Thread: Connected Text

I've never considered the DIBELS "fluency" scores to represent fluency.

My district uses them heavily through 5th grade, and I get 6th graders who do their best to read as quickly as possible, taking great pride in reading too fast for expression, too fast to actually use punctuation, too fast for comprehension.

I spend a whole year teaching them to slow down and pay attention, because they've been conditioned to believe that wpm expresses fluency. On the other hand, my grandson reads slowly. He uses the punctuation, and uses vocal expression. If he reads something that doesn't sound quite right, or makes sense to him, he goes back and rereads it.

That's what I consider fluency; pacing and tone to suit the content, and use of punctuation.


I'm not raining on your parade; I hope the activities you've shared help anyone who has to do DIBELS for oral reading fluency. I just wish my district would drop it.

Great post Kelley!