AAR Fluency lists

[AngelaR]

Can anyone enlighten me as to the purpose of the Fluency word lists for AAR?  They're just KILLER for my DD and me to get through...so horribly boring!!! I've tried incorporating some of the activities as suggested at the back of the book, but it's just...yuck.  It seems to me that she retains information better when she reads words over and over within the context of a story, not a long list of words.  In other words, I'd be totally down with having her read a bunch more readers, instead of a list of words.   If someone can explain the logic to me, I'll just suck it up and get it done as pleasantly and fun as I can make it, but when one is evaluating the purpose of something that is so life-suckingly boring, one wants to be assured of a purpose before ploughing onwards.  Thank you!

[Melissa in Australia]

I skip them.

[PeterPan]

AAR is trying to give tools for a wide range of learners. A dyslexic, for instance, can read words many times in context and NOT retain. For them, and for some non dyslexics, fluency drills are essential. I did extensive fluency work with my ds (diagnosed dyslexic) trying to get his reading off the ground, drilling words, phrases, sentences. My dd, on the other hand (diagnosed ADHD), just needed the slightest dab, a few weeks. If your dc does not need them to read comfortably from text, don't bother. If the reading is going well, it's going well. I would use your judgment on this.

https://www.teachercreatedmaterials.com/professional-learning/live-webinars/  Just for your trivia, Rasinski, author of a series of workbooks on fluency (and many other great things!) is going to be doing a live webinar today, twice actually. His other webinars on word roots/vocabulary, etc. have been great, so this doubtless will be too. So if you want to see what you're missing or whether you're on track, there you go. 

[ktgrok]

ARe they boring, or hard?

If they are hard, you may need to work on other stuff. 

If just boring, but easy, I'd do a line or two a day, rather than a page at once. 

[AngelaR]

2 hours ago, Ktgrok said:

ARe they boring, or hard?

If they are hard, you may need to work on other stuff. 

If just boring, but easy, I'd do a line or two a day, rather than a page at once. 

She generally does just fine on reading the word lists, it's just hard to get through because it's boring as all get out, for me and for her.  She more often struggles in the reading, because she's trying to look at the pictures to read instead of looking at the words (she picked up this lovely habit at PS Kindergarten last year...).  Whereas she actually reads the word lists because there are no pictures.  They are just so long and soul killing for both of us.  She left KG last year disliking reading, and I'm trying to wean her out of that...but it's hard to know how to help her exactly.  So, if the word lists are not an integral part of teaching a non-dyslexic child how to read, then I'll skip them, and focus more on getting her to read actual stories...like the Bob books.  I find she enjoys reading much more when she reads "easier" books than the stories we are working on in our daily lessons.  Like when she reads really simple CVC stories in the Bob books.  Also, she feels very accomplished and proud of herself when she's read a book that's slightly easier for her to read, instead of feeling frustrated with the story we're working on that day in AAR.  

[AngelaR]

4 hours ago, PeterPan said:

AAR is trying to give tools for a wide range of learners. A dyslexic, for instance, can read words many times in context and NOT retain. For them, and for some non dyslexics, fluency drills are essential. I did extensive fluency work with my ds (diagnosed dyslexic) trying to get his reading off the ground, drilling words, phrases, sentences. My dd, on the other hand (diagnosed ADHD), just needed the slightest dab, a few weeks. If your dc does not need them to read comfortably from text, don't bother. If the reading is going well, it's going well. I would use your judgment on this.

https://www.teachercreatedmaterials.com/professional-learning/live-webinars/  Just for your trivia, Rasinski, author of a series of workbooks on fluency (and many other great things!) is going to be doing a live webinar today, twice actually. His other webinars on word roots/vocabulary, etc. have been great, so this doubtless will be too. So if you want to see what you're missing or whether you're on track, there you go. 

Thanks!  Watching it now.  Looking forward to learning lots!!

[ktgrok]

I'd say even for a dyslexic those particular fluency drills were not helpful. Reading a page of all different words doesn't really build fluency. I think those lists are more to check that the kid really can read all those words. 

The fluency sheets on Abecedarian are totally different and DID help. A page has only 8 words, just repeated over and over in random order. THAT builds fluency. You have to see a word a certain number of times (much much higher for dyslexic students) to achieve automatic recognition. Those "fluency" pages in AAR only have each word once...so not really helpful for fluency. More a test of what they can read and what they struggle with.  I'm attaching an image of what the fluency page looks like on Abecedarian so you can see the difference. 

Also, for really great short books like Bob books, check out the Beginner Books sets at The Good and The Beautiful. They are like bob books with just a few words per page in the level A books, but the illustrations are SO wonderful! They feel like "real" books. One of my favorite purchases of all time. https://www.goodandbeautiful.com/products/beginner-books-box-a/

Edited August 25, 2020 by Ktgrok

[PeterPan]

6 hours ago, AngelaR said:

Thanks!  Watching it now.  Looking forward to learning lots!!

So did you learn anything? I was pretty excited about his Poems for Building Reading Skills. For fluency during our Barton work, I put all the words/phrases, and sentences of Barton into Quizlet and drilled multiple times a day till they were fluent. However reading poetry is MUCH more challenging for him. The whole thing kind of falls apart. I think it's the varied sentence structure (different from prose), the rhyming, everything. It totally throws him. I also wanted to work on prosody with him, and the books come with recordings. I'm going to start him on the level 1 and work up.

 

[AngelaR]

2 hours ago, Ktgrok said:

I'd say even for a dyslexic those particular fluency drills were not helpful. Reading a page of all different words doesn't really build fluency. I think those lists are more to check that the kid really can read all those words. 

The fluency sheets on Abecedarian are totally different and DID help. A page has only 8 words, just repeated over and over in random order. THAT builds fluency.

Thank you SOOOO much for your sample and the book lists.  I may make some new word lists for her along those lines, but as I said, she's not dyslexic, so perhaps I'll just do supplemental readers instead.  Also good to know about Abecedarian resource as my KG DS is a late bloomer and has a few signs of dyslexia but as he's maturing, the signs are disappearing, so hopefully not.  

[AngelaR]

14 hours ago, PeterPan said:

So did you learn anything? I was pretty excited about his Poems for Building Reading Skills. For fluency during our Barton work, I put all the words/phrases, and sentences of Barton into Quizlet and drilled multiple times a day till they were fluent. However reading poetry is MUCH more challenging for him. The whole thing kind of falls apart. I think it's the varied sentence structure (different from prose), the rhyming, everything. It totally throws him. I also wanted to work on prosody with him, and the books come with recordings. I'm going to start him on the level 1 and work up.

 

I liked the idea of singing to help with reading. My kids LOVE singjno and I’d never thought of using that to help with reading ability, but it’s brilliant!!!