Fluency
Teach students to read text with accuracy, automaticity, and expression.
Teach students to read text with accuracy, automaticity, and expression.
Fluency comes from rereading. Reading the same book five times is not getting in a rut — it is exactly how reading starts to sound like talking.
Rereading is fluency training. Reading the same book increases speed and expression — that is the skill being built.
You read a sentence with expression; your child reads it back (echo reading). Or, read the same page out loud together (choral reading). Both activities are proven fluency builders.
“Make your voice stop at the period. Make yourself read a sentence ending in a question mark like a question.” Reading with expression helps make comprehension easier.
Fast-but-flat reading is not the goal. Accurate, expressive reading at a comfortable pace is — speed follows on its own.
Reading fluency is a combination of three different skills: rate (how quickly one reads), accuracy (miscues made while reading), and prosody (reading with expression and pausing for punctuation). Reading Rockets defines fluency in the following terms: "Fluency is the ability to read a text with accuracy, automaticity, and prosody (expression) sufficient to enable comprehension. Fluency is a key skill to becoming a strong reader because it provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension."
Although practices such as building sight word recognition will benefit a student's overall reading fluency, a bulk of research indicates that students also need to complete "purposeful fluency building activities" (establish a purpose for each reading of a text) and read "connected text" (multiple related sentences, not just isolated words or phrases) daily for maximum improvement of reading fluency skills. Teachers and/or interventionists should begin purposeful fluency building and reading connected texts with students as soon as students can sound out a sufficient number of words. A key to this purposeful fluency building and reading of connected text is a variety. Students need to read texts of varying levels (easier texts to practice reading rate and more challenging texts to practice reading accuracy), decodable texts, informational texts, narrative texts, a wide range of genres, a wide range of content. Additionally, students need to practice a number of types of reading (reading aloud with a more skilled reader providing corrected feedback, reading silently without feedback, etc.) to hone skills.
Research outlines the importance of employing Structured Literacy Principles to teach reading fluency in a systematic, structured, cumulative, explicit and diagnostic fashion.
Research is clear that literacy is taught best when instruction follows the four Structured Literacy Principles. Here is what each one looks like for fluency.
Instruction follows a logical order, begins with the easiest concepts, and progresses to more difficult concepts (EX: Teachers start out reading decodable text at a reader's level and progress to more challenging text over time, introduce high frequency words in order from easiest to most difficult).
Each step must be based on concepts previously learned and continual review until mastery must be a part of practice. Systematic, sequential and cumulative learning enhance explicit instruction (EX: Build on previously introduced high frequency words when introducing new ones, and check prior words occasionally to ensure continued mastery).
Teachers use approaches such as gradual release of responsibility models (I Do, We Do, You Do) where the teacher models and students have multiple opportunities to practice with support and independently (EX: A teacher explicitly models reading a text, pairs students to read the text back to each other one time each, and then has students silently read the passage on their own and write one sentence about what was read).
Teacher assesses where students are, progress monitors as frequently as possible, diagnoses where skill gaps exist, and adapts instruction as needed (EX: To start the year, a teacher administers fluency assessments or reviews school fluency data. Based on overall classroom data, the teacher picks which level to start at and which skill in the fluency scope and sequence to start with. In addition, the teacher may use individual student data to plan which sounds to practice one-on-one or in small groups based on student needs.).
Findings below are drawn from What Works Clearinghouse educator practice guides published by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.
(https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/WWC/Docs/PracticeGuide/WWC-practice-guide-reading-intervention-full-text.pdf)
Specific fluency strategies were identified including: providing a purpose for each reading/rereading of a text, focusing instructional time on reading with prosody, providing opportunities to read a range of texts, and reading a text with a partner. Screenshots of some recommendations from the report are included below:
(https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/PracticeGuide/wwc_foundationalreading_040717.pdf#page=20)
Specific fluency strategies were identified including: modeling strategies, scaffolding, and providing feedback to ensure accurate and efficient word recognition; teaching students to self-monitor their understanding and self-correct word reading errors; providing opportunities for oral reading with feedback to develop fluent and accurate reading with expression; echo reading; choral reading; repeated reading; simultaneous reading; and independent reading. A screenshot of a strategy from the report is below:
There is a less clear progression of skills from easiest to hardest for reading fluency. However, there are specific areas of instruction that can be targeted to enhance a student's reading fluency, and each skill can be taught with a progression from easiest to most difficult (EX: teachers start with easier high frequency words first and move to more challenging ones AND teachers select the number of high frequency words to target weekly based on the age/grade/skill level of their students).
Each skill is outlined below, with sample activities to target each skill. A more comprehensive list of sample activities is available via the "reading fluency" tab on the literacy portal.
