So here's a follow-up post to this one about reading fluency and WPM (words per minute.)
Jake recently got his first report card of 3rd grade, and rather than indicating the WPM goals for each quarter of the year, we were given the comparative benchmarks for the current term in 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade. Those numbers are:
Fall 3rd grade - 71
Fall 4th grade - 91
Fall 5th grade - 110
I think it would make more sense to let us know all the 3rd grade goals like his 2nd grade report card did, but whatevs. :)
Ok, so how are words per minute is measured?
Typically in a school setting, a child sits alone at a table with a teacher and is given a page like the one shown here. (Click to enlarge image.)
These pages are levelled to each grade - so a 1st grader would be reading a very different one than a 3rd grader. The child has 60 seconds to read the text. Any words read wrong or skipped are indicated on the identical page the teacher is holding. If a child gets stuck on a word, the teacher is supposed to give the word after 3-5 seconds (can't remember which) and mark it as read wrong. At the 60 second mark, the teacher notes which word the child was on. Let's say our imaginary child was on the 42nd word but had gotten 3 words wrong.
She technically read 42 words in a minute, but since WPM is actually "words CORRECT per minute," we have to subtract those 3 wrong words - thus her score would be 39 WPM.
When I do reading tests with my tutoring students, I let them read the entire passage, and then I figure out about where they were - and I indicate in my lesson book for them how many words they read in how many seconds. The math doesn't have to be exact (since I'm not bound to a state's oversight LOL) - when 62 words are read in 66 seconds, I know that's hovering around 55 or 60 WPM. When 65 words are read in 42 seconds with 1 mistake, I know that's closer to 90 WPM. I actually wrote in numbers to an entire chapter of a Frog and Toad book and had "A" read it to me - she read 314 words in 320 seconds. So that's right around 60 words per minute over an extended reading. And that works pretty well for us.
My final thought would be to not take any one reading test too seriously. This page shown had Jake reading at 123 WPM with no mistakes sometime in 2nd grade, yet he tested at 90 WPM for his first 3rd grade report card - and he reads non-stop even in summer time, so it's not like his reading skills drastically declined. (And truth be told, I have never felt like those assessments accurately capture how fast Jake reads, especially considering the speed at which he can read my text messages I try to hide from him when my phone beeps!) It just depends on how a child is feeling on a particular day, whether a certain reading page might have words that throw him off, or even the variables in the environment in which the assessment is given.
Hope that helps! For the next entry on WPM, click here: Words Per Minute Calculation
P.S. one of my friends who is a teacher added the following:
- There are different sources for passages, and how to use them. With some programs, 1st-3rd grade readers use the same passages. The expectations are higher for the older kids, but they're reading the same thing.
- When we progress monitor, they only have to read one passage; when they are formally tested three times a year, they have to read three passages. And then either an average is taken or they take the middle score (I don't remember).
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