Today we're diving into what fluency really looks like in the early grades, because in K-2, it's about building confident, expressive, accurate readers.
Speaker 2:We're joined by Virginia Quinn Mooney, a fantastic first grade teacher who brings so much joy and intentionality to how she teaches fluency. From read-alouds and shared reading to songs, partner reading and foundational skills, she's weaving fluency into every part of her literacy block.
Speaker 1:Whether you're new to teaching early readers or looking to strengthen your fluency instruction, this episode is full of ideas you can use tomorrow. Hi teacher friends, I'm Lori and I'm Melissa. We are two educators who want the best for all kids, and we know you do too.
Speaker 2:We worked together in Baltimore when the district adopted a new literacy curriculum.
Speaker 1:We realized there was so much more to learn about how to teach reading and writing.
Speaker 2:Lori, and I can't wait to keep learning with you today. Writing, lori, and I can't wait to keep learning with you today, hi, virginia.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the podcast, hey thank you so much.
Speaker 3:I'm very, very excited.
Speaker 2:We're excited too. We get to talk to you about fluency, which is one of our favorite topics, and you're one of our favorite teachers. We're so excited, oh stop. But we actually get this question a lot, so we really wanted to have you on to talk about it, because you know we have a ton of episodes about fluency, but we have not talked about fluency specifically in K-2. And a lot of people ask questions like should we even be talking about fluency in K-2? Like the kids are just learning how to read. So you know, and if we do, what does it look like for those youngest learners? So how would you, as a first grade teacher, how would you define fluency at that primary grade?
Speaker 3:So I have to say I think fluency is a long time coming for this conversation. I'm not really sure why it has had a backseat, but it's incredibly important throughout the grades. For my I teach first and for my little ones I say all the time if you want to see the importance of fluency, spend a couple of seconds with a disfluent reader and as you watch them struggle through whatever it is they're trying to read, it's so clear that there's no chance that they're going to be able to comprehend it. So for in first grade and in the lower grades it really begins. My biggest job is the foundational skills that I'm directly teaching them.
Speaker 3:You can't read fluently if you can't read. So decoding is absolutely part of fluency and my actual goal with phonics and with foundational teaching is to eventually getting them to on phonics for that automaticity part. So fluency in K2, I guess, to answer your question I don't know if I've gotten there yet but the fluency for even in kindergarten through two is that they are, they can read the words automatically and that it sounds pretty and that they have the prosody of it. And once they can do that, that absolutely, as Tim Rosinski says, it's the bridge to comprehension, but it is so. Once they can actually read it, then they can read it fluently, and then they can comprehend it better.
Speaker 2:And for most of your kids, though, I mean, they're probably coming into first grade. Most of them I would say probably are just fluent readers, like generally.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that's safe to say and it's one of the reasons why I'm incredibly partial to first grade. We talked about this a little bit before. But you know, I essentially get kindergartners and I do all that I need to do in first grade and I pass them off into second grade. So it's an incredibly important year for fluency. But it's not so. It is their decoding. But fluency also begins with me reading those fantastic read alouds with that rich literature and modeling what fluency sounds like. It also has a lot to do with their oral language. It's not an option that the kids don't speak in full sentences with me. All of these things also lead to fluency. You know, when I'm doing the read-alouds, as we all do, what's better than sitting in a rocking chair with a bunch of cute little kids sitting in front of you looking up as you're doing the read-aloud and you know the voices and what we do with our voice is just a ton of fun. But I also make sure to point out to the kids what is happening with my voice, like if I'm reading a particular story and I use an accent or just, you know, exaggerate that exclamation mark. I will stop and I'll say to them like, did you love that? Like, was that just so much fun to listen to? And even that it's just planting the seed of how much reading fluently will help them down the road. So, yes, when they first come in, it's absolutely the top part of the rope that I'm focusing on fluency, but it's really the bottom part of the rope that we'll be working on together to eventually. You know, every strand, the very point of every single strand, is fluency. So the fact that we don't talk about it more is somewhat bananas, because that's truly the end goal for the top and the bottom of the rope. But you know it looks very different. So I do teach fluency purposefully. I have a shared reading portion of the day. We just started Bookworms and I'm loving this shared reading portion. It is. It is.
