Cynthia,

I am not a certified teacher, and so have gone through no formal 
programs on this or any other aspect of teaching reading or literacy, 
but I have done some reading in these areas over the years because I 
have an interest in it.  I say this as a backdrop to telling you that 
I have read about the skill you describe.  And if I have read about 
it, it must be -- at least in some quarters -- a recognized 
distinction between good readers and poor readers.  Unless it was 
something that was discussed more within the profession in the late 
1980s (when I was in school, and doing this reading on the side) than 
it is now?

A quick Google search turns up these sites, so fluency with phrases 
seems to be a recognized skill --

    http://www.resourceroom.net/Comprehension/phrasing_Jones.asp

    http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4367

    http://www.sd84.k12.id.us/hw/Jennifer.Smith/

    http://learningdisabilities.about.com/od/glossar1/g/rdgfluency.htm

    http://www.nifl.gov/readingprofiles/MC_Oral_Reading_Rate.htm

And it looks as though oral reading is the route by which that sort 
of reading is sought.  The focus seems to be on repeat readings and 
"phrase drill error correction."  (Wow, that's some clunky noun 
phrase.)
 
http://eric.ed.gov:80/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ748164&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ748164

Of course, you've got high schoolers, and the ability to group words 
within a sentence into their meaningful units is a skill already 
assumed, I'd imagine.  You'd need something with simpler structure, 
perhaps, like Hemingway.  If those texts are likely to interest your 
students.  Or poetry, as someone else suggested.  Poetry with fairly 
simple phrasing, but real music to it, perhaps.  Gwendolyn Brooks? 
What if they wrote their own poems and then read them?

It may also be that I have entirely misunderstood your question or 
that I am offering up what you already well know.


Odile




At 5:38 PM -0700 8/16/08, Cynthia Baird wrote:
>This question probably goes out to the secondary (even elementary) 
>teachers on the list more than the professors, but I'm hoping to get 
>some responses, and I also hope that this question isn't too far 
>from the listserve's purpose.
>
>I am teaching a literacy class this year to high school students who 
>are below-grade level in their reading.  The material I will be 
>using is pretty decent but leaves out one reading skill that I have 
>never seen addressed in literacy programs--phrasal/clausal fluency. 
>Does such a term even exist?
>
>I believe that good readers do not read word for word, but in groups 
>of words--phrases and clauses (anyone who has listened to a "word 
>reader" understands the difference).  And I believe that when a 
>reader cannot distinguish words that group together for meaning, 
>reading rate and comprehension are both hindered.  Such weaknesses 
>are particularly a problem for readers of higher-level texts with 
>sentences that contain numerous embedded clauses and sopisticated 
>sentence structures.
>
>Am I mistaken in thinking that phrasal (or clausal) fluency is a 
>factor in reading comprehension?  For English language learners, 
>particularly, I am wondering if there is anything I can do to point 
>out to them the "method" or "madness" of phrases and clauses in the 
>English language that can help them master fluency.
>
>Does anyone have resources that can help me to teach or remediate 
>such a skill? Am I crazy or mistaken?!
>
>thanks for any responses!
>
>

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