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CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.4 Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding.

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CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.4 Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding.

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What is Fluency? How to Improve Reading Skills

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Fifth grade has turned into a difficult year for Jonah. He is a bright student, but he has difficulty reading. Although he can accurately sound out the words he encounters, he plods along word-by-word, often hesitating at challenging vocabulary. His oral reading shows little attention to punctuation and phrasing, and it lacks expression and enthusiasm. Jonah can, however, understand material read to him. His difficulty seems to lie somewhere on the path from decoding to comprehension-in reading fluency.

Since the publication of the National Reading Panel report (2000) and other recent scholarly reviews of scientific research (Chard, Vaughn, & Tyler, 2002; Kuhn & Stahl, 2000; Rasinski & Hoffman, 2003), reading fluency has taken a front seat in discussions about student reading success and effective instruction in reading. Yet programs and materials addressing reading instruction and teacher training seldom tackle reading fluency (Rasinski & Zutell, 1996). This lack may be due to the fact that fluency has long been associated with oral reading, a form of reading traditionally viewed as having little importance in learning to read (Gibson & Levin, 1975; Smith, 2002).

Three Dimensions of Reading Fluency

Defining reading fluency may help clarify the issue. Successful reading requires readers to process the text (the surface level of reading) and comprehend the text (the deeper meaning). Reading fluency refers to the reader's ability to develop control over surface-level text processing so that he or she can focus on understanding the deeper levels of meaning embedded in the text.

Reading fluency has three important dimensions that build a bridge to comprehension. The first dimension is accuracy in word decoding. Readers must be able to sound out the words in a text with minimal errors. In terms of skills, this dimension refers to phonics and other strategies for decoding words. The second dimension is automatic processing. Readers need to expend as little mental effort as possible in the decoding aspect of reading so that they can use their finite cognitive resources for meaning making (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974). The third dimension is what linguists call prosodic reading (Schreiber, 1980, 1991; Schreiber & Read, 1980). The reader must parse the text into syntactically and semantically appropriate units. If readers read quickly and accurately but with no expression in their voices, if they place equal emphasis on every word and have no sense of phrasing, and if they ignore most punctuation, blowing through periods and other markers that indicate pauses, then it is unlikely that they will fully understand the text.

Assessing Reading Fluency

Teachers can easily assess each of the three dimensions of reading fluency. To determine proficiency in decoding connected text, calculate the percentage of words a reader can accurately decode on grade-level material. An accuracy level of 90-95 percent is usually considered adequate. Thus, a 3rd grader who is progressing normally in decoding accuracy should be able to read a 100-word text written at a 3rd grade level with no more than 10 uncorrected decoding errors. More than 10 uncorrected errors per 100 words indicates that decoding is a concern, one that requires additional instruction and practice.

Teachers can normally assess automaticity in decoding by looking at the student's reading rate. Reading rates increase as students mature, so the target reading rate increases as students move through school. An easy method for determining reading rate, and thus automaticity, involves having students orally read a grade-level passage for 60 seconds and then calculating the number of words read correctly (corrected errors count as words read correctly) (Deno, 1985). Compare students' scores with target rates (oral fluency norms) for each grade level (Rasinski, 2003). Readers who fall 20-30 percent below the target rate will normally require additional instruction.

The best way to assess prosodic reading is to listen to a student read a grade-level passage and to then judge the quality of the reading using a rubric that scores a student on the elements of expression and volume, phrasing, smoothness, and pace (see fig. 1, p. 49). Students who score poorly may be considered at risk in this dimension of reading fluency.
Figure 1. Multidimensional Fluency Scale
Figure 1. Multidimensional Fluency Scale

By having students read one or two grade-level passages for one minute each, teachers can get a quick sense of their students' level of decoding accuracy, automaticity, and prosodic reading. Although such quick assessments may not be definitive, they do provide teachers and school administrators with a method for screening new students, tracking students' ongoing progress in the various dimensions of reading fluency, and identifying the students who may require additional assessment and instruction.

Teaching Reading Fluency

Instruction in reading fluency depends on the area in which students require the most help. Students with difficulties in accuracy require instruction in learning how to decode words. Although teachers are familiar with this kind of instruction, which develops skills in phonics and decoding, they may not be as familiar with methods for developing students' strength in automaticity and prosodic reading.

In my own instructional efforts to develop automaticity and prosodic reading, I use assisted readings and repeated readings, two methods that research has shown to improve reading fluency (Kuhn & Stahl, 2000; National Reading Panel, 2000; Rasinski & Hoffman, 2003). Students need to hear what fluent reading sounds like and how fluent readers interpret text with their voices.