Speaker 3:The direct objective is for the kids to read fluently, and it starts off with, as most things do, I am reading to them first, and they are either core reading, which means they're reading with me, or they echo read, which means I read and then they read right after me. So they are practicing fluency with me, as they're hearing me and doing it at the same time. And then they work with their partner and they read it for several minutes and by the time they're done, every kid is fluent in on the skills. And then we have the decodable passage. So the big difference is there is direct instruction of what's going to be in the passage. So I'm not I'm not using the passages as a reading instrument. I'm using it as a reinforcement of what we just learned.
Speaker 3:So even with the decodable passages, I read it to them. First I focus on my voice. We talk about how we read, like we talk, and I do a core read with that as well, even with their decodables. And then they will spend several minutes partner reading the decodable as well. So they are partner reading and practicing with both the decodable as well. So they are partner reading and practicing with both a decodable and and authentic text. That's just a little bit harder during that shared reading portion of the day.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for sharing that. I'm wondering, virginia, if you can kind of talk a little bit more like how you weave it into each area right? So I heard you say that foundational skills you're using decodable text to practice I assume phonics patterns, yeah, that you've taught and you're keeping fluency in mind, and then in shared reading, you're using texts that are rich, that are worthy of reading aloud. Are there any specific strategies you use during either you know your decodable text time or your shared reading time or anything else that you think would be really helpful for our listeners to know?
Speaker 3:Sure. So for the partner read, the way that they're partnered is not a coincidence. It's typically one student is just a little bit higher than the other, but we've spent a lot of time before they start going over. What exactly does partner read look like and sound like right.
Speaker 3:So they, you know, I'll say to the kids before I send them off okay, when you read, I want you to make your voices. And they say beautiful. And then we say if there's a question mark, our voices will go. And they say up, and I say when there's an exclamation mark, we will read very. And they say very excitedly. And then I say, however, we're not going to. And then they have to reply back with yell at you. That's why you know Jan Hasbrick and I love this she says read like you're speaking, which I think we sometimes get away from that, because you know, when the kids go to read and there's an exclamation mark, it's like the sky is falling. It's like no, no, mom just said dinner's ready. That's it.
Speaker 3:A voice only really needs to match what we're reading and also pointing along is incredibly important. As they read, and when they're reading with a partner, I'll say to them so if you're stuck in a word you will, and they answer me. Take a minute, because oftentimes their partner will just jump right in. But they really just need to take a minute to remember what we just learned. And once they know they're not going to get it, that's when they ask their partner, and their partner is always more than happy to help. Children are just the best they're. They're generous and kind and it's in their nature to just want to do what's best for each other, and it really comes out in the classroom all day, every day.
Speaker 2:And you know we just talked to Jake Downs who told us all about the research behind this kind of paired reading. So look at you doing some research based activities. Look at that research based.
Speaker 3:What do you know?
Speaker 2:That's the way to teach a girl, evidence based, I guess that's the way, evidence-based, I guess.
Speaker 3:I guess yeah, no, I and and I will say this is the first time that I've done direct fluency instruction. I've always. It's always just sort of been, um, like you know, I knew that I was doing it in my mind, but I wasn't specific with them that this is exactly what we're doing and I and I'm really seeing big strides, particularly my lower kids, with their reading. And you know, if you really are stuck on a word, even at our age, if I'm reading a book that has characters and I can't read their name because it's got lots of vowels, because they may be from a different culture than I'm used to, lots of vowels, because they may be from a different culture than I'm used to it, just I stop and there goes my comprehension. You know, there goes my decoding, and I always try to remember that when the kids are stuck in a word, it's like, well, that's, they're going to stop right there and their comprehension is going to stop right there too. So this practice is just truly the bridge to comprehension, for them.
Speaker 2:Virginia, I'm curious about with the partner reading how long are the texts that you have them read and does that change over? I just feel like first grade, like the beginning of first grade to the end of first grade, is like such a difference in where they are as readers it is.
Speaker 3:So, to start with, when I first started doing it, we were doing Dan and the Dinosaur, which is not a ton of words per page. You know the font is nice and big. There was a picture for them and now, when we come back from break, I'll be starting on Frog and Toad of Friends, so you can see the progression of the text. See the. You know you can see the progression of the text. So it definitely, it definitely increases in complexity and even words on page.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I imagine too you're really like that helps to build that perseverance, that stamina that we always talk about. Right, that you're really doing that in first grade across the year and those texts that you just mentioned really show that.
