Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with expression.Fluent reading builds stamina for reading lengthy or complex texts. Reading fluency serves as a bridge between word recognition and comprehension.
When fluent readers read silently, they recognize words automatically. They group words quickly to help them gain meaning from what they read. Fluent readers read aloud effortlessly and with expression. Their reading sounds natural, as if they are speaking.
Readers who have not yet developed fluency read slowly, word by word. Their oral reading is choppy.
Because fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding the words, they can focus their attention on what the text means. They can make connections among the ideas in the text and their background knowledge. In other words, fluent readers recognize words and comprehend at the same time.
Less fluent readers, however, must focus their attention on figuring out the words, leaving them little attention for understanding the meaning of text.
Reading fluently: what it looks like in K-3
In this milestones series from Great Schools, listen to how fluent readers sound in kindergarten through third grade.
Linda Farrell: That word is “flood-ing.” Say “flooding.”
Chloe: Flooding.
Linda Farrell: Flooding. That means a whole bunch of water goes some place.
Chloe: And it’s flooding the whole, entire …
Linda Farrell: Yeah. It’s that word.
[Graphics] Looking at Reading Interventions: A Reading Rockets Series
[Graphics] One-on-One Intervention with Chloe.
Chloe is in the second grade in Alexandria, Virginia. During the pandemic, she’s also getting virtual lessons from reading expert Linda Farrell.
Linda Farrell: Okay. Hi, Ms. Smoak and Chloe. How was your holiday?
Chloe: It was completely great.
Olu Smoak: It was wonderful. How are you?
Linda Farrell: I am well.
Ms. Farrell and Chloe are working mostly on phonics. But they devote the last ten minutes of each lesson to oral reading. That gives Chloe a chance to apply what she’s learned about phonics and develop her reading fluency, which is our focus today.
[Graphics] Linda Farrell, M.Ed. Founding Partner, Readsters
Linda Farrell: Fluency is often measured as a rate. People think that fluency is how fast you read and actually fluency has three elements: accuracy, its rate, and its expression.
[Graphics] Three Elements of Fluency: Accuracy. Rate. Expression.
And they probably should be approached with struggling readers in that way. If someone is struggling with fluency, first, we want to have them accurate. Next, we get them reading at a reasonable rate, and if they aren’t reading with expression at that point then we work on their expression.
[Graphics] Working on Accuracy
Linda Farrell: Today, Chloe, we’re going to read some sections of passages. We’re going to aim for accuracy. What’s accuracy?
Chloe: Accuracy is when you don’t do any, like any words, every word is correct.
Linda Farrell: Yes. That would be 100 percent accuracy.
Olu Smoak: Okay, I’ll leave you two to the lesson. See you afterwards. Have a great time.
[Graphics] Working on Accuracy: First reading of passage #1
Linda Farrell: Okay, Chloe, let’s get started.
Chloe: When the twins finished eating their apples it was time to get to work. Kim picked red apples. Jill got green apples. The green apples were not sweet.
[Graphics] When the twins finished eating their apples it was time to get to work. Kim picked red apples. Jill got green apples. The green apples were not sweet.
Ms. Farrell starts Chloe with a short passage — about 40 words or so. It’s one that Chloe can probably read accurately on her first try … to give her confidence and to get her warmed up. Ms. Farrell won’t be timing Chloe, so the focus is on reading each word correctly.
So why is accuracy so critical?
Linda Farrell: The reason accuracy at every age is so important is that in early reading in easy texts you can guess and still get the gist, especially if you have good background knowledge. When the students get to 4th and 5th grade, and the pictures go away and the words are harder, guessing is no longer a strategy that works.
Ms. Farrell says that it’s a mistake to allow young readers to guess words or to skip words. We shouldn’t even let close misreads slide – like reading “mommy” instead of “mom” or adding a word that isn’t there. If we allow students to get comfortable with inaccuracy, they can develop habits that are really hard to change later on.
Linda Farrell: You got 100 percent three times in a row, so we’re going to read Set Two next time.
Chloe’s goal is to read three passages correctly the first time she reads them – cold reads. After that, she’ll practice reading more difficult passages until she’s reading 100% accurately at her grade level.
Linda Farrell: But before we do that write 100 percent in the third column.
Linda Farrell: Students are motivated to improve. They have charts. They chart how well they do and that’s very motivating.
Linda Farrell: Oh my gosh. Three 100s in a row. We are going to move to set two. Can you find the passages that say set two?
[Graphics] Working on Accuracy: First reading of passage 2
Linda Farrell: Can you find the passages that say Set Two?
Linda Farrell: Uh-huh. That’s it. Okay. And when you’re ready to read, I’m ready to take notes.
Chloe: April [sic] day means tree day, tree day. Trees are important. That is why trees get a special day every year.
[Graphics] Arbor Day means tree day, tree day. Trees are important. That is why trees get a special day every year.
