PARENTS EVENING PRESENTATION

Fluency PLC

FluenCy Idol:

Using Pop Culture to Engage Students and Boost fluency skills

Brianna Geisey, Olivia Longhenry, Amber Roth

Major Points of the Article

Fluency

What is Fluency?

Fluency Idol

Why its important and how we can improve

Summer Reading Clinic

Findings from Fluency Idol

Rational

The rationale for selecting Fluency Idol: Using Pop Culture to Engage Students and Boost Fluency Skills is because of the information the article entails on how to help students increase their fluency skills. The main takeaway from the article is how teachers could influence a student's fluency using pop culture by reading, practicing, and performing while students read aloud to each other. We found this activity to be a great way to have students feel engaged, enjoy strengthening their fluency skills, and feel more involved in the classroom.

Connection to COurse Content

The connections between...

Our course and Fluency Idol

• Our course content and the article both view the importance of why students need to be effective readers and make the connection on how crucial the 5 Pillars of Literacy is for students. (K. Calo, et al, p 454.) and week 2 presentation slide 48)
• Our course content and the article both mention the importance of comprehension between the words and sounds of reading. Both connect with the recognition of words and what oral sounds can be made through reading. (K. Calo, et al, p 454.) and (P. Dewitz, et al, p 259.)

• A final way that the two connect is the strategies on how to help students develop their fluency skills. Our textbook explains a way to help students by developing a reader's theater to rehearse scripts, motivate them to engage in reading, and have students feel involved with the activity. This helps the students become more familiar with fluency and practice positively. (P. Dewitz, et al, p 279).The article is connected because its main purpose is to engage with students to help them develop fluency. The article explains how teachers select students to read a poem to the class at their reading level. They practice with partners to help them prepare their poems and practice their fluency. (K. Calo, et al, p 455).

Fluency

Fluency

• According to the article, fluency is “the ability to read at an appropriate pace, with accuracy and automaticity, and with proper prosody or expression
• Important because it allows students to focus on meaning opposed to trying to figure out each word
• THE FLUENCY DEVELOPMENT LESSON (FDL)
• 10-15 min lesson that utilizes modeling guided practice and repeated readings

(K.Calo et al. p. 454)

FLUENCY IDOL

Coauthor Taylor Woodlard- Ferguson

• In a school district in Maryland, Ferguson implemented and pop culture game called Fluency Idol
• Students work with the teacher to select a poem, they then spend the entire week practicing their reading
• students are given time to read with partners and read at home
• On Friday, three students are selected to perform their poem for the class
• students are given a toy microphone for their performance
• students are recorded so they can reflect on their reading
• students select a winner via a secret ballot

FLUENCY IDOL

Coauthor Taylor Woodlard- Ferguson

• In a school district in Maryland, Ferguson implemented and pop culture game called Fluency Idol
• Students work with the teacher to select a poem, they then spend the entire week practicing their reading
• students are given time to read with partners and read at home
• On Friday, three students are selected to perform their poem for the class
• students are given a toy microphone for their performance
• students are recorded so they can reflect on their reading
• students select a winner via a secret ballot

Summer Reading clinic

• Fluency Idol was repeated over the summer in a Reading Clinic which consisted of students that were challenged and frustrated readers
• Summer session was led by graduate students, which lasted six weeks for four days a week. Students worked in small groups in which the clinicians were models of fluency and provided meaningful feedback
• Echo and choral reading to improve fluency
• Enforced comfortable environment for students to read
• Children got to chose a book to practice in group session and at home

(K. Calo et al. P 455-456)

Creating Comfortable Environment: Students in the summer reading clinic practiced reading to dogs once a week for comfortability and relaxation

Findings from Flunecy IDOL

Students Enjoyed Fluency IdolStudents described it as cool, awesome, fun, and something that made them happy.

GROWTH Parents saw in increase in their child's desire to read aloud and their ability to decode.

Enjoyment Reading and Feedback The children enjoyed reading to the dogs. THey were good listeners and companions for the kids, while the clinicians provided feedback to improve their fluency/

(K. Calo et al. p. 457)

Informed Reaction

The article started out by saying that fluency has been identified again and again as a foundational and necessary skill that children need to be successful readers. There has been a lot of useful research done on fluency stating that it is an ‘essential bridge between word recognition and comprehension.’ It is so important that students start early in school learning fluency.

Informed Reaction Cont.

• When you do activities that make learning fun, it makes learning not feel as hard, especially with students who struggle (such as Fluency Idol)
• The article goes into parent involvement in Fluency Idol as well, with the students reading and reciting their poems to the family, which is great. When you get the whole family involved with school you get a better support system for your students which can make learning for students change like night and day.
• Over all this article has a lot of great ideas to implement into the classroom, but group work and family involvement are the biggest!

Fluency Idol

Please Read the Directions Given!

Most importantly Have Fun!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Calo, K. M., Woolard-Ferguson, T., & Koitz, E. (2013). Fluency idol: Using pop culture to engage students and boost fluency skills. The Reading Teacher, 66(6), 454–458. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1148

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