READING FLUENCY

Literacy Links FoundationsMary Bailey

2010

Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly

with prosody.

Do you read all text fluently?

Why is reading fluently important?

Fluency is important because it provides a bridge between

word recognition and comprehension.

FluencyLess Fluent Readers

Must focus their attention primarily on decoding individual words Have little attention left for comprehending the the text

More Fluent ReadersFocus attention on making connections among the ideas in the text and their background knowledgeAble to focus on comprehension

Why might your students have difficulty with reading fluency?

Prerequisite Skills

Letter familiarityPhonemic awarenessKnowledge of alphabetic principle

Prerequisite Skills

Fluency is also dependent on the reader’s vocabulary skills. Students must connect with the syntactical and meaning aspects of words.

Hudson, R., Pullen, P., Lane, H., Torgesen, J. (2009)

Schools, grade levels, and teachers that are not producing strong growth

in phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency in their students are not likely to show strong gains on measures of

reading comprehension. Torgesen, 2005

Specifically, schools must provide…

More powerful instruction toward mastery of the alphabetic principal by the end of first gradeStronger support for the growth of reading fluency in first and second grade.

What activities do you use in your classroom to help your

students develop their fluency skills?

Fluency Instruction

Model fluent readingRead to your students dailyUse tape-assisted readingUse computer-assisted readingHave students practice re-reading the

same text

Fluency Instruction

Use repeated readingsStudent-adult readingPartner readingChoral readingTape/computer-assisted readingReader’s theatre

Fluency Practice

Passages should be relatively shortText should be reasonably easy for students

IndependentLevel

InstructionalLevel

FrustrationLevel

1 in 20 words difficult

95% accuracy

1 in 10 words difficult

90% accuracy

More than 1 in 10 words difficultLess than 90%

Monitor Progress

Helps determine the effectiveness of instructionHelps to set instructional goalsIs motivating to students

Timed Readings

Select passagesHave students read passage for 1 minuteCount number of words readSubtract the number of errorsGraph WCPM

With greater fluency, readers can concentrate on comprehending what they read, develop greater

self confidence, and enjoy reading more.

Gilbert & Temple, 1994