D. Learning Services

Edited May 24, 2017 by Guest

[MerryAtHope]

Just to rabbit trail a bit, decoding level and language level don't have to go together. I'm not saying the dc in question does have language issues. It could be as simple as he needs more decoding work, more fluency work, more RAN/RAS, etc.  But I'm looking at those AAS reading level samples and going ok, my ds can decode higher than that but he can't READ that. Right now he's diagnosable with receptive/expressive language delay, just got that. 

 

So that's why I'm saying if you have test scores, look at them. 

 

Yes, exactly--you'd want to look not only for what a child can decode, but what he can read fluently and easily and with good comprehension vs. what's too complex.

[Kanin]

There is a well-researched link between reading fluency and reading comprehension. There are a number of simple things you can do to increase reading fluency. Repeated reading is very easy to do. You should find passages online (on the DIBELS website - free at all grade levels - or somewhere else, or buy a book) and find one at his instructional level. You read the passage once, or preferrably twice, a day and calculate the words correct per minute. He then graphs his results, and sets a goal. Read the passage for 5 days, and then pick a new one. Rinse and repeat! You can also read a sentence, or a few sentences, and have him repeat it as fluidly as you read it. To increase motivation, if you think you need to, he could pick out small rewards for meeting his goal. The goal doesn't have to be based on what the eventual outcome should be, but if he reads at 34 wcpm, for example, he could set the goal of reading the passage at 45 wcpm by the end of the week.

 

This is a great article about fluency from the Florida Center for Reading Research. http://www.fcrr.org/publications/publicationspdffiles/hudson_lane_pullen_readingfluency_2005.pdf  It has all the targets you should shoot for as far as words correct per minute, based on grade. You should pick the appropriate goal rate from his instructional grade level, not his age-based grade.

[Minerva]

Thanks for all of these suggestions!

 

 

[ElizabethB]

Upper level phonics, use the nonsense word document in teacher file to track wcpm progress.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html