Arkansas Foundations of Reading Exam Fluency 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A teacher has students read the same passage three times, tracking their WCPM each time. This strategy is called:
- Choral reading
- Repeated reading (Correct answer)
- Echo reading
- Partner reading
Correct answer: Repeated reading
Repeated reading involves multiple oral readings of the same text to increase automaticity, rate, and expression.
Question 2: During echo reading, the teacher's role is to:
- Listen silently while students read independently
- Read a sentence or phrase aloud, then have students repeat it immediately (Correct answer)
- Ask comprehension questions after each paragraph
- Time students on a one-minute reading probe
Correct answer: Read a sentence or phrase aloud, then have students repeat it immediately
In echo reading, the teacher models fluent reading of a segment and students immediately echo it back, providing a model and guided practice simultaneously.
Question 3: Which of the following reading fluency norms benchmark would be considered on-grade-level for a typical second grader in spring?
- 40–50 WCPM
- 90–100 WCPM (Correct answer)
- 130–140 WCPM
- 20–30 WCPM
Correct answer: 90–100 WCPM
Hasbrouck and Tindal's ORF norms place the 50th percentile for second grade in spring at approximately 89–100 WCPM.
Question 4: A student's oral reading is fast but contains many errors and lacks expression. This pattern suggests the student is:
- A strong reader who needs extension activities
- Sacrificing accuracy for speed, indicating fluency is not truly developed (Correct answer)
- Ready for above-grade-level texts
- Fully fluent and needs only comprehension practice
Correct answer: Sacrificing accuracy for speed, indicating fluency is not truly developed
True fluency requires all three components—accuracy, rate, and prosody; high rate with low accuracy indicates the student has not achieved genuine fluency.
Question 5: Which student behavior is the best indicator that a student's fluency skills are breaking down due to word-level difficulty?
- Reading in monotone voice
- Frequent self-corrections and re-readings of difficult words (Correct answer)
- Making predictions about story events
- Skipping punctuation marks
Correct answer: Frequent self-corrections and re-readings of difficult words
Frequent hesitations, re-readings, and self-corrections at the word level signal that decoding demands are taxing the student's cognitive resources, impairing fluency.
Question 6: What does the term 'automaticity' mean in the context of reading fluency?
- The ability to summarize a text automatically after reading
- The ability to recognize and decode words effortlessly, without conscious attention (Correct answer)
- Automatically applying comprehension strategies while reading
- Reading without subvocalizing any words
Correct answer: The ability to recognize and decode words effortlessly, without conscious attention
Automaticity refers to word recognition that occurs rapidly and effortlessly, freeing cognitive resources for comprehension.
Arkansas Foundations of Reading Exam Fluency 2
A teacher has students read the same passage three times, tracking their WCPM each time.
This strategy is called: