From Fluency to Comprehension

This book is chock-full of practical ideas for making fluency a fun and enjoyable part of your daily routine--for example, podcasting, activities that incorporate songs and poems, and 5-minute movement activities that let students 'get the wiggles out' while practicing fluent reading. All the chapters include classroom examples and ways to fit fluency into the day with little additional planning. Read this book and you will never go back to the kinds of fluency lessons that dampen everyone's enthusiasm for reading.--Patricia M. Cunningham, PhD, Department of Education, Wake Forest University Classroom teachers will welcome this volume. Chapters explore research-based practices that improve reading fluency and comprehension, complete with definitions, clear directions, implementation guidance, and classroom examples. The approaches provided can be used in varied contexts--with small groups or the whole class, with English language learners, in intervention settings, and with parents as educational partners. This text would be of benefit in undergraduate as well as graduate reading education classes.--Diane DeFord, PhD, Swearingen Literacy Chair, University of South Carolina
This book is a 'must have' for teachers and future teachers who are concerned about helping all students become fluent readers and excellent comprehenders. The editors make a compelling case that fluency instruction must include more than just attention to accuracy and rate; it also needs to focus on prosody, or expressive reading. The book is packed with effective strategies that build fluency and reading comprehension. Written by researchers and practitioners, this book is perfect for reading methods courses and clinical courses as well as the professional book collection of every school.--Laurie Elish-Piper, PhD, Presidential Teaching Professor and Literacy Clinic Director, Northern Illinois University A wonderful book on reading fluency: insightful, sensitive, comprehensive, well researched, clearly written, and practical. I have no doubt this book will help teachers, learning consultants, reading specialists, and school psychologists avoid the many misunderstandings about reading fluency, better understand its components, and improve students' skills. Especially helpful are the well-developed examples of how to use an abundance of highly motivating methods of instruction. In my work with struggling readers, I will use this book repeatedly.--Howard Margolis, EdD, Professor Emeritus of Reading Disabilities and Special Education, City University of New York


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