Hearing fluent reading, however, is not the same as being a fluent reader. Fortunately, assisted readings can help. After reading a passage aloud to students, I ask them to follow along with me, first silently and then aloud, as a group. Sometimes I ask students to orally read a passage with a partner who is at the same reading level. At other times, I ask more fluent readers to read with students who are having difficulty with reading (Eldredge & Quinn, 1988; Topping, 1987a, 1987b, 1995) or I have students silently read while listening to a fluent rendering of the passage on tape (Carbo, 1978; Pluck, 1995). Such practices constitute a powerful strategy for improving fluency and comprehension.

Developing fluency in reading requires practice; this is where the method of repeated readings comes in (Samuels, 1979). Research indicates that repeated readings lead not only to improvement in reading the passage but also to improvement in decoding, reading rate, prosodic reading, and comprehension of passages that the reader has not previously seen (Dowhower, 1994; Koskinen & Blum, 1986; Kuhn & Stahl, 2000; National Reading Panel, 2000).

Passages meant to be read aloud as a performance-poetry, for example, or scripts, speeches, monologues, dialogues, jokes, and riddles-are perfect texts for developing fluency. I see many teachers converting their classrooms into poetry cafés and readers' theater festivals on Friday afternoons to give students the opportunity to perform the assigned texts that they have diligently practiced during the week.

The teacher plays a key role in developing prosodic reading skills by modeling prosodic reading in classroom read-aloud sessions and then discussing the specific oral interpretation that he or she chose. Coaching provides another opportunity for developing these skills by making students aware of their own interpretation of the text and moving readers toward deeper levels of interpretation and meaning.

Here are some comments I have heard teachers make while coaching students in oral interpretation.

"You got all the words right, Thomas, but you read too fast. It was hard for me to follow what you were trying to tell me."

"Eliza, the way you made each character sound different in this dialogue was fantastic. It was easy and fun to listen to these characters arguing."

"I really like how you paused between sentences. This gave me a chance to think about the author's message. Now think about finding places to pause for just a second more inside longer sentences."

"I loved how you made your voice strong and loud in this section. It really told me that this section of the passage was important."

"Try slowing down here and making your voice a bit softer. Remember, you're trying to tell me about something mysterious. Tell the story with your voice as well as with the words."

As assisted and repeated reading, coupled with coaching, become part of the classroom routine, teachers can track changes in students' accuracy, reading rate, and prosodic reading. Jonah, our struggling 5th grade reader, originally read a 4th grade-level passage at 60 words correct per minute and a 5th grade-level passage at 52 words correct per minute. A 5th grader, however, should be reading approximately 100-125 words correct per minute during the first half of the school year. After just two months of working in small groups with a reading teacher for three 40-minute sessions each week, Jonah's reading rate on 5th grade-level passages increased to 84 words correct per minute. His accuracy, prosodic reading, and comprehension improved as well.

Several instructional routines for developing reading fluency show promise for improving reading in all readers. Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (Stahl & Heubach, in press) has students engage in modeled, repeated, and assisted reading of passages from basal readers. The Fluency Development Lesson (Rasinski, Padak, Linek, & Sturtevant, 1994) uses poetry, monologues, dialogues, speeches, and other performance texts to promote reading fluency. Fast Start (Rasinski, 1995; Stevenson, 2002) promotes early reading fluency through parental involvement.

Confusing Fast with Fluent

The new focus on reading fluency has great potential for improving the reading achievement of all students, particularly those who have not met with great success in reading. I am, however, concerned about how some schools define reading fluency and how some teachers teach it. In some schools, where improvement of the reading rate has become the chief goal of fluency instruction, teachers admonish students to "pick up the pace," regularly time them on their reading to encourage them to beat their previous scores, and engage students in daily reading exercises that emphasize speed over meaning.

This is a corruption of the concept of reading fluency. If we emphasize speed at the expense of prosodic and meaningful reading, we will end up with fast readers who understand little of what they have read. Fluency instruction leads to impressive gains when it provides regular opportunities for expressive reading through assisted and repeated readings coupled with coaching; it doesn't require explicit reference to reading for speed. Students' reading rates will improve as they become naturally more efficient and confident in their ability to decode words.

Fluency Into the Future

Research (Pinnell et al., 1995) suggests that reading fluency is a crucial factor among 4th grade students, but it can also be an important issue beyond the elementary grades. I recently worked with a group of colleagues from Kent State University to examine the fluency of high school students in an urban setting. We found that variations in the reading fluency of these students accounted for approximately 30 percent of the variance in their performance on Ohio's High School Graduation Test. Clearly, this finding suggests that fluency may be an issue that goes well into the high school years, especially among students from less advantaged backgrounds.

If teachers and school leaders are truly committed to leaving no child behind in reading, then they must actively pursue the goal of reading fluency in elementary and middle school classrooms. Existing scientific research on reading fluency indicates that it is an important factor in reading education and thus should be part of any comprehensive and effective reading curriculum.

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Fifth grade has turned into a difficult year for Jonah. He is a bright student, but he has difficulty reading. Although he can accurately sound out the words he encounters, he plods along word-by-word, often hesitating at challenging vocabulary. His oral reading shows little attention to punctuation

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Playing a memory card game to remember the sight word and where it's matching card is at.

