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Written by Karen LoBello

The Common Core State Standards, adopted by most states, require third-grade students to "read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension." Children must balance punctuation cues, phrasing, pace and expression to develop reading fluency. They also need to acquire a strong base of sight words. When students can read smoothly and accurately, and they transfer the skill to silent reading, comprehension increases.

Sight-word Games

Fifty percent of the words students read are sight words, such as those found on the Fry word list. Use sight-word lists to develop games to play with partners. Write sight words and phrases on index cards and place them facedown. Partners take turns flipping and reading cards. They pick up correct responses. The winner is the student who collects the most cards. The teacher also may give each pair a grid, composed of the first 100 Fry sight words. Set a timer and see how many words they can read aloud in one minute. Repeat the race several times to improve scores.

Record and Listen

Reading out loud helps children develop proper intonation, expression and phrasing. It's taken to a higher level when third graders record their reading. The teacher can create a short video clip of each student reading a passage from a favorite book. Alternately, students may record their own voices on an audio device. This is particularly effective at the onset of the school year. Children can set goals, revisit the recordings, and make new ones to compare and observe improvements in reading fluency.

Oral Reading

Children learn to read aloud with expression when they read poetry, participate in choral reading or take part in reading theater. Most third graders love silliness, so introduce poetry such as Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends." Children practice with partners to make sure they're reading all words correctly, then they read the poems to students in lower grades. Reading in unison with a group builds a child's confidence. Third graders should enjoy the humor and rhyme in Mary Ann Hoberman and Michael Emberley's "You Read to Me, I'll Read to You" books. Groups alternate reading phrases aloud: "I see a mouse." "I see one too." Then both groups together: "We see two mice. What shall we do?" The teacher can provide children with scripts to read in a reader's theater setting. Students practice then present their readings to the other children in class. Simple props increase the fun.

Punctuation Practice

High-stakes testing is timed, and students who understand punctuation can determine a passage's intended message quickly, thus increasing comprehension on tests. Children make up sentences and exchange them with partners to read orally. They write the same sentence three times, changing the punctuation: "I ate pizza." "I ate pizza?" "I ate pizza!" Students work with partners. They read the sentences in the passage aloud, concentrating on placing correct emphasis based on punctuation marks.

About the Author

Karen LoBello is coauthor of "The Great PJ Elf Chase: A Christmas Eve Tradition." She began writing in 2009, following a career as a Nevada teacher. LoBello holds a bachelor's degree in K-8 education, a secondary degree in early childhood education and a master's degree in computer education.

Photo Credits

Jack Hollingsworth/Photodisc/Getty Images

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What Activities Can Improve a Third Grader's Reading Fluency?

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The Common Core State Standards, adopted by most states, require third-grade students to "read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension." Children must balance punctuation cues, phrasing, pace and expression to develop reading fluency. They also need to acquire a strong base of sight words. When ...

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All the information to help your child become a fluent reader

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Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. Their reading is smooth and has expression.

Children who do not read with fluency sound choppy and awkward. Those students may have difficulty with decoding skills or they may just need more practice with speed and smoothness in reading. Fluency is also important for motivation; children who find reading laborious tend not to want read! As readers head into upper elementary grades, fluency becomes increasingly important. The volume of reading required in the upper elementary years escalates dramatically. Students whose reading is slow or labored will have trouble meeting the reading demands of their grade level.

What the problem looks like

A kid's perspective: What this feels like to me

Children will usually express their frustration and difficulties in a general way, with statements like "I hate reading!" or "This is stupid!". But if they could, this is how kids might describe how fluency difficulties in particular affect their reading:

I just seem to get stuck when I try to read a lot of the words in this chapter.

It takes me so long to read something.

Reading through this book takes so much of my energy, I can't even think about what it means.

A parent's perspective: What I see at home

Here are some clues for parents that a child may have problems with fluency:

He knows how to read words but seems to take a long time to read a short book or passage silently.

She reads a book with no expression.

He stumbles a lot and loses his place when reading something aloud.

She reads aloud very slowly.

She moves her mouth when reading silently (subvocalizing).

A teacher's perspective: What I see in the classroom

Here are some clues for teachers that a student may have problems with fluency:

Her results on words-correct-per-minute assessments are below grade level or targeted benchmark.

She has difficulty and grows frustrated when reading aloud, either because of speed or accuracy.

He does not read aloud with expression; that is, he does not change his tone where appropriate.

She does not "chunk" words into meaningful units.

When reading, he doesn't pause at meaningful breaks within sentences or paragraphs.

How to help

With the help of parents and teachers, kids can learn strategies to cope with fluency issues that affect his or her reading. Below are some tips and specific things to do.

What kids can do to help themselves

Track the words with your finger as a parent or teacher reads a passage aloud. Then you read it.

Have a parent or teacher read aloud to you. Then, match your voice to theirs.

Read your favorite books and poems over and over again. Practice getting smoother and reading with expression.

What parents can do to help at home

Support and encourage your child. Realize that he or she is likely frustrated by reading.

Check with your child's teachers to find out their assessment of your child's word decoding skills.

If your child can decode words well, help him or her build speed and accuracy by:

Reading aloud and having your child match his voice to yours

Having your child practice reading the same list of words, phrase, or short passages several times

Reminding your child to pause between sentences and phrases

Read aloud to your child to provide an example of how fluent reading sounds.

Give your child books with predictable vocabulary and clear rhythmic patterns so the child can "hear" the sound of fluent reading as he or she reads the book aloud.

Use books on tapes; have the child follow along in the print copy.

What teachers can do to help at school

Assess the student to make sure that word decoding or word recognition is not the source of the difficulty (if decoding is the source of the problem, decoding will need to be addressed in addition to reading speed and phrasing).

Give the student independent level texts that he or she can practice again and again. Time the student and calculate words-correct-per-minute regularly. The student can chart his or her own improvement.

Ask the student to match his or her voice to yours when reading aloud or to a tape recorded reading.

Read a short passage and then have the student immediately read it back to you.

Have the student practice reading a passage with a certain emotion, such as sadness or excitement, to emphasize expression and intonation.

Incorporate timed repeated readings into your instructional repertoire.

Plan lessons that explicitly teach students how to pay attention to clues in the text (for example, punctuation marks) that provide information about how that text should be read.

More information

Find out more about fluency issues with these resources:

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Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately.

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Great resource to explain what the areas of reading consist of in 3rd grade

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These are great questions to ask your child while reading

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Students have a log in. They can practice different areas of literacy.
Class Code is 52b5n3

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Practice Math and ELA in your Freckle account and earn coins for the piggy store.

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Helps students with informational text

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These are great for students to practice parts of speech

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Free Audio Books

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Storynory has over 1,000 free audio stories for children, including classic fairy tales, myths, world stories, poems, and brand new originals read by professional actors.

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Great site for students to read/listen to books.

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The SAG-AFTRA Foundation's Daytime Emmy-nominated, Storyline Online, features celebrated actors reading children's books to inspire a love of reading in millions of children worldwide.