This is post #3 in my series dedicated to providing science, social studies, math, and other content teachers with simple and effective strategies to use with multilingual learners.

A scaffold I have come to love using to support reading comprehension in my language arts classroom is FORI. Fluency Oriented Reading Instruction, developed by Stahl and Heubach (2005), is a strategy that supports reading fluency and meaningful comprehension through repeated, guided readings. I suggest using this strategy with the kinds of texts that have a lot of Tier 2 and Tier 3 words and incorporating it into your regular pre-reading routines.

Planning a FORI Reading:

1. Review the text you want to use with your class. Chunk the text by drawing lines underneath sections. The sections shouldn’t be too long – 2-3 paragraphs is ideal. For each chunk, circle any tier 2 words you want to focus on.
2. Prep for a cloze read. In the cloze read, the teacher reads the text and when the teacher stops, students read aloud the next word. I like to highlight these words. Make sure the words you choose for this are easily pronounced and familiar to the students already.
3. Write a question for each chunk that helps students connect the chunk to the main idea / purpose for reading the text. See heading below for more on this.
4. Create a model for whatever method of reading organizer you are using with your students.
5. Make a list of 3-4 “success criteria.” How will you know that each student understands the text from looking at their organizer?
6. Photocopy the student version of the text and organizer. For FORI, I don’t think it is necessary to have a copy of the text that every student can write on, so it can definitely be a class set or in the textbook.

FORI Routine:

Read #1:

Read the first chunk by cloze reading. I like to tell students explicitly to point at (the first word) of the paragraph. Then, I look around and make sure that every student is at the right place. Make sure students understand that when you stop, students will say the word that follows aloud.

PRO tip: don’t let kids check out on this – every student needs to participate or it will fall apart quickly. I like to practice with the first sentence – watching kids as they say the word. If I don’t see the participation I need, I will try it again. If I see individual students not participating, I will say their name and have them repeat the word out loud for the class (one of the reasons why familiar words are a must!). Be very diligent with this, and it will pay off.

After reading, take some time to define / discuss the Tier 2 vocabulary.

Before the next step, I have students rate their understanding of the chunk- 1 to 3 fingers.

Read #2:

This second reading will be a choral read, meaning all voices read together. You can do a whole class choral read, or a partner/ small group choral read. If you plan to do the latter, make sure you have strategic partners with mixed reading levels.

Read #3:

Finally, ask students to partner or independently whisper read. Students should use this read to complete the relevant parts of the graphic organizer.

Repeat for the rest of the chunks. This is the point where you might let most students work independently, and ask a para (if you are so lucky!) or sit down yourself and work with your MLLs to finish the reading using FORI.

PRO TIP: Be open with students about WHY you are using the strategy – “We’re reading a text that has some really tricky sections, and I want to make sure that everyone can understand them before we analyze the text.” or, “There’s a lot of new words here that I want to make sure we can all say confidently before we use them later on…” Students really need to buy in to this, since the routine can seem a little elementary.

Why FORI?

• Most of our students, not just MLLs, can use practice with reading fluency. This strategy builds confidence and competency in a low stakes environment, with multiple opportunities to practice.
• FORI gives MLLs multiple opportunities to practice English in a meaningful context alongside their peers.
• This practice connects decoding to comprehension, rather than islating one or the other.

What Kinds of Questions Should I Use?

Questions you use should be comprehension focused during a FORI reading.

• What is one detail you found that might be important to answering our purpose question?
• What is the author comparing?
• What solution is the author explaining?
• Why is this chunk important to the text?

Use these generic questions, or make them specific to the chunk. You can also use any comprehension questions provided with the text or pop the text into your AI and have it help you get some questions.

Questions or comments? Drop them below!

Looking for more strategies to try with your MLLs? Check out another Try This Tomorrow post.