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Using sounds to monitor for visual information while firming up the left to right visual scanning across a word.

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Making Words - An Activity Demonstrated by Michele Dufresne

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3. Identifying Letter Sounds --> Form Words

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3. Identifying Letter Sounds --> Form Words

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Virtually working with students specifically ESL students to identify letter sounds and forming words

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Working together as a class to figure out how and what to write for the setting of a story.

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Teacher Modeling Series: Interactive Writing

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Creating actions for the students to act out the sounds or letters

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Encouraging students to ask themselves these types of questions: "What do I already know about this"? "What happened the last time I read"? "What did I learn when I read the last section"? "What terms did I learn about last time"?

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Word Study in Action: Activating Prior Knowledge

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Seeing Letters, Sounds and Words come to life

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Seeing Letters, Sounds and Words come to life

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Helpful for visual learners

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Brain Breaks!

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Calm Down Centers: Creating a Safe Classroom Environment for Your Students

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Quick Classroom Exercises to Make Learning Lively

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Strategies for providing students time to think

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Strategies for providing students time to think

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Giving students several seconds to think after asking a question—and up to two minutes for some questions—improves their learning.

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The catchier of a song it is, the easier it will be to remember letters

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Alphabet Song - Hooked on Phonics: Learn to Read

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Sound and Picture Match-Up

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Split up into teams and race to answer the question

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Phonics Game for your Class or your Home - ESL Teaching Tips - English Class

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Students are matched with a partner who is at the similar reading level

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A Reading Workshop First Grade Reading Partnership

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A fun activity that helps students review and practice spelling words aloud

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How to Teach Fluency  with Accuracy and Phrasing

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-> teaching focus word family recognition and reading them fluently

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-> teaching focus word family recognition and reading them fluently

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Mrs. Lane's 1st Grade Classroom Teaching Fluency

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Excited to learn more about first grade? Use these first grade educational resources to get started today!

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Reading fluency activities to help you focus on fluency in your classroom. Weekly fluency activities that can be completed in class or at home!

Reading Fluency Activities

The National Institute of Child Health and Development identifies fluency as one critical component to becoming a proficient reader. Along with phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and comprehension; reading fluency should be a focus in your classroom. So, set a clear focus on fluency with these fun and engaging activities for first and second grade. These fluency packets are a perfect daily or nightly(for homework) assignment to practice fluency. Print weekly packets and place them in a fluency folder for students to complete throughout the year. What's more, there is a unit for each month with seasonally appropriate poems and response sheets.

Weekly Plan

Each week of reading fluency activities is easy to print for you (or parents)! Students read a new poem each week and are provided with a fluency passage. There are two levels of passages to allow for easy differentiation.

There are additional response activities, too!

Using these packets for homework ensures engagement and appropriate tasks that parents appreciate. Most parents love being able to effectively support learning at home. However, sometimes they are unsure of what to do. These reading fluency activities are the perfect way for parents to be confident in their ability to provide additional learning support. After all, teachers are often trying to bridge the gap between home and school. This is a great solution!

Classroom Fluency Activities

Each month includes either Reader's Theater scripts or other small-group activities and centers to be completed during the day. Reader's Theater is so much fun!

Small-group activities keep students engaged while improving reading fluency.

Click below to start focusing on fluency in your classroom!

Read about sight word fluency with this blog post:
📌PIN THIS IMAGE FOR LATER!

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Engaging Reading Fluency Activities for 1st and 2nd Grade

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Reading fluency activities to help you focus on fluency in your classroom. Weekly fluency activities that can be completed in class or at home! The National Institute of Child Health and Development identifies fluency as one critical component to becoming a proficient reader.

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First Grade Fluency Goals | 1st Grade Fluency Activities

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Learn more about first grade fluency skills and goals, as well as find free 1st grade fluency activities to help your child be a better reader.

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Adaptations & Accommodations for ELL Students in Reading - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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Teachers can use different strategies to help English language learner (ELL) students improve proficiency in reading such as modifying the task,…

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Non-native speakers of English who are in an ELL classroom face struggles with reading in English even if they are already strong readers in their native language. The natural tendency is for the reader to translate the words into the native language in their head as they read. This practice slows the reader down and keeps the focus on individual words instead of the overall meaning of the text. The reader becomes preoccupied with and translation, losing all but the most rudimentary reading comprehension , requiring re-reading and slowing the whole process down considerably.

ELL Instructional Strategies

Using Vocabulary to Improve Reading Fluency

ELL teachers need to help their readers develop , which is the ability to read swiftly with minimal decoding and absorb meaning as one scans the text the first time. Without a strong English vocabulary from which to draw, the English Language Learner is limited considerably in their ability to scan a text without extensive decoding. Therefore, it makes sense for the ELL teacher to use every tool in their knapsack to help their students increase their vocabulary.