As Chloe reads, Ms. Farrell makes note of any missed words, any self-corrections, and any repetitions. And then she starts her review with what Chloe got right.
[Graphics] Working on Accuracy: Reviewing Chloe’s reading
Linda Farrell: How many words are in that section?
Chloe: 45? No, 49.
Linda Farrell: 49 words in that section and you got 46 right. And that is 94 percent accuracy.
Chloe charts her work, and then Ms. Farrell reviews the words that Chloe misread. This prepares her for the next reading.
[Graphics] Working on Accuracy: Prep for second reading of passage 2
Linda Farrell: Underline the first word.
Chloe: Okay.
Linda Farrell: That word is arbor. Read that word.
Chloe: Arbor.
Linda Farrell: Arbor. Arbor means tree. What does arbor mean?
Chloe: Tree.
[Graphics] Working on Accuracy: Second reading of passage 2
After learning the word “Arbor,” Chloe reads the same section as many times as she needs to until she reads it with 100% accuracy.
Linda Farrell: Here’s the good news. You got 49 words right.
Chloe: Yea!!!
Linda Farrell: Yes. That’s good news and I’m glad you’re happy. Here’s the not so good news. You had three repetitions. You repeated the words you read and you’re only allowed to have two of those repetitions. So you get to read it again.
Linda Farrell: Why do we have to read it one more time?
Chloe: Because I got three overs and I didn’t know what they’re called.
Linda Farrell: They’re called repetitions. You repeated words, but overs works just fine.
Linda Farrell: If a student has the habit of going back and rereading, repeating what they’re reading, or self-correcting what they read, it slows them down and it hurts their comprehension.
[Graphics] Working on Accuracy: Second reading of Arbor Day section
Arbor Day means tree day. Trees are important.
Chloe: Arbor Day means tree day. Trees are important.
These repeated readings help Chloe improve on this particular passage, and they also help her develop good habits for the long haul. It’s hard work, but Chloe wraps up the day’s lesson with a strong finish.
[Graphics] Working on Accuracy: Third reading of passage #2: Arbor Day
Linda Farrell: How many words do you think you got right? 49 words, 100 percent, and only one self-correction. How do you feel about that? Yes.
[Graphics] Fluency Lesson 2: Reading to Improve Rate. Working on Chloe’s rate of reading accurately
After a few more sessions, Chloe was consistently able to read passages with 100% accuracy. But she was still reading slowly. So now Ms. Farrell will focus on increasing Chloe’s reading rate, or the pace at which Chloe is able to read accurately.
If you think of reading as riding a bicycle, fluency means you can turn the pedals fast enough to have a smooth ride. Pedal too slowly, and the bike falls over. Read too slowly, and you may not be able to understand what you read.
Linda Farrell: Rate has been shown by many studies to correlate very closely with comprehension. Children need to read fast enough so that they can hold their ideas in their mind.
[Graphics] Working on Rate. Chloe’s goal: 60 accurate words per minute
Linda Farrell: So we’re going to start now on working on rate. So Chloe, are you ready to work on rate?
Linda Farrell: The reading rate is generally measured as words correct per minute. Lots of people think it’s how fast or what speed the student is reading, but it’s really a measure of how many words correct do children read in a certain time, usually it’s one minute when we’re assessing. So it is speed. It is how fast they’re reading, but it’s also how accurately they’re reading.
Linda Farrell: So your goal is to read 60 words a minute and not make any mistakes. So, what we’re going to have you do, Chloe, is read for one minute, I’ll time it, but you don’t have to read fast just read naturally. Olu, I think Chloe and I are ready to work together.
Linda Farrell: When we first started working with Chloe she was reading I believe about 38 words correct per minute. And she still, even after we practiced, read relatively slowly. So once she met her accuracy goal, now we look at what’s the 2nd grade middle of year benchmark and it’s around 65 or 70 words a minute in 2nd grade material.
Before Chloe reads, Ms. Farrell will review words that may be difficult to pronounce or that have an unusual spelling pattern. This allows Chloe to do her rate practice without being stumped by a word we wouldn’t expect her to know, yet.
[Graphics] Working on Rate. Previewing words that might be difficult for Chloe.
Linda Farrell: We have one word to review. So that word is on line 44. That word is rough. Can you read rough?
Chloe: Rough.
Linda Farrell: That word is rough. Rough means it’s not smooth.
Chloe: like if I have a bath cloth and it’s rough.
And now Chloe is ready to read.
[Graphics] Working on Rate. First reading of a passage for rate. All cats are related. Tigers, lions, and the cats people have as pets.
Chloe: All cats are related. Tigers, lions, and the cats people have as pets.
Linda Farrell: [alarm] Stop. And that time you read 46 words.
Chloe: Is that good or bad?
Linda Farrell: Well, here is what’s good: you got 100% accurate and you only had one time that you repeated, one time. Chloe: If I had three repeat I would have to start over, but one is repeat okay?