Speaker 3:The one thing I don't give, and I just read an article on this about tracking the words and pointing along and I couldn't tell if I should stop or not but I just it is so important for them to track when they're particularly when they're partner reading, because that's really when they know, you know, it's the only way this, that's how they're going to know when the other partner is, you know, stuck or not. But I just, I love that reading finger.
Speaker 1:Do you, do you have a song to share with us about that, or maybe you could sing it to us. Do you want to sing it to us?
Speaker 3:Oh, Lori, listen. Literacy community. Don't ever doubt my commitment to you. All right, Do I love you?
Speaker 1:or do I hate you? I have sang on this as this is coming from someone else who's also sang on this podcast before, so I hand you the baton, the singing baton.
Speaker 3:Go ahead. So it goes a little something like this If you're reading and you know it, point along If you're reading and you know it, point along.
Speaker 3:Let my fingers track the word. Listen carefully what you've heard. If you're reading and you know it, point along, track the word. Listen carefully to what you've heard. If you're reading and you know we're pointing along. Every song has to end in a or else it doesn't count. So just to let your listeners know, both Lori and Melissa were dancing for me, so I appreciate both Cheering you on Totally, totally, but it is really important. You know we joke, but tracking the words really is key for them at this grade.
Speaker 1:And having a really fun song to do it with is great too.
Speaker 3:You know I have so many philosophies at this stage of my career and one of the biggest philosophies that I have is If you can say it, sing it right. If you can, if you can stand there, dance there, you know. If you can walk, skip. This is, we just lean into who they are and and actually I'm jumping ahead a little bit, but all I do poems too, for their fluency, and we sing all of them. And singing is huge for prosody, and prosody is how your voice sounds, which you know we've already touched on a little bit, and the singing leads so beautifully into their prosody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I actually. One of the things you're making me think about is an article that Tim Rosinski wrote called let's Bring Back the Magic of Song, and it's basically about that right, Like incorporating the idea of song into building fluency. So I'm so glad that you mentioned that.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, and I actually use it throughout the day. So, again, one of the other things that are big for me with my fluencies is poems, and I do it for so many reasons. One, they love it. Two, I can use it for some content learning. You know, I'll align it with whatever I'm doing in my knowledge building, and I also use it a lot for just even classroom management. You know, if they're a little bit noisy, I can use my voice and remind them that I need them to quiet down, or I can just start singing. This week we're studying caterpillars and the song is my Tummy is Fat, and it goes on and on and on. But so I can either remind them or I can just start to sing my Tummy is Fat, and before you know it, we have a rousing rendition of my tummy is fat to the end, and they're all lined up beautifully with big smiles. Much more fun, and they're learning too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Can't forget the joy in teaching. Thank you. I'm wondering, Virginia. I know that you mentioned both read alouds and shared reading and I know we've talked about it on the podcast before, but I still feel like people get confused about the difference between those two. Can you talk about how you use both of them for fluency and what the difference is between your read alouds and your shared reading?
Speaker 3:Sure. So read alouds. It's me right, the focus is on me and the focus is on me reading. It's me right, the focus is on me and the focus is on me reading. And I am reading the story to them while they're sitting and enjoying and listening, and it's purposeful still. And it's purposeful and the books are usually chosen for very good reasons.
Speaker 3:Again, it could either be what we're learning about in content, it could just be a seasonal book or it could just be a very, very fun book, but, whatever it is, it's chosen for a very specific reason that day. So it's a read aloud. I am reading to them and, again, focusing on my voice, focusing on my own oral language. There's lots of turn and talk so that they're developing their own oral language, but the focus is really, or the person doing the reading is me, as opposed to the shared reading every student has, depending on how much I have in a class set, but every student will have their own book, or they will have a book with a partner and as I'm reading, they are following, tracking that word, you know, tracking those words and they're following along, so that way, when they're, and then it is that book that they will use to do a partner read with.
