Timothy V. Rasinski

As a teacher librarian, are you coteaching at times alongside a reading specialist in the elementary grades? If so, one of the concerns with so many budding readers and inparticular, English learners, is reading fluency. Short chapters of this book treat topics such as whole group reading fluency instruction, one-on one fluency instruction, and integrating technology into fluency instruction. Just like other skills, our own position is that if such skills were embedded like library skills into content learning experiences, perhaps some of the ideas here would work. They would work if the subject matter like animals was the center of concern and fluency is just a piece of the puzzle that helps all of us on our road to deep understanding. For teacher librarians, we have focused for years on the Steven Krashen idea that children who read a lot will also easily incorporate fluency as they consume large amunts of good literature and non-fictional texts that grab the attention. We would not recommend this text as any kind of scope and sequence, but perhaps, in concert with a reading specialist, it would provide a few ideas for embedding skill into exciting investigations. A tenuous recommendation at best.… (mere)