Abstract
The evaluation of accuracy in reading depends on capability to make sense of words in a manuscript. Reading accuracy is consequently the automatic process of interpretation and integration of appropriate expressions or phrases during the reading process with a minimal use of required resources in the aim of communicating meaning in a text.
Proper definition for understanding reading fluency portrays the concept of learning to decode words accurately for the need to succeed in reading text, as a perspective that is for garnering profundity. Accuracy in decoding words is important, but the main aim ought to be ensuring that the words undergo automatic decoding with less effort during the reading process.
Interpretation entails the ability to phrase and express words appropriately during the reading process. Accurate and fluent reading therefore is the ability to accurately decode words in a text and automatically present them, while illustrating optimal comprehension it is also the ability to interpret text expressively. As an important aspect of reading, fluency affects the readers’ ability to understand text.
This paper describes the process of calculating the word correct per minute (WCPM) and the reading accuracy as a way of measuring the students’ ability to achieve reading affluence.
What are the efficient methods of determining students’ reading fluency and efficiency? Are there methods appropriate for determining reading fluency? The paper is therefore is a critical analysis of assessment procedures for accurate and effective reading among students. It eventually presents the way of assisting students gain the WCPM and reading accuracy and explains the benefits of using the procedure to nurture fluent readers.
Reading accuracy
Fluent readers have experience. They are able to decipher meaning form a text precisely without human intervention or need for extra resources as a requisite for triggering the conscious mind. According to Samuels (2002), inability to have enough resources for decoding words or reading comprehensions makes the reader to acquire excellent skills for enhancing reading accuracy. Readers are able to facilitate proficiency or accuracy by graduating from the conscious process of decoding to accurate or automatic decoding.
The most favourable accurate reading level focuses on the ability to find meaning out of a text without straining during the reading process. At that level one does not need to listen closely to the sound of words but simply recognizes the words automatically and accurately at the instance of seeing the text. A good reader rarely requires the need to focus concentration on finding the meaning from a text. This aspect differentiates the experiences from the learning readers.
The accuracy in reading also requires the reader to have the capacity of interpreting or deriving sense from words within the text during the reading process. Accuracy in reading enables one to focus attention on the comprehension process or other related tasks, consequently finding meaning from a combination of text.
Tor that reason, the ability to read fluently has a direct connection to comprehension. Active interpretation or construction of meaning from a passage requires the reader to push in appropriate “volume, tone, phrase, emphasis and other elements of oral expression” Samuels (2002).
The sense of having accuracy in reading indicates that fluency is multidimensional, with directions over stress on accuracy or decoding of words in a text, emphasis on the need to quickly and automatically recognize words in a connection of text and lastly in the ability to expresses meaning from a text through accurate interpretation.
Assessing Reading Accuracy and Automaticity
According to Walker (2008), “the ability to read fluently depends on the component of decoding accuracy.” The reading accuracy therefore depends on three distinct components namely, the accuracy of decoding, automaticity and prosody. Decoding accuracy is the ability to get meaning accurately from words during the reading process. “Automaticity is ability to decode words from text with minimal dependence upon the resources and prosody is ability to use phrases and expressions appropriately during the reading process…
The reader’s level of accuracy affects the decoding accuracy and automaticity components” (Walker, 2008). The percentage of the words a reader can engage correctly within a given period determines the reading accuracy. This is an important measure for reading proficiency since it indicates the various levels of decoding accuracy. There exists various level of performance in the word decoding accuracy tests.
The independent level is over 97% range. These readers are able to engage text without difficulties or need for assistance. The instructional level readers have a performance rage of approximately 90% to 96%. They perform under the guidance of a good reader. The last is the ‘frustration’ level. These average scores of these readers are below 90% mark. They perceive the assessment of reading text as a difficult task that is too challenging to conceptualize.
Although it is a widely utilized especially in the informal reading inventory, the test for oral reading fluency incorporate analysis of accuracy at all levels of achievements. The reader faces the challenge of meeting multiple words within the assessment passage to meet the requests set forth by the analysis process.
Various assessment courses of actions are excellent procedure for determining accuracy because of the in-depth analysis, but they consume a lot of instructional time and are thus not viable for most teachers especially when the students are many. The rate of reading determines the student’s ability to engage automaticity and word recognition.
A better and common procedure is the words read correctly per minute, (WCPM). During the reading process, the analysis counterchecks the incorrect words and counts only the correctly read words within the 60 seconds period.
