Would fluency be the most important factor when monitoring progress? Accuracy would be important for Isolator, but seemingly less so for the Match Star games where clients would need to turn cards over to look for matches before being successful. I find as I share results with parents, that they need one or more specific factors to look at to judge their child's progress.
Date
Votes
3 comments
-
Sandie Barrie-Blackley Good question, Nancy. Since the definition of fluency is the # of responses that are correct on the first try, fluency assumes accuracy. I guess the answer to what is most important depends on where the child is on the "true mastery" ladder.
A skill can't be fluent unless it is first accurate. On Isolator, a fluency rate of over~ 10-11 responses per min. (RPMs) would be optimal, but some kids (i.e., those with processing speed problems) do well just to get >80% accuracy.... and may never get accurate and fast (e.g., over 8-10 RPM on Isolator).
Re: MatchStar games....you're right....some initial guessing (exploring) is part of the task. But the scoring on those games includes a correction factor that accounts for that. So, you still want to see the child achieve a >80% accuracy in those games. Some children definitely have more trouble with one game type or the other. (Here is a post I made about one of my clients who was struggling with one of the MatchStar games. (Read the following comments for ideas I got from the Lexercise clinician community that ultimately helped me solve the issue.)
To help parents interpret their child's scores I begin with a discussion (usually in the clinic, the day we start the Lexercise free trial) about the importance of working in the "zone of maximal learning." I tell the parents that we are shooting for accuracy of over 80% for 2 consecutive days before we can move on with a new Practice Plan. I usually print a copy of the "zone of maximal learning" chart for them. Then, at least weekly.... I copy and paste their child's Lexercise Accuracy report (the table below the graph) in to an email them. I keep using the terminology, "zone of maximal learning." The accuracy percentages make a lot more sense to them then.
I just had an email today from a mom whose daughter is using Lexrcise. She said that she watched her child's teacher counting her daughter's reading "miscues" (on the STAR Reading Program) in class last week and realized that some words that the teacher counted as correct were words that her daughter actually did not read correctly (by herself). They were words that were cued by the teacher or they were a synonym for the actual, printed word, etc. This teacher calculated her daughter's accuracy at 95% correct words. On Lexercise this child is struggling to reach 80% accuracy. Mom said she suddenly realized how her daughter has gotten "pushed along" before she has really mastered word reading tasks. She realized that the 95% accuracy the teacher was reporting was only achieved with adult cuing (and by counting mis-read words that "made sense" in context). Without Lexercise I don't think this mom would have this level of understanding. I asked her to post her astute observation on the Lexercise Parents' Blog. I hope she will.
-
Nancy Gates Sandie,
Thanks for your reply, which is helpful in talking with families. I am still a little bit confused though about fluency and accuracy. To me the definition of accuracy would be the number of correct responses on the first try and fluency would be the number of correct responses per time unit (minute). So, of course, fluency would assume accuracy. Am I interpreting this incorrectly?
-
Sandie Barrie-Blackley Nancy~ Exactly correct. I didn't say clearly that fluency is calculated per minute. So, let me try again: Fluency is the number correct on the first try per minute.
Please sign in to leave a comment.