Lessons from the King's Speech: Become More Fluent with Phrased Reading

Sadly, I had this post ready to go a few weeks ago...and blogger had a blackout for a couple of days and I lost 90% of this pre-drafted post (What was that about anyways?). So now I'm going to give it another go...but I don't think there's any possibility it can be as wonderful as the initial post.

My husband and I finally watched the King's Speech this weekend. In the movie King George IV employs this absolutely eccentric speech therapist to deal with his debilitating stuttering problems. It's a wonderful movie. Every teacher (or parent) out there should see it, it's very inspiring.

Some of the teaching strategies this renegade speech therapist used were clutch (as my bball loving husband is fond of saying...). I noticed the the speech therapist encouraged the King to speak in phrases. Towards the end of the film he marks up the King's speech with line break and underlines key words to emphasize. The therapist used one of my favorite fluency building strategies- phrased reading.

Phrasing text is something I learned about in grad school from The Fluent Reader by Rasinski. I have used this fluency-building strategy time and time again with poor readers, which encourages them to read in meaningful phrases, improving overall fluency and comprehension.

What is Phrased Reading?
Phrased reading is simply breaking any text up into meaningful phrases, usually using hash marks to denote the beginning or ending of a phrase.

Why use Phrased Reading? Which students need this strategy?? 
Short Answer: Students with poor comprehension or fluency, and your English Language Learners.

I use phrased reading with my readers that cannot read in meaningful phrases. You know the students- they read waaay too fast or waaay too slow, they shoot through punctuation without so much as a hello, or they are expressionless when reading a text brimful of personality. These are the students that are merely decoding the text. Students that are not reading in phrases will have a hard time comprehending what they're reading. Phrased reading encourages these students to break the text up according to meaning.

Many English Language Learners need explicit instruction for fluency. Knowing when to naturally take pauses in English will improve your ELLs fluency and comprehension. For ELL students it's important that you include explicit instruction on how to break text into phrases. It's also key that you do a lot of modeling before you have the students practice this strategy independently. Kids jump at the chance to phrase text because it's fun. Just make sure they have seen you model it several times before they try it on their own- especially your ELL students.

You can use this fluency-building strategy with kids of all ages. I use it successfully with students in grades 3-5. My husband, a high school English teacher, taught his 10th graders how to phrase text.

How Do you Phrase Text?
See the example below. There isn't an exact science to phrasing text. You add hash marks (or any mark that works for you) when there's a natural pause.

I also like to explain it this way-- "We'll put marks in the text where we take little pauses. After we add the hash marks, we'll group the words together in between the hash marks. Everything from one hash mark to the next is a phrase- so we should group those words together as one idea." Communicating this concept is important so your students understand that they're not practicing pausing throughout a text, but that they are learning group words together into meaningful phrases.

Text Phrasing Example:

Where the Sidewalk Ends
by Shel Silverstein

There is a place/ where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,/
And there/ the grass grows soft and white,/
And there/ the sun burns/ crimson bright,
And there/ the moon-bird rests/ from his flight/
To cool/ in the peppermint wind.//

Let us leave this place/ where the smoke blows black/
And the dark street winds/ and bends.//
Past the pits/ where the asphalt flowers grow/
We shall walk/ with a walk/ that is measured/ and slow,/
And watch/ where the chalk-white arrows go/
To the place/ where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk/ with a walk/ that is measured/ and slow,/
And we'll go/ where the chalk-white arrows go,/
For the children,/ they mark,/ and the children,/ they know
The place/ where the sidewalk ends.//

Phrased Reading Teaching Tips
While the teaching trenches I've developed some ways I personally like to teach phrased reading. Here's what I've got for you:

• Use poetry! There are a lot of natural line breaks, and it helps students understand the concept of reading in phrases.
• Copy a page from a text your students are already reading, adding hash marks to the text.
• Using light pencil marks, phrase the text in your books- kids LOVE this!
• Make sure you emphasize that you are grouping the words together between the hash marks, and not merely pauses at the hash marks.
• Use the model of gradual release when teaching this strategy: Model first. Try phrasing a text with the kids. Then have the kids try it on their own. Of a 3 stanza a poem, I model on the first stanza, get their help on the second, and have them try it independently on the third.
• Phrase a text weekly! Kids will get the hang of it quickly- it can even be used as a center activity.
• Steer kids away from taking HUGE, dramatic breaths at the hash marks. Many students are inclined to UP the drama...so try to prevent it with a little pre-teaching.
• Use a quick rubric to assess your students fluency on a given text before the phrased reading lesson. Then have your students reread the same text, and reassess their fluency using the same rubric.
• Give the students the rubric and ask them to grade themselves pre-phrased text and post-phrased text. You can also have your students partner up to assess each other.

Follow these links for more phrased reading goodness!!
5 Surefire Strategies for Developing Reading Fluency
Learning About Phrases to Improve Fluency and Comprehension
Phrase Craze

More about phrased reading:
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Rasinsky, the fluency guru, speaks:

Be Well! Read On! And check out The King's Speech- you'll be a better teacher for it.

Fluency Part 1: The Importance of Reading Fluently

Before I became a teacher, the lovely state of California require that I spend some certain amount of hours volunteering in a classroom. So began the hoops (credential programs are quite infamous for hoop-jumping). I spent 45 hours-ish in a elementary classroom in Oakland. And what did I come away with? A lot of criticism for the school and the teacher. Of course, the newbie that I was, I saw flaws with the educational system, classroom behavior standards, the teaching curriculum, and methods.