Linda Farrell: One repeat is acceptable, that means it’s okay. Two repeats is acceptable, that means it’s okay. And three repeats is too many.
Chloe: Which is not acceptable.
Linda Farrell: That’s right, it’s not acceptable.
[Graphics] Working on Rate. Second reading of passage 3.
Linda Farrell: Okay, so we get to start again because now we want you to read accurately and we’re going to aim for 60 words a minute.
[Graphics] All cats are related. Tigers, lions, and the cats people have as pets.
Chloe: All cats are related. Tigers, lions, and the cats people have as pets.
Linda Farrell: You got 63 words correct and 100 percent accuracy. You read every word correctly and you didn’t have any self-corrections or repetitions. You made it! You got your goal, girl!
[Graphics] Lesson Three: Expression. Moving from word-by-word reading to reading “like you talk”
Now that Chloe has demonstrated that she can read accurately at 60 words per minute, Ms. Farrell helps Chloe focus on expression. Expressive reading means that students are using phrasing, emphasis, and timing as they read aloud. When children read with expression, they are reading the way they talk, and this usually means that they understand what they’re reading.
[Graphics] Working on Expression
Linda Farrell: This time when you read, could you just read like you talk? You’re reading a little slowly, like what you do is you say all-cats-are-related. And then there’s a period, and then you stop a long time before you go to the next word every time you come to a period. Can you not stop quite so long when you come to a period?
Chloe: Yeah, my dad tells me to or my mom or dad tells me to like stop when you see a period, you kind of like stop. Not trying to take too long. I just take a breathe and then go to the next line. I didn’t know it was taking so long.
Linda Farrell: Yeah, it’s really good the way you’re stopping. What we want you to do is not stop quite so long.
Linda Farrell: Watch me. All cats are related. Tigers, lions and the cats people have as pets all have many things in common. Do you hear how I don’t stop quite as long? Can you try that?
Chloe: Okay. All cats are related. Tigers, lions and the cats people have as pets all have many things in common They all have four toes on their front feet and four toes on their back feet.
[Graphics] Working on Expression. Celebrating Success.
Linda Farrell: You aren’t going to believe how many words you read that time. First of all, 100 percent accuracy. How much accuracy did you get?
Chloe: 100 percent accurate.
Linda Farrell: Yep, you read every single read correctly. You got 80 words a minute.
Chloe: Yeah.
Linda Farrell: 80 words a minute, with 100 percent accuracy is phenomenal.
Linda Farrell: What we do is that we have a reasonable goal that we think she can make. So we just wanted to get her to 60. What was so surprising about Chloe is that once we talked to her about reading like you talk, and I modeled for her, she went up to 80 words a minute!
Now that Chloe’s reading more fluently, her rate goal will be adjusted to 90 words a minute, which is the end of year benchmark for second grade.
What seems like quick improvement is actually due to a lot of hard work. Ms. Farrell says Chloe needs a little more practice — roughly ten minutes at a time, twice a week, for the next month or two.
As Chloe becomes a more accurate and faster reader, she and her mom will enjoy reading together even more.
Linda Farrell: Olu and Chloe, it’s always so much fun to read with you. See you next time.
Olu Smoak: Same here. We enjoyed it. Thank you so much. Bye bye.
Chloe: Bye bye!
This episode of Looking at Reading Interventions was produced by a partnership of the National Education Association and WETA. For more information on the teaching practices featured in this program, please check out our viewer’s guide. You can also download our facilitator’s guide, offering helpful ideas for using this program for professional development. You’ll find both guides at readingrockets.org/interventions.
We are deeply grateful to Chloe and her entire family for allowing us to share Chloe’s experience with reading intervention.
We’d like to thank Linda Farrell, Michael Hunter, and Nicole Lubar of Readsters for their invaluable contributions to this project.
Transcript
Mastering ‘Silent e’ and Becoming More Fluent with Michael, Third Grader
[Music]
Michael: I couldn’t find my house.
Linda Farrell: When you went back, you couldn’t find your house?
Michael: No.
Michael is in third grade at Windy Hill Elementary School in Calvert County, Maryland. Reading expert Linda Farrell will be helping him work toward mastering the ‘silent e’ letter pattern. It’s part of a plan to speed up his reading.
Linda Farrell: When we assessed Michael, I found him to be a very interesting student. He’s in the third grade, and he’s a very slow reader. He was quite accurate … not perfectly accurate, but he did pretty well in text. And he understood what he read.
Linda Farrell: Just start reading right here, and you’re gonna read right to the number, okay?
Michael: Don was a lad. Pip was a pup. Don and Pip had a run. The sun was hot.
Linda Farrell: Okay …
Linda Farrell: And when we dug deeper into Michael, what we found is that he has almost mastered basic skills. But it’s the almost that’s keeping him from being faster and more accurate. The good thing about him is that he’s not a guesser. That’s why he’s slow. He’s trying to get it right. He’s not trying to race through and guess.