Speaker 2:Did that help? Yeah, absolutely, and I'm just I'm seeing like different layers of support here. Right, the oral, the oral reading, the read alouds they're just taking it in for language comprehension. Right, the top part of the rope. They're getting just whatever knowledge the vocabulary, the syntax and whatever you're doing for fluency. Right, the top part of the rope. They're getting just whatever knowledge, the vocabulary, the syntax and whatever you're doing for fluency. Right, there's a lot that they're taking in every day from you. And then for the shared reading and the partnered reading, that's their time to practice with a text that might be at not that same level, might be a little bit Just a bump up, right?
Speaker 3:A little bit of a bump up, yeah. Yeah, but the shared reading and the paired reading is where the one that they can they can grasp a little bit. Yes, it's the same text that I just read. Oh, it's the same exact text. Yes, yeah, yeah. So they'll have. So in the shared reading they have their own copy of whatever I'm reading, gotcha.
Speaker 2:So they're following along as I read it. Yeah, that's excellent.
Speaker 3:So like different layers of support to get them to fluent reading on their own Right and that's all whole group and I even I touch on fluency in small group. I always refer to it as like fluency by happenstance when I do it in my small group. I know I'm repeating myself a little bit here, but truly my job is to. When I pull kids into small group, I'm doing it for their foundational piece. It's just, it's so important. I do both sides of the rope all day long, but my small group really is focused on their decoding and helping any child that is just not getting that phonics pattern, that phonics pattern. But even when I'm doing my small group, there's fluency built into the small group. If they're reading their decodable and they are not reading fluent, I will stop and I'll say listen to me and I will read it fluently. I'm like now it's your turn. So, even though my goal of a small group isn't fluency, I absolutely touch on it, so I'll read. I'll model. I. I absolutely touch on it, so I'll read a model. They will read it again. I will change up what we're reading in small groups. So readers, theater is a fantastic tool for fluency. It really gives them no choice because they're there and they love it and they embrace whatever character they're, uh, they have that day in the theater. They, you know, they're hand bones, they work it, they work it. Um so, even what they're hand bones, they work it, they work it. Um so, even what they're reading.
Speaker 3:I will do poetry in small group and again lean into that fluency. But I am sitting at that table for the decodable piece for most of the year and now you know, we're going into spring and they've done a fantastic job and they've worked hard all year and now they don't have to focus as much on the code, the decoding, because they've done a fantastic job and they've worked hard all year, and now they don't have to focus as much on the decoding because they've done that beautifully all year and now they are a lot more automatic. So now, even in my small group, we're moving away from decodables a lot and we're using non-controlled authentic text and I can do a lot more fluency with there. I will even tee them up to make sure they are fluent.
Speaker 3:I will pre-teach vocabulary if necessary, because if they're not sure what the word is, again there's that jam up and then there goes that automaticity and there goes their prosody. So even in this, even in small groups, fluency is there. It's just not the main objective, it's just a sub-objective. I think I just made that word up, but it works Potentially you can use it.
Speaker 1:You can have it. Thank you All. Right, Before we dive, I want to like dive a little deeper into a couple of things you just said, and I think a good thing to do first might be to quickly kind of recap. So we're talking about shared reading. I'm sorry, we're talking about read alouds as you reading to the students. The students do not have a copy of the book. You have a copy of the book and are holding it up. They're hearing you model it. Shared reading the students might be sharing a copy. They might have their own copy and you're reading their tracking along. Yes, that's their track time and then they have this time where they're doing this partner reading and during that partner reading, they could be reading the book that you read for shared reading and write that you modeled and that you practiced with them, and then I'm we didn't. You didn't say this exactly, but I'm wondering also in the partner reading, is it also decodable books or yes, it's actually both every day, okay, so.
Speaker 3:So my shared reading portion of the day, that's when they have their copy of whatever I'm reading and they are reading out loud along with me. It's either an echo read, where I read first, they listen and then they repeat what I've just said. We all do that together or it's a choral read, where we are reading at the same time and then they take that book that we just tracked together and they go off with their partner and that's when they read together and that's when I'm walking around and, you know, helping anyone. That's a little more just fluent, but they really do, they do a really great job. But but that's my role then is to just sort of, you know, roam and hover and then. So that's the shared reading portion, and then, during the foundational piece, I introduce a phonics pattern and then we are, then we read decodable text together, sort of similar. I will read it, they will call read, or they will echo read.
