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Post by keturahyoung on Feb 17, 2016 16:12:22 GMT -5
So as I was researching the term fluency, most of the articles that popped up were about how to acquire and retain reading fluency for primary students. Different organizations and website gave tips for teachers to use when in the classroom. For example, the Scholastic website gave 5 strategies to develop reading fluency: - Model fluent reading
- Do repeated readings in class
- Promote phrased reading in class
- Enlist tutors
- Do a reading-theater class
(http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/5-surefire-strategies-developing-reading-fluency) These strategies sound like they would work great in an English/Language Arts classroom environment. However, I'm not sure if these same tactics would work in other content areas. In class we discussed what it means to be literate and how it varies depending upon the subject. Just because you're literate in biology, does not mean you are literate in US history. This could be demonstrated by the in class activity we did across content areas when exploring expert bias. I'm wondering what the difference is between being fluent and literate in a subject is, if there is one. I'm also wondering if other subject areas depend upon English courses to create fluent readers/speakers and then build upon those skills or do they teach students how to be fluent in their particular subject. I imagination that some of those skills what transfer, but I also know that some skills are exclusive to specific subject matter. The picture below is one of the many examples I found that implies that reading/speaking fluency is exclusive to English. (Sorry its super huge, I cant quite figure out how to resize images) I also included a poll, just in case you guys don't really feel like typing out a response.  |
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Post by taylorbelleglaze on Feb 23, 2016 13:34:24 GMT -5
Hey Keturah, I really liked the question you posed in the poll above. My opinion on this matter is that these two intersect with each other tremendously. Each of these terms are broad, but they both focus on the ability to express oneself in a sense that is articulate. Fluency is more aligned with the idea that a person is able to get across ideas in a way that makes sense, while literacy is focused on knowing how to do something in a certain field that is competent. I think a person has to have a solid literacy foundation to be fluent in something. As for other subject areas, I believe these classes do rely on English teachers to create a solid foundation for students to be literate in reading and writing, but their focus is on making those students literate in that subject area. Once they are literate, they will eventually have fluency in that subject area because they are able to explain it to others in a way that is comprehensible. Hope that makes sense!
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kasee
New Member
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Post by kasee on Feb 23, 2016 19:41:55 GMT -5
schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/161B2F58-5263-4CE6-BAF5-A016CF539162/0/CIEGuidanceforLiteracyintheContentAreas.pdfwww.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/pdf/curriculum/section7.pdfI'm glad that you brought up this topic and asked how fluency compares to literacy. I agree with Taylor that the two intersect and that a solid foundation in literacy is important to transition towards fluency in the content area, and once that is achieved, students are better inclined to achieve literary success in multiple content areas. I was curious of what that looked liked exactly, so I found two examples of what literacy across different contents areas strives to achieve in the classroom. These are lengthy pdfs, but organized in charts so it's easier to read. The articles show what literacy should look like and for content areas such as math, English/Language Arts, Social Studies and Science. The first link is a shorter article and very insightful  I know this helped me gain a little better understanding so I hope it can be helpful for y'all!
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Post by janinesherman on Feb 23, 2016 20:29:13 GMT -5
When I read Keturah's question on the link between literacy and fluency I had to think for awhile because it seems that the two would go hand in hand, like if you know how to read, you can read fluently, -- but then I started to think about all the different kinds of literacies there are.
For instance, survival literacy or functional literacy, a person being able to read/write just enough to be able to get by in the real world, but not beyond the fundamental needs, is this an example of fluency?
It also made me think of terms we learned in our TSL classes-- BICS- basic interpersonal communication skills and CALP- communicative academic language proficiency. ELL's typically master BICS, being able to have fluent casual conversation, long before they can speak fluently in CALP, in an academic setting.
I am not sure if this is going in the same direction as the conversation was headed but I just wanted to add that I think we should be looking at fluency in just math, science, reading, and writing, but at the different levels in which literacy exists.
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Post by lindseynharrell on Feb 24, 2016 11:35:33 GMT -5
Janine, I really like what you have to say about this topic because I did not think about this either. Maybe reading and fluency does relate hand in hand to the processing and mastering of a language... any thoughts people?
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Post by ronettekortbein on Feb 24, 2016 17:07:25 GMT -5
Lindsey, I think you could be on to something. Based on the readings and videos this week, it seems that literacy and fluency are different ways of looking at a reading. When I watched the DIBELS and DORF videos, it seemed like fluency meant that the readings were able to read the words on the page, although they didn't necessarily have to understand what they were reading. For example, the child in the DIBELS video was reading nonsense words. In the DORF video, it seemed like part of fluency could also be being able to make sense of what you are reading in addition to being able to read it. So maybe literacy is a part of fluency? Do you think the two work together? Maybe like you said, the two relate hand in hand.
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Post by hannahhiester on Mar 1, 2016 13:12:52 GMT -5
I tend to go the other way round in that, to me, fluency is part of literacy. For example, I would say that someone could speak fluently in a language but still not be familiar with all of the cultural norms or colloquialisms which to me pertain to being literate (where 'literate' here is taking on the meaning of being able to navigate a discourse). I think you are also right janinesherman to point out that you can be fluent and/or literate not only in one subject but within a subset of that subject and we as teachers may need to be careful that we do not assume that just because a student is literate in one area, this carries to all areas.
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Post by keturahyoung on Mar 2, 2016 11:05:12 GMT -5
I tend to go the other way round in that, to me, fluency is part of literacy. For example, I would say that someone could speak fluently in a language but still not be familiar with all of the cultural norms or colloquialisms which to me pertain to being literate (where 'literate' here is taking on the meaning of being able to navigate a discourse). I think you are also right janinesherman to point out that you can be fluent and/or literate not only in one subject but within a subset of that subject and we as teachers may need to be careful that we do not assume that just because a student is literate in one area, this carries to all areas. Hannah, I think I agree with you. I don't think the two terms are necessarily separate. I think this could still pertain to the classroom. I think fluency could be used as a tool to fake literacy, although it would be discovered when the times comes to apply concepts or practices. For example, in an English class maybe a student can identify figurative language, but cannot explain what it literally means or explain how it affects the text. Or in a science class, a student may be able to regurgitate Newton's Laws of Motions, but cannot apply them in an experiment. |
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I know this helped me gain a little better understanding so I hope it can be helpful for y'all!