ELL Instructional Strategies for Sight Words

For beginning ESL readers-not just those who are young in age, but also those who are young in the use of English- sight words must be developed similarly to how they are developed in young native speakers of English.

Flash cards

Flash cards with pictures of objects are very helpful in developing basic vocabulary.

Provide Visual Cues

The ELL classroom should be decorated with colorful sticky notes identifying every item in the room-the desk, the chalkboard or whiteboard, the windows, the door, the trash can, etc. Visual cues identifying the objects in the classroom are powerful aids to the student in remembering the name of the items and how they are correctly spelled.

Highlighting Words

When using simple texts for beginning ESL readers, encourage the reader to use a highlighter to mark familiar words in one color and unfamiliar words in another color. This interaction with the text gives the reader a sense of control (even though much of the text may be unfamiliar) and activates prior knowledge. Color is a powerful cue for visual learners. Once the student has identified the unfamiliar words, they can develop a short glossary and use their dictionary (or the teacher, if the student is very young) to jot short definitions of the unfamiliar words. The student should be permitted to write the definitions into the text so that the definitions are easily accessible and don't require constantly putting down the text to look up the words. This is a technique called annotation and is another interaction with text that helps build comprehension.

To ensure deep absorption of the new vocabulary words, the teacher should ask the student to highlight or underline those words whenever he uses them in writing assignments. Correct use of a highlighted glossary word should be rewarded with extra points. This practice will move the student beyond simple awareness of a new word into active use of the word in context and increase the probability that the student will memorize the word and no longer need to check the glossary or the word wall when he encounters it in future reading.

Repetition

The teacher might feel that it is repetitious for the student to list the words, develop the glossary, and then transfer the definitions by annotating the text. However, repetition can be a strong aid in helping the student absorb the meaning. Another related ELL instructional strategy is to have the student transfer the words to a word wall in the classroom, where they become easily accessible for future reading without requiring the student to look up the definition in the glossary.

Activities

As the student builds their own English glossary, the teacher should also assign activities that require the student to use the words in the glossary to create activities suitable for other students, such as crossword puzzles and fill-in-the-blank sentences along with answer keys. Having the student "teach" other students, using their self-developed glossary as the word bank, is a strong vocabulary reinforcer. It also changes the way the student views the glossary; it becomes the text that they have created for them to use to help others learn, rather than a simple list of definitions to submit to the teacher for a check-off or a homework grade.

What other ELL instructional strategies do you use in the classroom?
Learn how Reading Horizons ELL reading curriculum helps English Language Learners master sight words and understand the phonetic structure of the English language.
Conclusion

Building a strong vocabulary takes time and effort. Nonetheless, it is an essential part of learning to read, whether one is reading in one's native language or a second language. The effective teacher uses ELL instructional strategies designed for deep implementation of vocabulary into her students' consciousness.

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ELL Instructional Strategies: Improving Vocabulary Improves Reading Fluency - Reading Horizons

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Non-native speakers of English who are in an ELL classroom face struggles with reading in English even if they are already strong readers in their native language. The reader becomes preoccupied with decoding and translation, losing all but the most rudimentary reading comprehension, requiring re-reading and slowing the whole process down considerably.

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By: Karen Ford

Fluency is the ability to read words accurately and automatically with expression. Because fluent readers do not have to slow down in order to concentrate on decoding the individual words in a text, they can focus their attention on the text's meaning. In this way, fluency acts as a bridge between word recognition and comprehension, and this relationship is reciprocal. That is, when a student understands the meaning of the text he/she is reading, it is much easier to read that text with expression.

Prosody is a term that is frequently heard in discussions of fluency. Prosody refers to the appropriate use of intonation and phrasing in reading. Prosodic reading involves paying attention to punctuation signs like commas and periods, assigning appropriate stress to individual words within a sentence, and raising or lowering voice intonation to match the meaning of the text (e.g., raising the voice at the end of a question). Paying attention to the elements of prosody allows us to quantify and measure what we refer to as "reading with expression."

How fluency relates to ELLs

Instruction in fluency can be particularly beneficial for English language learners because activities designed to enhance fluency in reading can also contribute to oral language development in English. As students practice reading English text accurately, automatically, and prosodically, they are gaining valuable information about the sounds and cadences of spoken English, and they are also developing vocabulary skills that can contribute to oral language fluency, as well as reading and listening comprehension.

Assessing reading fluency

As with any type of instruction, fluency instruction depends upon ongoing assessment to identify individual students' strengths and needs. Effective fluency assessment must include measures of all three components of fluency: reading accuracy, automaticity, and prosody. It is important to note that the accuracy percentages and the reading rate ranges described in this article are based on research conducted in English and should not be applied to reading in other languages. Even languages that use the same alphabet differ in such characteristics as phonetic regularity, syntactical complexity, and even average word length, all of which can affect reading accuracy and rate. Additional research is needed to determine appropriate accuracy and rate ranges for other languages.