Michael can read many words accurately. But he reads slowly. To find out why, Ms. Farrell first checks to make sure that Michael knows his vowel sounds, both long and short.
Linda Farrell: What’s the short ‘a’ sound?
Michael: Short ‘a’ … /a/.
Linda Farrell: /a/. What’s the short ‘e’ sound?
Michael: /eh/
Linda Farrell: What’s the short ‘i’ sound?
Michael: /i/
Linda Farrell: The short ‘o’ sound?
Michael: /ah/
Linda Farrell: And the short ‘u’ sound?
Michael: /u/
Linda Farrell: You do know your vowel sounds — your short vowel sounds. Do you know your long vowel sounds?
Michael: [nods]
Linda Farrell: What are they?
Michael: /ay/, /ee/, /eye/, /oh/, and /you/
Linda Farrell: You got it. Okay.
Then she checks Michael’s phonemic awareness. That’s his ability to notice, to think about, and to work with the individual sounds in words.
Linda Farrell: Now we’re gonna stretch a couple of words, okay? The way you stretch words is you go like this. Get ready. Okay, sit up straight and get ready. Okay? I’ll say a word and you repeat it. Bake.
Michael: Bake.
Linda Farrell: Okay. Now we stretch it. /b, ay, k/ … bake. You stretch it.
Michael: /b, ay, k/ … bake
Linda Farrell: Okay. And I’m gonna ask you what’s the vowel sound in bake. Do you know the vowel sound in bake?
Michael: /ay/
Linda Farrell: /ay/. And what do we call that vowel sound? Short ‘a’ or long ‘a’?
Michael: Long ‘a.’
Linda Farrell: Great. Ready? Back. Repeat?
Michael: back
Linda Farrell: Stretch back.
Michael: /b, a, k/ … back
Linda Farrell: What’s the vowel sound in back?
Michael: ‘a’
Linda Farrell: ‘A’ is the name of the letter. Can you stretch back?
Michael: /b, a/ …
Linda Farrell: Stop right there. What’s that sound right there?
Michael: /a/
Linda Farrell: /a/. When I ask you for a sound, it has to be one of the sounds on your fingers. So the vowel sound in back is what?
Michael: /a/
Linda Farrell: What do we call that sound?
Michael: Short ‘a.’
Linda Farrell: Ready?
Linda Farrell: Even though Michael knew his short vowel sounds and he knew his long vowel sounds when I asked — pretty well for somebody who hadn’t really been having phonics lessons. And he could, I’d say stretch the sounds, /b/ /i/ /t/. He could stretch that. “What’s the vowel sound in bit?” “‘I.’” He wanted to go and give me the letter, which tells me he’s not thinking in terms of sounds. We have to straighten out all that. What’s the sound? What’s the name of the letter? What do we call the sound? And we worked with some of that with him so that when I went to this is an /a/, and this is an /ay/, he could think in terms of sounds.
Linda Farrell: Tight. Repeat.
Michael: Tight.
Linda Farrell: Stretch.
Michael: /t, eye, t/ … tight
Linda Farrell: What’s the vowel sound in tight?
Michael: /eye/
Linda Farrell: What do we call it?
Michael: A long ‘i.’
Linda Farrell: Ready? Fish.
Michael: /f, i, sh/ … fish
Linda Farrell: Vowel sound?
Michael: /i/
Linda Farrell: What do we call it?
Michael: Short ‘i.’
Linda Farrell: You got it. You’re getting it aren’t you?
Next Ms. Farrell has Michael read a passage containing consonant-vowel-consonant words like hat and ran, further checking that short vowel knowledge.
Linda Farrell: Try the gray box.
Michael: Don got a tan hat. He sat on a log. He had a nap in the sun.
Linda Farrell: I think this is just a little teeny tiny bit too easy for you. So we have to get harder.
Michael: Yeah, it was really easy.
Linda Farrell: It was.
But when Ms. Farrell gave Michael a passage with the ‘silent e’ vowel pattern – including words like ‘luke’ and ‘rice’ – his accuracy fell off.
Linda Farrell: Now I’m just gonna ask you to read this right here. Okay?
Michael: Mike went to a lake with luck. They rode, rode their bikes to the lake. They had rick, I mean, rike, lim, limes, chips, and cake in a blackpack.
Linda Farrell: A student who can tell you /i/ is the short ‘i’ sound, /eye/ is the long ‘i’ sound, can tell you all the rules, and yet they don’t read it correctly, the word correctly — that’s often a result of a slow print processor. What happens is … when print gets there, they have a slow reaction time to pulling out what that print is trying to say, whatever sound, whatever word.
Michael can get faster by fully absorbing and mastering the ‘silent e’ spelling pattern, so that when he sees a word with a vowel, a consonant, and an ‘e’ at the end – such as lake — he automatically knows that the vowel will be long. How can he master this?
Linda Farrell: Not teaching him rules. He knows the rules. I didn’t ask him, but he could have told me the rule that ‘e’ jumps over. What we do is get him to recognize the pattern. If it’s one letter, it’s a short sound. If it’s that letter plus an ‘e,’ it’s a long sound. And we’re trying to get him to recognize the pattern.
Linda Farrell: Now I’m going to do some teaching. And I’m gonna see if you can get this 100% next time, if you can get all the words right. And here is the teaching we’re gonna do. We are going to learn about ‘silent e.’I bet you’ve heard ‘silent e’ before, haven’t you. Okay. So we’re gonna learn something called two-finger touch and say. So when you touch with one finger, you’re gonna say /a/. That’s the short ‘a’ sound, so touch with one finger. Are you — if you were to write your name, yeah. So touch with this finger, okay?
Michael: Okay. /a/
Linda Farrell: Okay. When we touch like this, we’re gonna say /ay/. When it’s an ‘a’ and an ‘e’ together, go /ay/. Can you do that?
Michael: /ay/
Linda Farrell: Okay, so go …
Michael: /a/, /ay/
Linda Farrell: Now watch me touch and say this word. /M, a, d/ … mad. You do it.
Michael: /M, a, d/ … mad.
Linda Farrell: So I used one finger to touch that ‘a.’ Now watch this. I have an ‘a’ and an ‘e’ here. So I’m gonna use two fingers, so watch me. /M, ay, d/ … made. You do it.
Michael: /M, ay, d/ … made.
Linda Farrell: Okay, and you go like this: /m, ay, d/ … made. You do it.
Michael: /M, ay, d/ … made.
Linda Farrell: Okay. So you know about two-finger touch and say.
Ms. Farrell thinks this multisensory technique will help Michael internalize his ability to recognize the ‘silent e’ letter pattern. It takes a while to learn this approach, but it will be worth it.
Linda Farrell: Now, we’re gonna just practice, right here. So I want you to practice saying /ay/, /a/, /ay/, /a/, /a/, /ay/. Okay.
Linda Farrell: You just got all those right. We’re gonna try something a little different this time. I just want you to touch the vowel sound. Say it. Don’t even read the word. So you’ll go like this: /ay/, /a/. Okay? You do it.
Michael: /ay/, /a/, /ay/, /a/, /a/, /ay/
Linda Farrell: Okay. Can you do that one more time? I wanna make sure you’re touching with one finger when you should and two fingers …
Linda Farrell: That skill is recognizing spelling patterns. It is incredibly important, because many people will tell you the English language is nutso. It — sometimes a letter is spelled this way and sometimes the letter is spelled that way. And the English language is not nutso. It follows patterns. It follows lots of patterns. Most of the time in a one syllable word when you have a vowel and then you have a consonant and an ‘e’ at the end, that vowel is going — with that ‘e’ — is going to spell the long vowel sound. It’s not random. It is absolutely not random. Strong readers — and especially strong spellers — pick up these patterns automatically. Those who struggle to learn to read or look like they’re struggling, who need more practice really, they don’t pick them up on their own; and that’s where we come in. We’re teachers. That’s when we get to teach as opposed to just guide. So understanding the spelling patterns in English will tell you with about 80% accuracy what that vowel sound should be.
Linda Farrell: See if you can do that whole row … 10 words. And you’re gonna do /ay/ and then read the word. Okay? And make sure you get your fingers right. You can go slowly. I don’t care how fast you go.
Michael: /a/, stack …
Linda Farrell: Let’s try that — what happened? What happens when you …
Michael: …/ay/, stake, /a/, stack …
Linda Farrell: [whispering] Touch that with one finger.
Michael: … /a/, stack …
Linda Farrell: What?
Michael: … /a/, mad, /ay/ — wait, I mean /a/, fat, /ay/, made.
Linda Farrell: You would see, even though he knew the word was shake, he would read shack, then he’d say, “No, shake,” because he wants that word to come out before his brain has processed. One of the things we would want to do if we were working with him long term is get him to slow down first, because if he’d slow down, he would eventually get faster, because he would be in the habit of doing things accurately. And he would be using the patterns. He has every ability to be an accurate reader if he can recognize the patterns — and to read at a reasonable rate.
So Ms. Farrell focuses on accuracy, knowing that speed will come later, once Michael has really mastered the skill.
Linda Farrell: That was 100% perfect. High five on this one, too. Okay, now you’re gonna read some — you don’t have to do the /ay/, /a/. You just read the words.
Michael: Okay.
Linda Farrell: Okay? Okay. So what, what line do you wanna do?
Michael: I wanna do that one.
Linda Farrell: Okay. Do number four.
Michael: Shad, glade, same, Sam, pane.