| | | | | :-- | :-- | :-- | | 1. Practicing Letter-Sound Fluency | | | | Explanation: Research demonstrates that if students are spending less time figuring out the sounds in words, they can read more fluently. For this reason, practicing rapid recognition/naming of individual sounds or letter patterns will benefit students as they build the "orthographic representations" of sounds needed for rapidly reading/spelling words. | Sample Activity 1: Speed Air Writing Sound Patterns: The teacher calls out a sound (can be a sound made by an individual letter such as /p/ in "pig" or sound made by letter combination such as /ou/ made in "out". The students must quickly try to trace the letters that match with the sound in the air while saying each letter as they trace it. The teacher monitors by watching their tracing and corrects/prompts students as needed. | Sample Activity 2: Timed Reading: Timed reading is not just for books or short passages! You can use timed letter or timed sound reading to assess your students' letter-sound fluency. This is a good way to practice letters/sounds, track student progress, and build letter-sound fluency. Simply create a list of all the letters/sounds you plan introduce over the course of a year. List them clearly and separately on a sheet and administer this as a timed letter or timed sound reading quarterly. Ask the students to say the letter or sound (or both) as quickly as they can. Record their speed as well as sounds they miss. | | 2. Teaching and Applying Word Reading Strategies | | | | Explanation: Students need to become careful readers who look for patterns, sound out words, and check to make sure their reading is correct. This process starts with teachers giving students strategies to approach unknown words, modeling these practices, and encouraging students to use the strategies when they encounter unfamiliar words. | Sample Activity 1: Fix It Game: This game is a variation of the one outlined in the WWC report, it has been varied to better align with the Science of Reading and Structured Literacy. The teacher selects some sentences and all students get a copy on a sentence strip at their desk. The teacher tells the students she will read the text aloud to them but will intentionally make an error on one or more of the words. The students must track the text with their finger as the teacher reads and find the error, raising their hand. | Sample Activity 2: Look for What You Know: The teacher would provide the students a list of real or nonsense words to sound out in pairs. Students would be encouraged to "look for what they know" first. They may identify a sound pattern they know such as /sh/, a rule they know such as "final e", a prefix or suffix they see such as /pre/ or /tion/. Once they identify and state what they know, the students then work in pairs to sound the word out. A teacher could provide a sentence for each of the targeted real words at the end of the activity, so students could check to see if the way they sounded out the word fit in context. | | 3. Targeting and Reinforcing Sight Words | | | | Explanation: The more words students know by sight, the more fluently they can read. High frequency words occur so much in books, that students will need to know them by sight to increase their reading speed. Further, many words do not play by English phonetic rules and must be memorized for reading and spelling purposes. Keys to reinforcing high frequency words include:<br>- Repetition builds fluency.<br>- Limit the number of words introduced at once.<br>- Practice in multiple contexts (in isolation, books, classroom print, shared writing/reading, games, etc.)<br>- Use multi-sensory instruction to reinforce words (spell in air, tap out on arm, trace in sand)<br>- Read and spell high frequency words<br>- Contextualize the words by using them in a sentence | Sample Activity 1: Air Writing: Air writing is a great technique for reinforcing letters and sounds, but it works for sight words as well! The teacher practices a small set of sight words (probably 2-5 words, depending on student age/grade). The method for practicing the word is simple. The teacher holds up a card with a sight word (the) and asks if any student knows it. If no one does, the teacher says: "This word is 'the,' t-h-e spells 'the.' Now I am going to hold up the word for a few seconds. Then, when I put the word down, I want the whole class to air write the word together, saying it as you trace it in the air. T-h-e spells 'the'." (while tracing). Once you feel like most of the class has mastered the words, you can have them try to air write sight words you've been practicing without seeing the spelling on a card. Pair students up and have them monitor each other with air writing sight words. | Sample Activity 2: Morning Message: A daily morning message is an excellent way to routinely build reading fluency with your students. Additionally, you can specifically target sight words daily or weekly in your morning message! Remember, encourage students to gradually take charge of reading and/or writing in the morning message daily (you can leave out sounds, portions of words, or entire words for students to fill in). Underline sight words you want to target every day of the week or write them in a different color, so the words stand out in the morning message. Be sure to use some repetitive words daily in the morning message, so students begin to feel confident that they know most of the words (EX: "Good Morning Third Graders," "Today is ______," "Love, Ms. Stanton.") Encourage students to use the same word reading strategies when figuring out words in the morning message each day. | | 4. Complete Varied Oral and Silent Reading Activities | | | | Explanation: Teachers and/or interventionists should begin reading connected texts with students as soon as students can read a few words. A key to this daily reading of connected text is a variety. Students need to read texts of varying levels (easier texts to practice reading rate and more challenging texts to practice reading accuracy), decodable texts, informational texts, narrative texts, a wide range of genres, a wide range of content, aloud with a more skilled reader providing corrected feedback, silently without feedback, etc. | Sample Activity 1: Decodable Text Reading: Group students based on the sounds and/or expectancies they know and can apply. Assign the rest of the class work in the literacy center or silent/independent reading time while you pull a group of students for reading decodable text. Start the lesson by doing a quick mini-lesson before reading. This mini-lesson could involve anything from introducing a word/sound pattern/vocabulary word that might occur in the text to giving a quick book introduction and encouraging the students to look for something in particular. During reading, help students with decoding words or thinking through content. After reading, ask questions or encourage students to write about what they read. | Sample Activity 2: Reading With Expression: To practice prosody, show students how the way you read sentences can have very different meaning. You can do this by showing how simple punctuation can change the way you read a sentence (EX: "Let's eat, grandma" and "Let's eat grandma" can carry a very different meaning if you don't insert a comma in the sentence or if you don't pause at the comma in the first sentence). Practice having students read sentences with question marks, exclamation points, and periods. Model first how each should sound, and then invite students to try it on their own. |
The video library has clips of real K–3 classrooms modelling every one of these practices, and the printables library carries materials for the same skills.
Seven evidence-based literacy practices for kindergarten through third grade — the research, the teaching sequence, and the materials, free for teachers and families.