Procedure for measuring the reading accuracy using the WCPM
The initial step involves the identification of appropriate text with an approximate number of words depending on the student’s grade level. The readability formula or rubric determines the appropriateness of a text to a given level of study. The student should read the passage aloud for one minute under a tape-recording procedure. Appropriate reading ought to be at normal reading speed without the tendency of hurrying to finish on time.
The teacher has to assist on words that the student fails to respond within a two to three seconds interval wait, to ensure the process engagement within the specified one-minute period. The teacher analysis process entails checking for the mispronunciation errors, bearing in mind the assisted word pronunciation. Other errors include the replacement of the original text to evade challenges, total oversight of tough words and, reversing of pronunciation.
The supervisor has to mark the point reached after one-minute analysis. In line with Samuels, (2002), to determine the reading accuracy, the analyst “divides the number of correctly read words with the total number of words read within the minute.” Eventually the analyst converts the results to a percentage and compares them against the target norms of the performance range. Lastly, “a standardized format determines the rate for the total number of WCPM… by comparing the total counts against the target norms (Samuels, 2002).
Benefits of WCPM analysis
The process of WCPM is efficient because the analysis can perform multiple sessions using different texts in comparison of the median score against performance standard, thus determining the student’s actual ability (Walker, 2008).
The teacher is able to repeat the process within a short while for a wide range of students in need of improvement, and thus determine the reading growth pattern. Relating the readers to the target norms progressively enhances automaticity among them, regularly channelled through relating performance to the standardized measurements for accurate reading at enhanced rates.
By measuring the student’s reading accuracy, the teachers are able to determine the main sources of difficulties. Some readers will have low accuracy in reading and therefore automatically end with overall low scores while others have high scores but suffer from decoding error and also have low scores.
The accuracy assessment assists in differentiating between these two types of readers in the aim of making them better readers. The analysis determines the comprehension difficulties but eventually the reading growth depends on the type of difficulty a student experiences. “The source of difficulties either is… lack of sufficient automaticity or lacks accuracy in decoding words” (Walker, 2008).
Assisting a student to advance their WCPM and reading accuracy
A teacher has to utilize assessments such as the WCPM as a critical tool for planning for responsive instructions especially among students with a struggle on reading skills. According to Walker (2008), teachers fail to recognize the assessment results as effective tools for diagnostic teaching procedures. Diagnostic teaching is a continual sequence of activities where the educators can utilize various ways of assisting the students.
First, the assessment procedures are decisive, and therefore the teacher must assess the reading ability by subjecting the student to the WCMP program to determine their level of performance and as an initial course of action, find the starting point.
The second procedure entails the interpretation of data in accordance to the students’ development level, for instance by finding out if the language a first or second language. This point of action assists in meeting the curriculum expectations through the instructional practices. Thirdly, there is need to adjust the techniques and materials for giving instructional guides.
The guidance skills or teaching strategies have to incorporate the requirements that the students lack to master or garner new advanced skills or strategies to advance their reading abilities and knowledge. There is equally the need to reassess the procedures. A good course of action a teacher should consider in their duties of helping a student advance in their WCPM and reading accuracy includes offering support for continual reading habits.
Students with reading difficulties require restricted amount of directives for decoding words in the aim of sharpening their skills. Lastly, students often takes a while to master skills, therefore there is need for continual re-interpretation of the instructional guidelines overtime.
Importance of the WCPM and reading accuracy
An engagement in the reading fluency analysis provides a bridge between the ability to recognize and comprehend words. It is a catalyst for leaders because it enables them to focus on the challenges and thus have an attention towards the need to understand the meaning of text during reading.
Non-fluent readers often focus much of their attention to figuring out the words and therefore end up with another problem linked to comprehension. “The WCPM and reading fluency analysis focuses attention on both the need for fluency and comprehension abilities…” (Graham and Perin, 2007).
The procedure provides an opportunity for engaging guideline for orally repeated reading and supportive assistance from the teachers’ feedbacks from the performance results. The analysis also provides the opportunity to “match reading texts and instructions to individual students” (Graham and Perin, 2007). The assessment is a classroom-based for monitoring the progress for students and for both the accuracy and reading rates.
References
Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing Of adolescents in middle and high school. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education publishers
Samuels, S. J. (2002). Reading fluency: Its development and assessment. (Third Ed pp. 166-183). Newark, DE: International Reading Association
Walker, B. J. (2008). Diagnostic Teaching of Reading: Techniques for Instruction and Assessment (7th Ed), Columbus, OH: Merrill, Print