Speaker 2:Can we talk a little bit more about your small groups then, since we've clarified everything that happens in whole group Talk to us about? Is there any like? Do you choose your small groups, like who is working in your small groups for any particular reason? Are you looking for things during their partner reading? And then, yeah, then what do you do? How do they work? What do you do? How do they work?
Speaker 3:I say often that whoever needs me the most gets me the most. And in first grade, particularly the beginning of first grade, who needs me the most are the kids who are struggling with anything that's going to get in their way of decoding. So any kid that is not that just is struggling with any of the diagraphs or any of the graphing phoneme correspondence, that's who I tend to pull into a group together. I do have every Friday I do progress monitoring and I use that data for my next week's groups. Or I also say this a lot my greatest tool for assessment is my eyes and my ears and my understanding of my students. So I pull my kids into small groups to work more on that decoding piece, phonography and correspondence. We do a lot with Elkonin boxes, we do a lot with blending and segmenting and then they will always have a decodable piece at the end of the small group.
Speaker 3:And even with that decodable piece, I well, I shouldn't say I expect fluency, I hope for fluency from them and if they're not fluent we will always go back until they are fluent. Oftentimes it takes about three reads for the kid to for the student to read something fluently. But so again, it's not my. My goal is that when they are reading that decodable passage, they are able to decode the skills that we just worked on. Once they can, that's when they can move into the fluency piece. But I never just say you know, I have a fluency group but I'm pulling them from fluency. I pull them for direct instruction and fluency is always the end goal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like you want them to get to the place where they're automatic, right, they're reading those words automatically the unphonic thing.
Speaker 3:That's my goal. The unphonic thing, I love that. I love that word. You can use that too.
Speaker 2:There you go, two for two, and yeah, and like you said, I mean, the best way to do that is the repetition. Right, them seeing more and more words and more words with that pattern. So the repetition is what you need, and once they get it, that's when they'll be fluent.
Speaker 3:Right, and it's. The word study is the link to automaticity, and then the automaticity is the link to prosody and rate and everything else. So it's you know it is a continuum and that's why you know we always go back to the rope, the literacy geeks that we are right, it all comes back to the rope, but you know it's all the strands that weave into the one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. So when we weave those strands together? You mentioned prosody. You mentioned expression. Today we know that we want students to like read, like they talk right Out loud. So when you do your modeling or you do group practice, what do you use to build that expression? And I know earlier you mentioned song. But I want to make sure that we get in some other tips for our teachers that you use in your classroom.
Speaker 3:Well, honestly, particularly in this small group, it's really modeling, and it's not always me modeling, you know. If, if I have three kids in the group and one of my little ones, just, you know, nailed it and his or her voice was smooth and beautiful, you know I'll stop and I was like, oh man, could we just take a minute? Could you do that again? You know, and the other kids are like that was amazing. Yeah, so I model a ton, the kids model a ton. But you know, also, again, with the oral language and always talking in full sentences, like literally everything brings us to the end goal of fluency. I can't stress poems and I can't stress songs enough. And again, I talked earlier about, you know, pre-teaching vocabulary. Anything that we can do to make the partner read easier for them is moving them faster to the fluency piece. You know, it's not, it's not rate so much, it's it's more the automaticity. I don't necessarily want them to read fast. For me, if I read too fast I have to stop and I have to go back and read it all over again because I wasn't attending. I'm like, why don't I just read? And I have to start all over again. And you know we talked about this briefly too, with with rate. Um, even within ourselves, our rate changes from for ourself.
Speaker 3:If I'm reading, you know, if I'm reading a book, I read one way. If I'm, if I have to sign a contract, I'm slowing that down and I am attending to every single word. Anyway, I just got off topic. So I guess really honestly got off topic. So I guess, really honestly, everything, all roads sort of lead to fluency and and language is everything in in K2 and how we speak to the students, again, even with us, always in full sentences, with their writing. If they write in fragments, I have them read it out loud and then we talk about how that's not fluent, like, as your reader, I can't read fluently if you are writing in fragments and you're not writing in full sentences. So it even, it even touches into writing.
Speaker 2:So interesting I'm. I want to ask you a selfish question because I have a kindergartner, an end of year kindergartner, you know, going into first grade soon, and what I see with him, with fluency. Like I, I wouldn't expect him to be where your kiddos are yet, but when I'm thinking of his fluency I am thinking of things like I mean knowing the letters and the sounds those letters make quickly, being able to probably decode some words accurately, but not super quick on most of them. Yet I'm wondering your take on kindergarten, since you get kindergartners into your first grade classroom. Is that the kind of fluency and I was thinking about, with the writing too? Because I mean, I'm thinking like his writing is getting faster and faster. Is that the level of where kindergarten is for fluency? What would, what would you expect for kindergarten?
