Understanding the Oral Fluency Assessments

I sent home graded papers today and part of that is the Oral Fluency Assessment. Notice on the right side of the page the two boxes Reading Rate and Accuracy and Reading Fluency. In the Reading Rate and Accuracy box you will see a place for the number of correct words read per minute; this is found by counting the numbers of words they read and then subtracting the number of errors they made (see details below on what counts as an error). The children at this time should be reading at least 23 correct words per minute. In the Spring, which is almost here, the children should be reading at least 53 correct words per minute. The Reading Fluency box does not factor into the final grade, however, this is still an important part in the children's reading ability and should be looked over (see details below about each category). The rubric for this is Low (needs improvement), Average (on-level), High (above average skill).

Errors in reading

• Words that are misread
• Words that the student omits
• Inserting extra words
• Words that have been reversed

] This bracket symbol shows where the student read to in one minute.

Reading Fluency Box

Decoding Ability- how well a student blends, recognize, or decodes a word. 

Pace- the speed of which they are reading. I explain that they do not need to read too slow or too fast. That it is not about how fast you read or reading all the words but reading at a steady pace and reading the words Correctly. 

Syntax- being aware of the ideas the author was trying to express. (Reading it like the author intended it be; reading with expression)

Self-correction- are they aware of their mistakes, do they catch them and then fix them

Intonation- being aware of punctuation....pausing at commas, periods, etc.