Linda Farrell: Okay. Now we’re gonna go back to that passage that we just read. Let’s see if you can read it again. Go.
Michael: Mike went to a lake with Luke. They rode their bikes to the lake. They had rice.
Linda Farrell: What you saw is that once we taught Michael how to read long and short ‘a,’ he applied it in the paragraph the next time. And we didn’t have him read a new paragraph. We had him read the same paragraph. Once he reads that paragraph accurately, we’re going to go to another one. But if it takes him 10 times to read that paragraph accurately, we’re going to keep reading that paragraph accurately, applying his new skill that he had used.
Michael: They also had Coke to drink.
Linda Farrell: 30 out of 30. You got 30 out of 30
Linda Farrell: He made an improvement. And had we had more time, I think we would have seen him making even more improvement as he practiced. Michael was a real good example of the importance and necessity of practicing to mastery. Even though he’s in the third grade, we need to make sure that we get his basic phonics and his even advanced phonics straightened out and that he’s accurate at those, automatically.
[Music]
We’d like to thank the wonderful students and families at Windy Hill Elementary School in Calvert County, Maryland. We hope that sharing these experiences will help other children who are learning to read.
Special thanks also to Kelly Cleland, Julie Donovan, Joanne Harbaugh, and their outstanding colleagues at Windy Hill Elementary … and to Leanne Meisinger at Calvert County Public Schools.
We are deeply grateful to Linda Farrell, Michael Hunter, and Nicole Lubar of Readsters for their invaluable contributions to this project.
Produced by Noel Gunther
Edited by Christian Lindstrom
Graphic Design: Tina Chovanec
Camera: Richard Chisolm
Audio: Dwayne Dell
For more information about teaching reading, please visit
Reading Multisyllable Words with Xavier, Third Grader
[Music]
Xavier: I think, he — he’s kind of bad.
Linda Farrell: Oh. Dog Man is?
Xavier: Yeah — at his job.
Linda Farrell: He sure is. He chews the table leg. Oh my gosh.
Reading expert Linda Farrel is working with Xavier, a third grader at Windy Hill Elementary in Calvert County, Maryland. She’ll be helping him learn how to read multi-syllable words.
Xavier: … going to study Flippy’s brain.
Linda Farrell: When we visit classrooms, it’s a big issue: “The kids do well with small words, but they can’t read big words.” So I’ll ask a student to read. And they look at a word and it’s volcanic and they read volcano. Or it’s fanatic and they read fantasy. So they guess the most common word that has that configuration that that word looks like it has. What they don’t know is how to break a word into syllables so that you’re not reading a big word that you have to memorize, but you’re just going, “Oh, there’s a little word, a little word, a little word.
Linda Farrell: I’m gonna have you read some nonsense words. They all have short vowels. So, could you just read these three nonsense words.
Xavier: Nad. Naf. Nef.
Linda Farrell: Good. Alright. What are these three?
Xavier: Zib. Zid. Zash.
Linda Farrell: Your, uh, this is pretty easy, isn’t it. Yeah. This is too easy. We’re done with that one. Okay? Now I’m gonna teach you about reading two-syllable words. This is kinda fun.
Linda Farrell: We started with nonsense words with Xavier because often syllables are nonsense words … that when you combine them they become real words. So teaching nonsense words is not an exercise in futility. It is preparing children to read multi-syllable words.
Ms. Farrell now knows Xavier can read one-syllable words with short vowels. Next she checks to make sure he knows what a syllable is, because breaking long words into syllables is the key to the strategy she’ll be teaching him.
Linda Farrell: I just remembered something. I have to make sure you know what a syllable is. Okay. So look at me. My name is Linda. It has two syllables in it. Lin. Da. Linda. So what’s your name?
Xavier: Xavier.
Linda Farrell: How many syllables in your name?
Xavier: Four.
Linda Farrell: Okay. Let’s stomp them.
Xavier: /Ex/, /ay/, I mean, /ex/, /zay/, /vee/, /er/. Xavier.
Linda Farrell: You got it.
Linda Farrell: How many syllables in computer?
Xavier: Com-pu-ter. Three.
Linda Farrell: Yes. You got it. So you know what a syllable is. Alright. Cause that’s really important if we’re gonna read these big words. So if I look at this word, and I want to know how to read that, the first thing I have to do is figure out how many syllables are in it. And I can do that by figuring out what the vowels are. Do you know what the vowel letters are?
Xavier: ‘A, e, i, o ,u.’
Linda Farrell: You got it. Those are the vowel letters. So here’s what I know. Every syllable has a vowel in it. So in order to figure out how many syllables there are, I have to count the vowels. So can you tell me … how many vowel letters do you see in that word?
Xavier: Two.
Linda Farrell: Yep. Are they together or apart?
Xavier: Apart.
Linda Farrell: They are apart. If I have two vowels — letters, and they’re apart, I’m going to have two syllables. So I’m gonna draw two lines right here, and I have to have a vowel letter in every syllable. So can you break that word into two syllables for me?