Assessing reading accuracy

Accuracy refers to the percentage of words a reader can read correctly in a given text. Measuring accuracy allows teachers to choose texts at an appropriate difficulty level for each student. In order to improve their reading, students need texts that are difficult enough to require them to practice using the reading strategies they are learning without being so difficult that the student is overwhelmed.

In talking about text difficulty, reading teachers often refer to three functional reading levels, which represent the amount of difficulty that a particular level of text presents for a student. Text that is at a student's independent reading level is text that he/she can read with 98-100% accuracy. That is, the student misses no more than two words out of every 100 words of text. At this level, the student can read independently with no support from the teacher. Text that is at a student's instructional reading level is text that the student can read and comprehend, but only with some assistance from the teacher. The accuracy range for instructional-level text is 90-97% for Primer-level text and above and 85-97% for Preprimer-level text. Text that is at a student's frustrational reading level is text that he/she can read with less than 90% accuracy (less than 85% at Preprimer level). At this level, the student would have difficulty reading and comprehending the text, even with the support of the teacher.

Functional Reading Levels

Independent Level

98-100% accuracy

Instructional Level

90-97% accuracy
(85-97% for Preprimer)

Frustration Level

Below 90% accuracy
(Below 85% for Preprimer)

Teachers should target a student's instructional reading level for classroom reading instruction. When students read text that they can read with 90-97% accuracy, they encounter enough challenges to require them to practice the strategies they are learning, but the text is not so difficult that students are overwhelmed. Independent-level text is good for independent reading and for practicing reading speed and prosody. Frustration-level text can be great for comprehension instruction, but only when the teacher is doing the reading! Students should never be asked to read text that is at their frustration level.

Here is a quick way to measure reading accuracy:

Find a short reading passage, and ask the student to read it aloud to you.

Make note of any errors the student makes while reading. Errors include: substitutions (substituting an incorrect word or a nonsense word for a word in the text), reversals (reversing the order of two words in the text), omissions (leaving out a word), or words you have to provide to the student. If the student self-corrects after making a mistake, count the word correct.

Divide the number of words the student read correctly by the total number of words in the passage. This number will be a percentage.

Example: The student read a 200-word passage and missed 14 words.
200 â€" 14 = 186 words read correctly
186 Â Ã· 200 = .93
The student read the passage with 93% accuracy, which is within his/her instructional reading range.

Assessing automaticity

Automaticity is usually measured as reading rate, or the number of words a student reads per minute (WPM). You can measure rate at the same time that you assess a student's reading accuracy. Here's what you do (you'll need a stopwatch):

Select a short reading passage, and have the student read it aloud. Begin timing as soon as the student reads the first word of the passage, and stop the stopwatch as soon as he/she reads the last word. (To measure silent reading rate, let the student know that you will begin timing as soon as he/she looks down at the passage, and you will stop when he/she looks up at the end. Students should not be expected to read silently until they are reading at second-grade level).

Convert the time on the stopwatch to seconds by multiplying the total number of minutes the student read by 60 and adding the number of additional seconds.

Multiply the total number of words in the passage by 60, and divide by the student's reading time in seconds:

Example: The student read a 200-word passage in 2 minutes and 32 seconds (2:32 on stopwatch).
2 minutes x 60 seconds each = 120 seconds
120 + the remaining 32 seconds = 152 seconds
(200 x 60) Ã· 152 seconds = 79 words per minute (wpm)

Many different researchers have suggested guidelines for how many words per minute students should be reading at particular stages of their reading development. Although there is no one accepted scale, the following ranges, developed by Dr. Darrell Morris at Appalachian State University, can be used as guidelines:

Average End-of-Year Reading Rate Ranges (Grades 1-8)

Grade

Oral rates (wpm)

Silent rates (wpm)

Source: Morris, D. (2008). Diagnosis and correction of reading problems. New York: Guilford.

Note: Reading rate is not assessed until students are reading in Primer-level text and above. Students reading below primer level are still reading word-by-word, focusing all of their attention on decoding the text.

Assessing prosody

Teachers often use rubrics to assess whether students are reading with appropriate pitch variation, intonation, phrasing, and expression. One such rubric is the Oral Reading Fluency Scale created for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). To use this rubric, simply have a student read a short passage of text, and assign a score of 1-4, based on the descriptions below.

NAEP Oral Reading Fluency Scale

Level 3

Reads primarily in three- or four-word phrase groups. Some small groupings may be present. However, the majority of phrasing seems appropriate and preserves the syntax of the author. Little or no expressive interpretation is present.

Level 1

Reads primarily word-by-word. Occasional two-word or three-word phrases may occur â€" but these are infrequent and/or they do not preserve meaningful syntax.

SOURCE: U.D. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2002 Oral Reading Study.

