FAQ About Word Work in Fluency 1
Before you begin our free word study course, Word Fluency, you might have a few questions about the type of word work. What will students learn in Fluency 1? And you might wonder:
- What skills will they gain and how will this word work help them?
- How will their reading levels increase?
- Will their reading fluency increase?
- How will this help student spelling skills and writing?
The skills in the word study unit, Fluency 1, build on 1st-grade and 2nd-grade word knowledge. Students will not go back and re-learn consonants and short vowels. Instead, this word study warm-up unit is designed to build fluency in student decoding skills. It is perfect for 3rd-grade and 4th-grade students, as well as intervention for 3rd-5th-grade readers.
Word Work Fluency Skills
How will this word work help? Will their reading fluency increase? Yes! Many students’ reading fluency is the main reason that reading comprehension suffers (read the comprehension killer here). Students in upper elementary can read about 100wcpm on grade level texts. However, transitional readers often come across complex words that cause them to stumble. Here’s how word work in Fluency 1 will help:
- Students build rapid recognition of consonant blends and vowel sounds.
- Increased awareness about word attack and quick decoding skills.
- Daily feedback is embedded in the warm-ups for many students’ decoding misconceptions.
- The spiraling sequence progresses from simple to complex decoding fluency during the unit.
Word Work and Reading Levels
We’ve written about the effects of word work in our Research-Based Word Study article, and you can dig a little deeper in this Research Review for Word Study. Here’s a quick review of the ways that the word work in Fluency 1 will boost reading levels and build a foundation for stronger readers and writers!
- Starting on day 1, students build phonetic decoding skills through dual-encoding (visual word sorts and auditory feedback).
- Starting on day 1, students build rapid word recognition through timed word identification tasks called “Give it a Shot!”.
- Starting on day 3, the spiral review builds word building skills.
- Starting on day 5, students continue their word study in an activity called “Whisper Reader”, and it builds fluent word decoding with the fun of social interaction.
- By day 6 in Fluency 1, students will have repetitive exposure to direct and explicit decoding instruction.
- Student motivation and engagement in word study gets a huge boost when the activity “Word Racer” turns into “Gold Racer” and word recognition gets faster!
Spiral Review with Increasing Complexity
These word work activities continue through the entire Fluency 1 free word study unit. The speeds increase and the word patterns become more complex. By the end of the unit, students will thoroughly understand consonant blends and be ready to use them in their writing, their spelling, and when decoding multi-syllabic words.
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