Linda Farrell: Now this is a nonsense word, so we’re gonna read it. What’s the first syllable?
Xavier: Jod. Pum.
Linda Farrell: What’s the word?
Xavier: Jodpum.
Linda Farrell: So read it again.
Xavier: Jodpum.
Linda Farrell: And the word is …
Xavier: Jodpum.
Linda Farrell: That’s a nonsense word. I just made it up. I literally just made that word up right now. I’ve never even seen that word before. But we now know what to do if we have a word that we don’t know. So let’s try another word.
Xavier: Volcano?
Linda Farrell: Oh! You got the first two syllables — you got the first syllable right. How many vowels do you see?
Xavier: Three.
Linda Farrell: Together or apart.
Xavier: Apart.
Linda Farrell: Okay.
Linda Farrell: Okay. Read each syllable.
Xavier: /Vol/, /cay/ …
Linda Farrell: Hmmm. What’s that middle syllable?
Xavier: … /can/, /ic/.
Linda Farrell: Touch each syllable and read it.
Xavier: /Vol/, /can/, /ic/ …
Linda Farrell: Mm-hmm.
Xavier: /ks/
Linda Farrell: Wait. Wait. What’s that?
Xavier: /ic/
Linda Farrell: Yeah. Let’s do it again.
Xavier: /Vol/, /can/, /ic/. Volcanic.
Linda Farrell: You just read volcanic. So what are the syllables in volcanic?
Xavier: ‘O’ …
Linda Farrell: Those are the vowels. What’s the first syllable?
Xavier: /Vol/, /can/, /ic/.
Linda Farrell: I’m gonna ask you to do something. I’m erasing this. Okay. So say volcanic.
Xavier: Volcanic.
Linda Farrell: How many syllables in volcanic?
Xavier: Three.
Linda Farrell: Okay. I would like you to please see if you can spell each syllable in volcanic. So draw three lines right up here.
Linda Farrell: Do you think you can spell volcanic? What’s the first syllable?
Linda Farrell: What’s that syllable? What’d you just spell?
Xavier: /Vol/.
Linda Farrell: Okay. Next one.
Linda Farrell: Now write the whole word.
Linda Farrell: Oh my gosh. You just spelled volcanic. You couldn’t even read it and now you can spell it. That is pretty good. Do you want me to see if I can get a really hard one for you?
Linda Farrell: In teaching Xavier word attack skills, it’s very important that we choose words with short vowels that have only one vowel all by itself. So you’ll see we’re not going to have words with ‘silent e,’ we’re not going to have words with vowel teams. So we need two questions that we can ask Xavier that can help him break a big word into syllables so that all it is is little small words that he has to put together to read a big word. The two questions are … how many vowels do you see? Are they together or apart? And what we teach him is that … if you see three vowels and they’re apart, you’re going to have three syllables, because every syllable has a vowel. And then we teach him to draw a line for each syllable, write each syllable on a line, and then read each little word and then put them together.
Linda Farrell: Let’s see if we can try this one.
Linda Farrell: How many vowels did you see?
Xavier: Three.
Linda Farrell: Okay. Could you underline them please?
Xavier: I mean four.
Linda Farrell: Okay. Four vowels. Are they together or apart?
Xavier: Apart.
Linda Farrell: So how many syllables?
Xavier: Four.
Linda Farrell: Okay.
Linda Farrell: Could you move that ‘n’ over there? Okay.
Linda Farrell: Okay. So read each syllable.
Xavier: /Con/, /tic/ …
Linda Farrell: What’s that?
Xavier: /ti/, /tin/
Linda Farrell: What’s this?
Xavier: /ti/
Linda Farrell: /t/, /i/. What is it?
Xavier: /ti/
Linda Farrell: Okay. So it’s …
Xavier: /Con/, /ti/, /nin/, /tul/. Continental.
Linda Farrell: You just read continental. Are you ready for another one?
Xavier: Mm-hmm.
Linda Farrell: Okay. Here we go. Let’s try this one.
Linda Farrell: How many vowels do you see?
Xavier: /o/ and /i/, /e/
Linda Farrell: Okay. So how many? You can underline them if you want.
Linda Farrell: Why don’t you start here and go this way. Yeah.
Linda Farrell: Okay. So how many?
Xavier: Four.
Linda Farrell: Together or apart?
Xavier: Apart.
Linda Farrell: Okay.
Linda Farrell: Do you wanna try to read it without breaking it into syllables? Try it.
Xavier: Accosh — accomplishment.
Linda Farrell: What was the word?
Xavier: Accosh — accomplishment.
Linda Farrell: It’s accomplishment. You are right.
As Xavier grasps the strategy, you can see him thinking through the two questions: How many vowels? Are the vowels together or apart? And he’s able to read big words without writing out the syllables.
