ABSTRACT
According to the Common Core, it is not enough for students to simply “know how to read” if, by that, we mean that they can decode, even with fluency. (Fluency is the ability to read aloud at the pace of ordinary speech, to animate the text with appropriate expression, and to make no or very few mistakes in decoding words.) Fluency, though necessary for comprehension, is not to be confused with comprehension itself. Sometimes, comprehension is achieved only through painstaking rereading, where the reader makes frequent meaning-making stops—a process that can hardly be called fluent but that results in comprehension of dense and difficult text. Think of comprehension as swimming from one side of the pool to the other without assistance. Think of fluency as swimming through clear water. The kind of reading we’re talking about in this book is more like slogging through a swamp: You have to move slowly, conscious of obstacles. You have to anticipate what might lurk around you. You might need special equipment. You certainly need plenty of time and an attitude that respects complex text as demanding effort.