Comprehension caveat

Even though fluency instruction is important, teachers must remember that many ELLs can be deceptively fast and accurate while reading in English without fully comprehending the meaning of the text they are reading. That is because reading comprehension depends upon a variety of complex skills that are not as important to word reading. These include deep vocabulary knowledge, syntactical knowledge, and background knowledge of the subject discussed in the text. For this reason, it is always important to pair fluency instruction with good instruction in comprehension.

For some great ideas on both fluency and comprehension instruction with ELLs, see Reading 101 for English Language Learners.

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reading fluency for english language learners

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By: Karen Ford Fluency is the ability to read words accurately and automatically with expression. Because fluent readers do not have to slow down in order to concentrate on decoding the individual words in a text, they can focus their attention on the text's meaning.

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--> Example of Modifications  for ELL students

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--> Example of Modifications  for ELL students

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3. Accommodations for Learners with Special Needs

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3. Accommodations for Learners with Special Needs

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How to Modify Reading Instruction to Meet the Needs of Students in Special Education

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Interactive Learning Binder (Preschool, Kindergarten, Special Needs)

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This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Are you wondering how to improve reading fluency? You're in the right place! This post is the first in a four-part series all about building fluency.

Do you have students who struggle with reading fluency?

Maybe they read in a stilted, word-by-word fashion.

Maybe they read accurately, but ooooh so slowly.

Or maybe you know readers who trip over words. To them, reading is awkward and painful.

I personally know a reader (right in my own house) who reads automatically and with little stumbling. But he readslikethiswithoutabreath. I have to remind him to read with expression, to pay attention to punctuation, and to read with inflection in his voice.
All of these students need to improve their reading fluency.
But what does reading fluency even mean?

Before we get started listing ways to build fluency, we need to nail down a definition.

What is reading fluency?

Most definitions of fluency include mention of accuracy, rate, and expression. But the authors of Reading Fluency take it just a step further.

"We define fluency as reasonable accurate reading, at an appropriate rate, with suitable expression, that leads to accurate and deep comprehension and motivation to read."
Jan Hasbrouck & Deb Glaser, in Reading Fluency

Did you catch that last part? Fluent reading leads to deep comprehension and motivation to read.

Sounds great!

But how do we get there?

8 Ways to build reading fluency

1 - Build phonemic awareness.

If you're wondering what on earth phonemic awareness has to do with fluency, here's the deal. Phonemic awareness (the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds, or phonemes, in words) is essential for success in decoding words. Since fluency is all about being automatic with word recognition, we've got to teach the skills that will get us to automaticity.

(The above picture is from my Phonemic Awareness Activities pack.)

2 - Teach phonics in a systematic, explicit way.

Research has told us again and again that students benefit from direct and structured phonics instruction. When we combine phonemic awareness with phonics, we are equipping our students to tackle unfamiliar words that could interrupt their fluency.

(In fact, if a student scores below benchmark on an oral reading fluency test, the first step is to give a phonics assessment to see if a lack of phonics skills is impeding progress. You can find my free phonics assessment here.)

3 - Teach students to read irregular high frequency words.

While most words contain at least some graphemes (letter or letter combinations that represent phonemes) that are regular, some words include patterns that must be learned by heart. For example, in the word the, the final vowel sound has an unexpected spelling. In the word said, the ai has an unexpected pronunciation.

When teaching these irregular words, it's important to remember that students learn them just like they learn any other word - and not through whole word memorization. Instead of drilling these as whole words, we can call attention to the parts that are regular and those that are not. (Check out my set of 30 free high frequency word lessons and books to see how this is done.)

After introducing words in this way, it's perfectly appropriate to do flash card practice. Hasbrouck and Glaser (2019) recommend the following procedure:

Students write each word on the front of an index card (or the teacher may do this in advance).

Students trace the letters while saying them and reading the word.

On the back, students write a sentence using the word and/or draw a quick picture to help them recall the word. (The teacher may do this as well.)

The cards can then be put on a ring or a recipe box for students to use for daily practice.

When students practice the words, they can sort them according to their speed under pictures of a dog, rabbit, and turtle. The dog pile gets words that are read quickly and automatically. The rabbit pile gets words that are read with some hesitation. The turtle pile gets words that are unknown, read incorrectly, or read after several seconds. Students keep practicing until all cards get to the dog pile. (For more ways to use these flash cards, check out Reading Fluency, p. 81-82. Such a useful book!)

4 - Read aloud to your students every day.

When teachers don't make daily read alouds a routine, I think the only reason must be that they aren't aware of the countless benefits of reading aloud to our students.

I won't go off on a tangent here, but this quote from Tim Rasinski (2010) is well worth sharing:

"Clearly, read aloud builds interest in reading, but its benefits do not end there. Read aloud helps you achieve three important goals with your students: it improves comprehension and vocabulary, and builds motivation" (p. 46).

Here's one more benefit: reading aloud provides a wonderful model of fluent reading.