Xavier: Wil-ming-ton.
Linda Farrell: What’s the word?
Xavier: Wilmington.
Linda Farrell: Wilmington! It’s the name of a city …
Linda Farrell: Xavier does a great job of learning how to attack a word. After this lesson he has a strategy to help him break words into syllables and read them. He will need lots of lessons. We start with short vowels, then we move to ‘silent e,’ then we move to vowel teams. So it’s explicit and it’s systematic when we’re teaching him this. Xavier responded beautifully to reading these long words.
[Music]
Linda Farrell: We’re gonna do one more. It is …
Xavier: Electric — cal. Electrical.
Linda Farrell: You got it! That was a good one to end on. High five! Yes!
[Music]
We’d like to thank the wonderful students and families at Windy Hill Elementary School in Calvert County, Maryland. We hope that sharing these experiences will help other children who are learning to read.
Special thanks also to Kelly Cleland, Julie Donovan, Joanne Harbaugh, and their outstanding colleagues at Windy Hill Elementary … and to Leanne Meisinger at Calvert County Public Schools.
We are deeply grateful to Linda Farrell, Michael Hunter, and Nicole Lubar of Readsters for their invaluable contributions to this project.
Produced by Noel Gunther
Edited by Christian Lindstrom
Graphic Design: Tina Chovanec
Camera: Richard Chisolm
Audio: Dwayne Dell
For more information about teaching reading, please visit
Maryland third grader Xavier is sharing one of his favorite books with reading expert Linda Farrell.Ms. Farrell is going to help him focus on reading every word accurately.
Linda Farrell: Can you read some of this to me? Can you read?
Xavier: Look. We’re heroes because we save the world from Flippy. This — it says here that scientists are going to study Flippy brain.
Linda Farrell: Get the ‘s’ on that.
Xavier: Studies …
Xavier: -dy …
Linda Farrell: What’s this word right here — this one right here?
Xavier: Flippy’s.
Linda Farrell: Yeah. Read that whole thing again.
Xavier: It says here that scien- scientists are going to study Flippy’s brain.
Linda Farrell: Keep going.
Xavier: Dog Man, I have a important job for you.
Linda Farrell: What’s that word?
Xavier: An.
Linda Farrell: Keep reading again.
Xavier: Dog Man, I have a, an important job for you.
Linda Farrell: Can you read that — an important.
Xavier: An.
Linda Farrell: Read it again.
Xavier: … important. Dog Man, I have an portant job …
Linda Farrell: Okay. We’re gonna do this. Read this with me. An.
Xavier: An.
Linda Farrell: Important.
Xavier: Important.
Linda Farrell: Now do it. So read An.
Xavier: An.
Linda Farrell: im
Xavier: im
Linda Farrell: por
Xavier: por
Linda Farrell: tant
Xavier: tant
Linda Farrell: Okay. Now, read it again.
Xavier: Dog Man, I have an important job for you.
Linda Farrell: Keep going.
Linda Farrell: One of the things I notice is that teachers often will let an inaccurate reading slip by if the meaning isn’t changed. Ah, it’s close enough. Move on. And that is setting students up for poor comprehension.
Take for example a sentence like, “The horse got a cold.” If a student leaves out the article a and reads it, “The horse got cold,” the meaning changes significantly.
Linda Farrell: That one little word that seems so inconsequential, a, made a difference in meaning. “The horse got cold” and “the horse got a cold is different.” We never know when that’s going to make a difference in comprehension. We have to build good, strong reading habits for students. And that means as a teacher, it’s my job to help my students develop accurate reading habits so that they don’t miss a question on a comprehension test because they misread a sentence. They left off an ‘s.’ They left off, they left out an article. They added an article. They read present tense instead of past tense. They read – they read a contraction incorrectly. All of those can lead to poor comprehension. And we need, in kindergarten, first and second grade and even third grade, to be making sure that our students read accurately. It’s our responsibility.
Xavier: Who wants to protect the scientists? Who’s a good boy protector?
Linda Farrell: Wait. Who’s what?
Xavier: Who’s a good boy — good protector.
Linda Farrell: Yeah.
Xavier: Who — who wants to protect an, and survive?
Linda Farrell: And what’s that word?
Xavier: Surva — suh-verve?
Linda Farrell: Okay. I’m gonna tell you that ‘v’ is — that ‘e’ is silent. So what does that say?
Xavier: Serve.
Linda Farrell: You got it. So read that again.
Xavier: Who wants to protect and serve?
Linda Farrell: We’re teaching students, our children, that every letter does make a difference and that when you come to an unfamiliar word, you have to pay attention to every letter. And then when you read that word two or three times, it then becomes a word that you’ve seen before and you just read it because it’s part of your vocabulary and you’ve seen that spelling before.
[Music]
Linda Farrell: And what does he do? Does he save people?
Xavier: Yeah. He helps people. These are …
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