Speaker 3:Yes, actually, and he's, he's in great shape.
Speaker 2:Oh, good, if he knows.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean Melissa's, his mom. You will read. You will read I don't, I don't push it a lot.
Speaker 2:I try to just support what he brings home.
Speaker 3:I don't push it a lot, I try to just support what he brings home. Yeah, no, it's, but that's exactly right. I mean, like I said before, you can't read fluently if you can't read right. So our, so our first job in kindergarten, particularly kindergarten, is teaching them to read and it's teaching them the you know, the letter, the sound, simple relationship, and and that that is the first road to fluency for our little guys, along with the rich language and learning new vocabulary.
Speaker 3:And you know, even in kindergarten they can do a shared reading. They're just doing it with a lot less words on the page, and the kindergarten teachers are talking about how their voices are beautiful and not sounding like robots, even, you know, with the little ones, but particularly when they're modeling, you know, for me I bring a lot of attention to how it sounded, and we talk about like I'll even say, why did you love that so much? When, when I write, or, or, or if another friend reads, you know they're, they're, they're picking up on each other when they're, when they read fluently. But I'm, I'm digressing. Yes, you answered your own question. Everything you said is what I would have said.
Speaker 2:Excellent, yeah, I just I didn't want kindergarten teachers to hear because we'd said kind of K2. I didn't want kindergarten teachers to feel like that. Is that what I'm supposed to be doing? Like, are they where Virginia's talking about? But not quite right, Like some, a lot of the same things probably happening, but at a different level.
Speaker 3:Well, right, and that's what I, you know. Just to just repeat myself a little. But in one I had I have I'm bringing in kindergartners and I'm sending off second graders. I know I apologize for the repeat, but that's why the beginning of my year, my fluency focus is very heavy on that foundation piece and it's only now, as I am about to exit second graders, that I can do a lot more with fluency. So there is fluency, it's just the kindergarten world fluency, the kindergarten world fluency, and in second grade it's, you know, it will look so much different and they'll they'll be more talking about the morphology of it all as opposed to like the heavy foundational piece that I'm giving them. It's an interesting perspective first grade. I really love it.
Speaker 2:So much happens in those three grade levels. It's amazing.
Speaker 3:Lots of teeth falling out, though that's the only downside.
Speaker 1:Literally just falling out, just things falling out of your face.
Speaker 3:I have a song for that too, by the way, but no.
Speaker 2:Oh, we don't get that one.
Speaker 1:I mean. I would. Oh well, I mean, I feel like you have to do it now, Now you have to.
Speaker 3:Hi, yeah, yeah, girls, you owe me. I need more swag. Okay, we were just talking about that. Okay, Ta-ra-ra, boom-dee-ay, I lost my tooth today. I know that it's okay, cause baby teeth don't stay. Ta-ra-ra, boom-dee-ay, new teeth will come my way. They'll grow in any day. Hip, hip, hip, hip, hooray. I've actually called families at home to sing that after the summer if they didn't lose a tooth in first grade. That's so fun. Yeah, it's a rite of passage, I guess in Mooney's room, I guess.
Speaker 1:Oh, amazing. Okay, so you've like, I feel like you've packed this episode full of hot tips, but is there anything else that you've haven't shared that you feel like you want teachers to know about? Making sure, like tips, to make sure that every students get that meaningful fluency practice?
Speaker 3:That's a great question, I think, sort of to bring us all the way back to how you started this and how you know you're.
Speaker 3:You're trying to shine the light on it more and I think the tip that I would give is move it up in your toolkit, you know, if it's not already prominent, just give it a place of prominence and, and you know, just think how are you weaving it in? I truly believe when we do read alouds we all are, I mean, it's just, it's our sweet spot as K2 teachers. You know it's just so much fun, but it's almost impossible not to. But even in your decoding, and anytime they're reading, I would always bring it back, like even when we're, when I'm doing a core read with my decodables, or if I have a sentence displayed, it's like okay, whose turn? Who wants to read it? Like they're talking and you know kids will take a turn and we'll all be like that's amazing. So it's just, it really has been weaved throughout my day, but because I bumped it up in order of priority. So just yeah, just move it up in your toolkit.
