How to use the Reading Fluency Assessment tool

3.png  Audience: Teachers with Seesaw Instruction & Insights

Reading Fluency allows teachers to capture reading fluency by tracking key metrics like percent words correct, words correct per minute, word additions, word removals, and more. Reading Fluency uses AI transcription to convert recordings into text that is automatically analysed, providing teachers with actionable reporting for the entire class or an individual student. English and Spanish language is supported. For more information on Seesaw's use of AI, view our AI Philosophy.

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How to create a Reading Fluency Activity

  1. Tap the green +Add button.
  2. Tap Create Activity or Assessment.
  3. Tap Assessment. This will prompt the assessment creation screen.
  4. Select the Question Type: Reading Fluency
  5. Select the desired recording time limit. Options include: 30 seconds, 45 seconds, 1 minute, 1.5 minutes, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes, and 5 minutes. 
  6. Enter or paste your passage into the Passage text box. Tap Add.
  7. Once the assessment is created and and assigned, students will record themselves reading the passage and submit the assessment.

The assessment is auto-graded and the teacher will be given a score, a words correct per minute rating, and can view any additions and removals that were flagged during the assessment. This allows teachers to quickly understand student progress on literacy skills! Teachers can easily make manual corrections on student reporting to account for any miscalculations.  💡Learn more about scoring here!

How to View Class Trends

Teachers can see trends across the entire class or view detailed reporting for a single student.

  1. Access the activity from the Activities tab.
  2. Tap the Review button.
  3. View the reporting breakdown for this assessment.

What happens if an Activity with a Reading Fluency Assessment is shared with a teacher who doesn't have Seesaw Instruction and Insights?

In this scenario, the Activities sent to a teacher without SI&I can be viewed and assigned, but not edited. The Reading Fluency Assessment will be downgraded to a text label for the passage, and a voice Frame with no AI voice transcription or automatic grading. 

Success Tips

Passage Authoring 

Be mindful of the following suggestions when creating passages as they could impact the accuracy of the automatic grading. Note that you can always manually override the automatic grading, see How to Manually Update an Assessment below.

  • Homophones
    • These are words that are pronounced the same, but spelled differently.
    • The Reading Fluency Assessment should be able to correctly identify homophones as long as there is some context as to the meaning of the word. For example, in the phrase: “I ate two hot dogs.”, it is clear which two vs. to vs. too is intended. 
  • Multiple Spellings
    • Some words have multiple accepted spellings. 
    • Reading Fluency Assessment will choose what it determines to be the most appropriate spelling.
    • Note that Reading Fluency Assessment expects words to have English-US spellings.
  • Numbers and symbols
    • If you use numbers or symbols in your passage text, Reading Fluency Assessment may expect a word (e.g. ‘9’ vs ‘nine’)
  • Hyphens and Compound Words
    • Reading Fluency Assessment will attempt to employ the correct usage of hyphens and compound words. This may not match the text in the passage. 
  • Nonsense Words and Names
    • Reading Fluency Assessment may not be able to recognize nonsense words and some names.
  • Accents and Speech Disorders
    • The accuracy of Reading Fluency Assessment may be affected by students with accents or speech disorders.
Background Noise

Background noise, particularly the voices of other individuals, can be picked up in the recording and potentially impact the accuracy of the assessment. 

Recommendations:

  • Students should record their readings in a quiet or low volume environment when possible. 
  • Using a headset with a microphone allows for clearer recording and can minimise background noise. 
  • Students should be encouraged to speak at an audible volume ("Use your reader's voice!")
  • Students can listen to their recording and re-record if they are not satisfied with the recording.
Mistakes

If a student realises they have made a mistake, they should go back to where they first made the mistake and reread the passage from there. Reading Fluency Assessment will not penalise the student for properly corrected mistakes.

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