5 - Implement assisted reading

This simply means reading aloud alongside our students. As Rasinski (2010) puts it, "oral reading can be used as a scaffolding tool to ease the transition from modeling to independence" (p. 67).

Choral reading - groups of students (or even the whole class) read the same text aloud in unision

Paired reading - This research-based approach is not exactly the same as partner reading or buddy reading. In paired reading, a more proficient reader supports a less able reader by reading together chorally; the more proficient reader adjusts his/her volume and support as the other reader becomes more confident. The reader signals when the more proficient reader should read more loudly or bow out altogether.

Audio recorded reading - Listening to an audio recording of a text will help build fluency only if the listener is reading along. Students can make great gains in fluency if they keep listening and reading along until they can read the text independently.

6 - Provide opportunities for repeated reading

Our goal is for students to read one text several times so that they can read it fluently - with few errors, at an appropriate rate, with proper expression, and good comprehension.

I'm surprised when I see people question the value of repeated reading in large Facebook groups devoted to the science of reading. The truth is that we've had decades of research that show its value.

Research has, in fact, found that rereading a familiar passage not only leads to improvement on that particular passage, but fluency gains also transfer to the reading other passages.

You may be familiar with the concept of timed repeated reading - in which students read a passage multiple times until they achieve a desired rate. This is a powerful intervention that is best suited for students who fit this criteria:

Words Correct Per Minute scores are more than ten words below the 50th percentile on the Hasbrouck & Tindal ORF (Oral Reading Fluency) norms when they read grade-level or instructional-level text.

Reading is slow but accurate.

Decoding of individual words is also slow but accurate.

Phonemic awareness is well developed.

Comprehension is adequate or good.

(Source: Reading Fluency, by Hasbrouck & Glaser)

When doing timed repeated readings, always make it a point to also talk about the text. Reading fluently is not all about speed!

7 - Do whole class fluency lessons.

Later in this series I'll walk you through the Fluency Development Lesson, in which teachers support students as they learn to read a short passage or poem with fluency. The FDL only takes about 15 minutes a day.

If you have more time, and you want to help all children achieve fluency with grade-level text, consider FORI (Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction).

Here's a general overview of FORI:

Monday - The teacher introduces the text and reads it while the class follows along; the teacher leads a discussion that focuses on comprehending the text.

Tuesday - The teacher and students echo read the story; comprehension instruction is infused throughout; students take the text home and read it to a friend or family member

Wednesday - Teacher and students choral-read the text; students who need extra practice read it again at home.

Thursday - Students partner-read the text; students who need extra practice read it again at home.

Friday - Students complete extension activities to broaden comprehension.

I'll be honest - I think I'd be ready to chuck that text out the window after all this time with it, so I'm more a fan of WIDE FORI, which introduces new texts on Thursday and Friday.

(Source: Developing Fluent Readers, by Kuhn & Levy)

8 - Provide opportunities for performance reading

Timed repeated reading can be a great motivator for struggling readers who watch their performance improve during their sessions.

But repeated reading, while beneficial to all students, can be less than motivating if we go about it the wrong way. Thankfully, we can make repeated reading interesting and engaging for all students when we make it authentic.

When repeated reading is done for the purpose of rehearsal for a performance, we can get everyone on board.

Students can reread texts multiple times as they prepare to perform in any of these ways:

Reader's Theater or partner plays (pictured above)

Book talks

Reading aloud to younger students

Recording books for younger students

Reading poetry aloud

Whew - that was a lot! And it was just the first post in our series!

Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks:
References
Hasbrouck, J. & Glaser, D. (2019). Reading fluency. Benchmark Education Company.

Kuhn, M. & Levy, L. (2015). Developing fluent readers. The Guilford Press

Rasinski, T. (2010). The fluent reader. Scholastic.

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This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Are you wondering how to improve reading fluency? You're in the right place! This post is the first in a four-part series all about building fluency. Do you have students who struggle with reading fluency?

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How do you increase a child's reading fluency? It's a question that seems to have an easy answer. One common response is that you give them more opportunities to listen to others as they read. You also make it important for them to read aloud and then provide them feedback on their reading. In this blog entry, we'll explore a high-effect size instructional strategy that can increase reading fluency and explore some ways technology can make implementing this strategy easier.

A Quick Review

If you've been following the TCEA TechNotes blog, you've sensed our new focus on the work of John Hattie. Hattie conducted meta-analyses of research on instructional strategies. Some strategies fall above what he characterized as the "hinge point," or an effect size of .40. Strategies that speed up student growth in one year fall above the hinge point. For example, the jigsaw approach (1.20) yields three years of growth in one year when used in a consistent way. Reciprocal teaching (.74) yields almost two year's growth in one year.