Speaker 2:Yes, I was just going to say that that's what I wrote, I wrote down on my little sticky note here, which I often do, which was just hearing you talk about how it's not like you do a little fluency time for like 20 minutes, like I have a little fluency block and that's when we do our fluency.
Speaker 2:But you, you really just talked about how, no matter, even if fluency isn't something you've done before yes, I can't imagine there's a K2 teacher out there that's not reading aloud to students but you can just kind of switch the focus. Not even switch the focus, just like add a focus layer of okay, fluency, let me talk to them about my voice and what that sounds like and bring that attention to the fluency, as I'm sure most teachers are already doing it, but just bringing students attention to it. And same with, like I'm sure they're practicing their decoding somewhere, but bringing that fluency layer into it. And I just I love that because you know we talk about it all the time, that you know, even though we have these like pillars of reading, they overlap so much and you have to bring them together. That's the whole point of the rope. Right is bringing them together. So thank you for sharing all the ways you do that.
Speaker 3:And it really is fluency. I mean, you know the goal is comprehension but it's fluency that gets us to comprehension. And just one last thought that I hadn't listed that you made me think of. So my students use the word fluency, you know, they know it and they will read with each other and they will say that was very fluent, you know they're listening for it in each other. So even that vocabulary, there's no word that you can't throw at a kid, that they're not, that they can't grasp typically. I just put typically inside that I don't get emails with some word that some student never understood. I'm like typically. But you know they know what fluency is because we talk about it and we aim for it and we look for it in each other and they look for it in me, virginia.
Speaker 1:is there anything else you want to share, anything important that you're doing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, you know you guys have asked so many great questions about you know what does it look like? And everything that is done is for teachers and the whole. You know, know better, do better. And I'm a moderator on the what I should have learned in college page.
Speaker 1:I always say it wrong what I should have learned in college.
Speaker 3:Yes, I was going to say what I should have been taught, but well, now it's just sort of called the big page, um, and I'm also a Gawain fellow, which is a fantastic not-for-profit organization that is advancing education for, for the teachers and I. I've met so many teachers and I've been at this for so long and one thing that I can say unequivocally is teachers, we're in. If there's something that we can do better for our students, we want to do it. Um, you know, so often we're told you know baby steps and heavy lift. It's like no, it's not a heavy lift, we're in, just tell me what to do. So I've started, um, I'm part of between the PAGE and the Goyen Foundation.
Speaker 3:We host evenings and we call it Teachers, teach Teachers, and what it is is. It is in my classroom with my students putting all these things into practice, and I've done a small group. We just did a three, five writing. But it's exactly what teachers always say we want. Like, I'm in, I will do it. Whatever is best for kids, I am in, and that's what teachers we've always said. We always will say. But this is a really great opportunity. It was a great idea if I do say so, which I just said so to like literally say this is it, this is what it looks like and this is what you can do. So it's real actionable practices that they can put into place the next day. But what's wonderful is it's an event that people join and you know there's so many smart teachers out there doing wonderful things and they also share what they're doing. You know I say all the time teaching is. You know you plagiarize to customize, so we all learn from each other and make it best what's for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's why we love having teachers on the other and make make it best what's for us. Yeah, that's why we love having teachers on the podcast.
Speaker 3:So that we can share what's actually happening in classrooms. It's so important, Right, and actually that's that's who I really appreciate learning from, Because you know, frontline likes to learn from the frontline.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, Virginia, for sharing all these great tips and all these things you do in your classroom and bringing this idea of what fluency can look like in the K2 classroom. Now we know.
Speaker 3:Thank you guys for everything that you've done. You've been instrumental truly in this community and getting the information out there.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I try. As have you. You have too Big time To stay connected with us. Sign up for our email list at literacypodcastcom. You have to Big time. A five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 2:Just a quick reminder that the views and opinions expressed by the hosts and guests of the Melissa and Lori Love Literacy Podcast are not necessarily the opinions of Great Minds PBC or its employees.
Speaker 1:We appreciate you so much and we're so glad you're here to learn with us. Thank you.