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Literacy acquisition can best be illustrated by the metaphor of the legs on a table; when one leg is missing the table is not balanced. The legs of the table (also known as “The Big Five”), as defined by the National Reading Panel are phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy and fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2010). Fluency is defined as “accurate, rapid, and expressive reading (National Reading Panel, 2010 & Ari, 2010).” It involves students making meaningful, logical connections between words within sentences and sentences within text, relating text to prior information and knowledge as well as making inferences in order to supply missing pieces of information in the text (Ari, 2010). Effortless decoding and fluid oral reading leads to automaticity. Automaticity is an important ingredient for successful reading, because if all of a student’s cognitive “energy” is expended with word decoding, then comprehension suffers. Fluency is measure in the number of words read correctly per minute. Suggestions made by current research for educators include: frequent progress monitoring and graphing, repeated readings (numerous readings of a single passage), wide readings (students read a wider amount of passages), as well as reading words in context rather than in isolation.
 * //__Fluency and Accuracy in Literacy Development __//**
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A first grade teacher has a student in his/her class who is currently struggling with fluency. This student has been previously retained. In addition, the child was also diagnosed with a hearing impairment during a routine school vision and hearing screening. Current skill deficits include short vowel and consonant patterns (CV, CVC, CCVC). A suggested intervention for the teacher includes “Thumb tap” method (www.wilsonreading.com) in which students hold up their hand and touch each finger to the thumb as they say each sound in a word. Other strategies include repeated/wide readings at least 4 days per week for 30 minutes (Ari, 2010), reading words in context, partner reading with a more successful reader in the class, and providing progressively challenging material when appropriate. Ari (2010) recommended an online timer being projected on to a whiteboard (http://www.onlinestopwatch.com) for repeated readings with the entire class or downloading a timer on to a laptop (http://www.xnotestopwatch.com) for use with individual students.
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Ari, O. (2010). Fluency interventions for developmental readers: repeated readings and wide readings. //Research and Teaching in Developmental Education//, //28//(1), 5-15.

National Reading Panel. U.S. Department of Education, National Reading Panel. (2000). //Teaching children to read: an evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction//. Retrieved from website: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/upload/smallbook_pdf.pdf

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