Picking a high-effect size strategy is not enough. These strategies also fall into general categories. They include "surface," "deep," or "transfer" learning. That's because Hattie defines learning in this way:

...the process of developing sufficient surface knowledge to then move to deeper understanding such that one can appropriately transfer this learning to new tasks and situations. (Source: Visible Learning for Literacy)

Jigsaw is a surface learning approach that assists students in two ways. Fisher, Frey, and Hattie says that surface learning consists of two sub-phases. The first to help students acquire, summarize, and outline a topic. The second is to practice testing and receiving feedback. As you might imagine, the jigsaw approach works great for this.

Reciprocal teaching focuses on comprehension. As such, the goal is to assist students to transition. That transition is from surface knowledge to a deeper, conceptual understanding. Knowing when and why you will use a strategy remains important. Neither strategy (e.g. jigsaw, reciprocal teaching) would be appropriate for developing decoding as a part of reading fluency, which is our primary concern in this blog entry.

Definition: Decoding: Decoding is the ability to apply your knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including knowledge of letter patterns, to correctly pronounce written words. Understanding these relationships gives children the ability to recognize familiar words quickly and to figure out words they haven't seen before. (Source: Reading Rockets)
Definition: 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. (Source: Reading Rockets)

Developing Decoding Skills

Listening to teachers in TCEA's empowerED program, one teacher pointed something out. She made a connection to the type of problem reciprocal teaching solves. "Students first need to move beyond the mechanics of reading. They need to become fluent readers first." Reciprocal teaching, covered in detail in the empowerED program, addresses a different problem. That problem is, "What if students are fluent readers, but cannot comprehend what they read?" But what about those students who haven't overcome the mechanics of decoding?

Why Decoding and Fluency Are Important

Students, from grades one through middle school, may encounter decoding challenges. This might also be true for older students learning a second language. Timothy Shanahan offers the need to:

Get students to read the author's words in an accurate manner.

Read texts at about the speed of oral language.

Make reading sound like language. This involves pausing in the right places so that text makes sense.

While there are several approaches for addressing decoding, repeated reading offers one approach. It works for young readers as well as middle school students. Repeated reading (effect size of .75) enables students to move from decoding to meaning:

Repeated reading involves students reading the same passage (=>3x) to teachers. When the student miscues, the teacher can read the correct word aloud. Then, the student rereads the passage until reaching a satisfactory reading level.

Repeated Reading Approach

There are several other approaches to achieve repeated reading effectively. One way is to have a student listen to a passage read aloud by the teacher. Then the student reads it to himself several times. Then, the student reads it aloud. The teacher calculates the rate, accuracy, intonation, pacing, and expressiveness and reports this to the student along with elapsed time. The student re-reads the passage again with this information in mind. The student has the goal of improving these elements.

How could classroom technologies facilitate repeated reading as a strategy? Let's consider one of the challenges teachers and students face.

Opportunity for Repetition with Repeated Reading

One of the challenges teachers and students may encounter with repeated reading is the opportunity for repetition. A teacher with a large class may be unable to read for each child. Noam Chomsky suggested another approach that involves teachers recording a selection to audiotape. Students are then invited to record themselves as well.

With modern technologies, teachers have several options:

Option #1: Use Flipgrid. The teacher can read the text, modeling facial expressions and word formation for students. This is great for dramatic readings since students can see it. In return, students can record themselves reading their text. They can submit as many repeated responses as they like. What's more, Flipgrid includes Microsoft's Immersive Reader. This makes it a fantastic addition given Immersive Reader's features.

Option #2: Seesaw. Teachers can share an audio/video recording of a reading, then invite students to leave a video/audio recording of their repeated reading. This is great because it makes archiving and tracking student growth easy for sharing via Seesaw.

Option #3: Google Slides or PowerPoint Online. The teacher can display text to be read on screen via a slide and then insert an audio recording. Students can then record their own versions for a particular number of times (three to five times) before turning it in to their teacher.

Option #4: Use web-based audio recorder. Using a web-based audio recorder, the teacher or student can record audio. Copies of recorded items can be saved to Google Drive, OneDrive, or submitted as part of Microsoft/Google Forms.

These are great options to use because they result in a record of reading, and it can be dramatic to see growth over time. What's more, they make it easier for the teacher to provide corrective feedback. Corrective feedback has a significant impact on fluency and comprehension.

"Repeated readings has been the most researched and successful approach to improving reading fluency," says Lauren Nienhuis. These technology tools mentioned can assist you in maximizing your impact on student readers. Give them a try for repeated reading.

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Increase Reading Fluency with Repeated Reading Strategies * TechNotes Blog

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How do you increase a child's reading fluency? It's a question that seems to have an easy answer. One common response is that you give them more opportunities to listen to others as they read. You also make it important for them to read aloud and then provide them feedback on their reading.

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English ESL fluency worksheets - Most downloaded (56 Results)

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A collection of English ESL worksheets for home learning, online practice, distance learning and English classes to teach about fluency, fluency

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First Grade Reading Worksheets & Printables | Education.com

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These first grade reading worksheets support early reading skills, such as vocabulary and reading comprehension.