CrowdED Learning Topic Three, Week Two: Strategies for Integration of Fluency Resources

Thanks Jeri!

We are going to switch (and shorten!) things up with this week’s post and start with a recap of last week’s shares, followed by questions we’d like people to discuss during this week’s sharing.

If you wish to review this concept overview and notetaking guide for this week's discussion, which includes ideas about strategies for using technology to develop fluency skills, here is a link to that document. 

Week 1 Recap

Last week, we had a great discussion around both the importance for developing fluency as well as strategies for incorporating fluency—including MODELING fluency—with learners. Particular strategies that were emphasized were reader’s theater, teacher modeling, and pairing learners with fluent readers. 

Additionally, some great sites were shared! In addition to Reading Skills for Today’s Adults, Reading Skills for Health Care Workers, and ELC Study Zone, these new sites were also shared: 

• WordGen, SciGen, and SoGen: These materials include Reader’s Theater activities using vocabulary from the lesson. Here are sample lessons for Social Studies and Science. 

• We Speak NYC Video Lessons | These video lessons are incredibly well-designed for modeling and developing language skills, particularly for ESL students. The videos are engaging episodes that focus on important topics to learners, and characters within each video model language that learners can use in their everyday lives. Each video also includes a script, which provides opportunity for conducting Reader’s Theater with your learners. There also are a number of downloadable activities that provide additional speaking and  reading opportunities for learners. 

Week 2 Discussion Questions

Our discussion this week focuses on strategies for developing fluency skills. Given there was so much focus around modeling during week 1, the questions for this week ask you to share how you might (or currently do) use the resources we’ve discussed to model fluency. Additionally, we are interested in discussing strategies for evaluating fluency, as well as providing learners with opportunities to practice and self-assess their fluency levels using technology. 

Again, you may wish to refer to this resource from CALPRO, which provides guidance for assessing and evaluating fluency levels, as well as strategies for providing ample practice, including guided oral reading, echo reading, read-along, pair reading, and reader’s theater. 

• Fluency Strategies | What strategies and techniques do you use for assessing, monitoring, and developing fluency levels of your learners? Please provide links to specific tools, websites, or resources you find particularly helpful. 
• Incorporating Free Resources | How would you use one of the resources from last week’s discussion (or something else you may use) to provide opportunities for modeling and practice of fluency skills? If you currently use one of these resources, please describe strategies for how you use it to evaluate skill levels or provide opportunities for skill development.
• Integrating Technology | How do/might you use media (videos, audio recordings) to provide learners with independent modeling of fluency? How do/might you use tech tools such as voice notes, text-to-type resources, or other recording tools to provide learners with practice reading aloud and evaluating their skills?

I look forward to this week's sharing!!!!! :)

I wanted to close out the fluency convo and discussion around the new Reading Skills for Today’s Adults with an idea we’ve been pondering at CrowdED Learning...

As discussed over the past two weeks, RSTA has just completed an update (Please note the new URL!!! https://www.readingskills4today.com/). As part of that update, in addition to the stories and the audio recordings designed to support fluency development, each reading also has a supplement that includes activities for vocabulary, grammar and language, speaking, and comprehension in the form of a downloadable Word doc. 

Given Southwest Minnesota ABE was incredibly thoughtful in openly licensing the new site as CC-BY-NC-SA, CrowdED Learning is interested in launching a crowdsourcing project to create interactive vocabulary decks for each story using Quizlet and comprehension quizzes using Google Forms. Pulling it all together will be Wakelet, which is a super cool content curation and sharing tool for which we will be holding a webinar on Thursday, October 24 @ Noon Eastern. 

Here is a link to what the final product might look like for an individual story.

Here’s the premise: 

1. Volunteers receive training (via live webinar or post-webinar recording) on one (or both) of two tools: Quizlet and Google Forms. 

2. Once completed, volunteers select one of the nearly 350 stories from RSTA’s library. For example, here is one story: 9-1-1 Saves Lives. 

3. Using the supplement, the volunteer creates one (or both) of the following (CrowdED Learning would provide a tracking document for selecting a story/activity):

   1. a Quizlet deck using the vocabulary words and definitions that are provided in the supplement. Here is the sample flashcard set from 9-1-1 Saves Lives….OR…

   2. a Google Forms quiz, using the comprehension quiz that is provided in the supplement. Again, here is the sample quiz from 9-1-1 Saves Lives.

4. CrowdED Learning pulls the three together (Quizlet deck, RSTA story, Google Forms quiz) onto a Wakelet. Again, here is the sample finished product on Wakelet.

Wakelet is a great sharing tool because you can share and assign “collections” such as the one we created for 9-1-1 Saves Lives with students via Google Classroom, Remind, Facebook, Edmodo, and more. 

Is this an idea worth trying? If so, I’d love to hear folks thoughts about 1) how they would use a library of texts that include a story with audio recordings, a vocabulary deck, and a comprehension quiz, and 2) thoughts about how to recruit volunteers to participate in this event. 

This project represents an important part of what CrowdED Learning is working to support within adult education—thoughtful curation and development of freely available content that can be easily accessed and implemented by educators. 

If you are interested in learning more, please feel free to join our webinar this Thursday, October 24 where we will learn more about the Wakelet tool, see how it’s being used by adult educators, and walk through this idea of using it as a tool to grow a library of readings that provides interactive comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency practice for nearly 350 readings!