During their Daily 5™ reading block in the AT&T Classroom the Carlin second graders are using Educreations for reading fluency practice. The term reading fluency refers to the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with expression. Fluency is an important reading skill because it provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension. When fluent readers read silently or aloud, they are able to recognize words automatically so they are able to also comprehend the meaning at the same time. Because fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding the words, the reader can focus his/her attention on the meaning of the text/words and make connections among the ideas in the text to their own background knowledge. In contrast, less fluent readers must focus their attention on figuring out the words, leaving them little attention for understanding the meaning of text. Educreations is a free app that allows a tablet or iPad to record the student’s voice and his/her writing and drawing which can be saved for playback and/or shared online. Within the Educreations app, the students are using the camera to take a photo of the book passage and then using the app’s microphone to record themselves reading the passage aloud. Finished recordings are saved within the Educreations app so that the students are also able to play back & listen to the passage to self-assess their own reading fluency.