For example, I was critical of the students' practice of fluency passages. Why? It seemed like a senseless use of time- reading and rereading a passage to get a faster time. I assumed they collected these scores so that the city of Oakland could have some quick data with which to proclaim growth in reading- perhaps true, but completely cynical (and naive) of me. I thought the practice of these passages seemed like a complete waste of time. Little did I know...

It's easy to be critical. Especially when it's not your classroom. Especially as a new (or seasoned) teacher. Especially as someone unversed in reading theory and best practices.

A few years down the road, after I got my credential, after I taught middle school for a couple of years (which I loved!)...I learned a little more about fluency...why it's important...what it tells us about a child's reading...and how we should strive to improve it. So, the blinders came off, and I learned that fluency is more than reading a passage faster and faster, and it actually is a fabulous window into a child's overall reading ability.

Little did I know...
The National Reading Panel  did a study, and (italicized print below is from thier site) the Panel's thorough research on reading instruction was conducted by five subgroups, which focused on (1) Alphabetics, (2) Fluency, (3) Comprehension, (4) Teacher Education and Reading Instruction, and (5) Computer Technology and Reading Instruction.

Little did I know...

Reading fluency is one of several critical factors necessary for reading comprehension.

Little did I know...

If children read out loud with speed, accuracy, and proper expression, they are more likely to comprehend and remember the material than if they read with difficulty and in an inefficient way.

Little did I know...

Guided repeated oral reading, encourages students to read passages out loud with systematic and explicit guidance and feedback from their teacher. And these repeated reads are one key way to improve a child's reading fluency.

So, again, it's easy to be critical (like I was), especially about fluency. But unless you know the theory behind why we have students practice fluency, then maybe you should hold your tongue (or your inner thoughts). I wish I did.

I'm going to write a few posts on fluency strategies and activities that I like to use with my reading intervention students. I just wanted to start off by stating that a child's ability to read fluently (good rate, expression, phrasing, etc...) is very important. And as reading teachers, there are some fairly simple things we can do to improve our student's fluency-- which will eventually lead to improved comprehension and reading confidence-- which is the end goal indeed.

Read On! Teach On!

Read Alouds Online? Check out StoryBookOnline!

I love love love Read Alouds. Here's why:

• Read Alouds are enjoyable (entertaining) for kids of all ages
• They encourage a love of reading- who wouldn't love cuddling up and hearing a good story?
• Kids are able to listen to text above their reading level which helps them to learn new vocabulary and improve listening comprehension
• Reading Alouds improve fluency. When kids hear competent readers read, they learn how to read out loud well and began to mimic the master reader's expression, intonation, rate, phrasing, etc... 
• Read Alouds engage students that struggle with reading 
• Reading a chapter book (non picture book), can help transitional readers build confidence- so they feel ready to tackle chapter books independently
• They widen students' perspectives and build background knowledge
• Read Alouds are especially essential for non-native speakers for all the reasons mentioned above
• They are an excellent way to teach/introduce a complex subject. I especially love using read alouds to teach middle/high schoolers about history. There are moving picture books about Hiroshima, the Japanese Internment in the US, affects of radiation, civil rights, slavery, etc...

Check out Storyline Online to hear quality picture books read by members of the screen actors guild. I discovered this site a couple of months ago. My students like using this site at home to listen to the books online. Many of my students' parents do not speak English, so this is a great way for them to build their fluency, background knowledge, and vocabulary.


Here's a couple way to use this site:

• You can sit with your student/child as they listen to these books online. Then you can have a conversation about what they read. What did the characters learn? Did this remind them of another book (why?)? What was the most important part of the story? What questions do you have after reading?
• If you're a teacher, you can use this as a listening center in your classroom.
• Have your child/student listen to these books independently. Talk to them about the stories afterwards. 
• Have your child/students read the stories multiple times.
• Turn the volume off, and have your child/students retell the story in their own words.
• Turn the captions on; this helps with word learning! Seeing the words at the bottom of the screen AND hearing them read is an excellent way to build a student's vocabulary.
• Use the provided activities to extend learning.

What are your favorite books to read aloud?

Read On!

A (More) Holistic Running Record

For RtI, we asked our teachers to do a current running record on students to find their reading levels. A Running Record is a quick and easy assessment of your students' reading level using any ol' sheet of paper. The process can be a bit intimidating at first. Many teachers learn how to do a running record in their teaching credential program, however it takes practice to learn how to do a running record well.

One of the issues with a running record is that you can do a running record, but it is usually used to assess a students' miscues (errors made). However, running records do not strategically take into account students' comprehension ability.

We ran into problems when we asked our teachers to do running records on their students. Our school has 95% English Language Learners (ELL students). Theoretically, listening to a student's oral reading habits can tell you if they are a good reader. And for most populations, fluency ability is the best predictor of a student's reading ability- comprehension included. But for ELL students this is not the case.

A running record can tell you how well a student can decode and read words. But often a student with a developing sense of the English language can decode words will either less or more skill than his/her comprehension ability. For example, I can decode Spanish, but I probably could only catch a general gist of what I read in Spanish, because I have a poor vocabulary base in Spanish. And this is true of many of our ELL students with English. I also have several students that have poor decoding ability (students with little sense of phonics/word parts in English), and these students can decode poorly, but they can comprehend well.

Ahhh! There are myriad factors in teaching reading well, eh?

All that to say....I've found this Running Record that includes comprehension and fluency rubrics. So if you're one of those teachers with an ELL student (50%+ of our state!), try using these rubrics. Perhaps this will help you assess your students more accurately. You should be able to download this pdf file. Enjoy!


Running Record Template

Read on!