This is SUCH an important blog from Elana.

And I also think it's a fascinating example of how assessment drives (and interferes with) instruction. DIBELS doesn't measure ORF in K, and this means there's very little incentive for K teachers to work on fluency or help students move beyond sounding out every word letter by letter....or even expect students to read much connected text at all.

This really comes to a head in 1st, when students are assessed on ORF, and they don't even approach benchmark b/c they're too busy sounding out and recoding all of the words. As Elana points out, word reading does not translate into oral reading fluency on longer passages.

Of course, good instruction in 1st can and does close this gap (it does in Elana's school), but what can K teachers do to make sure that students don't fail behind in the first place? How can 1st graders get students to stop reading sound by sound?

Elana offers 3 recs: 1. Teach continuous blending 2. Teach students to read the fast way 3. WAY MORE TIME on actual texts

I might add a 4th. Start measuring ORF in K, and I bet you’ll see an uptick in the above practices.