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Which Reading Strategies to Try, and Which to Ditch

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https://www.thedailycafe.com/cafe/interactive-cafe-menu/accuracy

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Launching Daily 5-The Six Most Important things to Remember

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We all know that reading fluency is an important part of becoming a good reader, but there are many components to fluency. One of those important pieces of reading fluency is accuracy. Having good accuracy is the ability to read the text with very few or no mistakes. Accuracy truly is the most essential skill of reading fluency. If a child is "reading" a passage quickly, but they are skipping over or changing every other word, they are not getting the full meaning and will not be able to comprehend what they have read, which is the main purpose of reading.

This post contains affiliate links. Items purchased from these links do not cost you any extra money, but they do help to support this blog.

There are many factors that go into improving accuracy.

First and foremost, students need to be able to decode and read words quickly. Explicit phonics instruction is so important in improving accuracy when reading. If students cannot quickly decode words, they will continue to struggle while reading. Students also need to be able to quickly read undecodable sight words in order to improve their accuracy.

Develop letter-sound fluency. Students must know letter sounds quickly.

After students are fluent with letter sounds, they need to know how to blend them together to read decodable words.

Students need to be able to quickly recognize and read sight words.

Strategies and Tips for Improving Accuracy

Use letter sound timing sheets and word timing sheets to help students increase their fluency. Grab these FREE Letter & Word Timing Sheets.

Practice sight word fluency.

Use fun pointers, finger highlighters, highlighter strips, etc. to help students stay focused on the word they are reading.

Encourage students to look for parts they know in a word.

Do not let students practice reading words incorrectly. If you are focusing on accuracy, immediately stop a student when they mispronounce a word. Say the word correctly. Then, have the student repeat that word before continuing.

Teacher Tap Method - While listening to a student read, tap a pencil or your finger on the table when the student makes a mistake. When they hear the tap, they will go back and reread to fix their error. Praise the student for the correction.

Students need to listen to themselves read. If they do not know that they are making mistakes, they will not be able to fix them. Whisper Phones are great for letting students hear themselves read. It's also very helpful to record them reading and have them listen to it.

Here are some materials that I use in my classroom to help students with improving accuracy in their reading.

As students become stronger at reading sight words and phonetically spelled words, they will not have to invest all of their thinking into decoding. They will be able to transition into improving their reading comprehension.

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Improve Accuracy While Reading - Fun in First

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Accuracy is a very important aspect of reading. These strategies and tips for improving accuracy will help to improve reading fluency.

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Stuttering can be a big communication roadblock. Difficulty getting words out and clearly expressing thoughts and ideas can be very challenging for people of all ages.

In many cases, the stutter itself isn't even the worst part of the condition - it's the effects stuttering can have on a person's daily life. Many children and adults feel they've lost control of one of their most basic and important functions, which can be an unnerving and frustrating experience. This can lead them to avoid social situations, be less active in a classroom or workplace environment, and feel a sense of embarrassment.

Fortunately, there are many different techniques that can be implemented in order to improve speech fluency. Just like learning any skill, these take practice and the results often don't happen overnight. However, with enough practice and persistence, the seven different strategies covered in this article can improve fluency and help individuals regain control during their everyday speech.

The good news is that there are several different techniques that can be implemented in order to improve speech fluency. This post will cover seven different strategies to improve fluency, and how each one can be implemented in everyday speech.

Before we Begin: When to Seek Professional Help for Stuttering

Before diving in, let's address one of the most common questions parents and individuals have: when is professional help from a speech therapist necessary?

There's no one-size-fits-all answer. Many early language learners naturally experience periods of stuttering and disfluency as they develop their communication skills. In many cases, time is the best remedy and they'll naturally grow out of it. However, for a considerable number of children, stuttering can persist into adulthood if it's not properly treated.

If you notice that your child is struggling with fluency, or their stuttering is having an impact on their daily life, it's best to speak with your doctor or seek an evaluation from a speech therapist. Intervening early - before the stutter progresses - is often the best way to remediate stuttering challenges.

Specific signs to look for when decided whether to have an evaluation include:

Your child's stutter is getting progressively more severe overtime

The stutter continues after their 5th birthday

Your child's speech sounds strained

They're actively avoiding social situations

Helpful Techniques to Improve Fluency

Below are several strategies that you can practice at home to help overcome a stutter. These are broken into a few categories:

Techniques to prevent a stutter from happening in the first place

Techniques that can be used in the moment of a stutter

Techniques after a stutter has already occured

Easy Onsets

Easy onsets are used on words that begin with a vowel. They are used to prevent stuttering from happening. You will begin talking and using your voice very slowly and gently. Here's how it works:

1. First, take a deep breath

2. Slowly exhale, letting out a small, easy breath - like making an /h/ sound

3. Begin to slowly turn on your voice, starting with a very quiet sound

4. Slowly increase your volume to a normal speaking voice

Here's an example. Let's say you were trying to say the word "apple." Start by taking a deep breath, then let the air out slowly, and gently say, "hhhhHHHHapple." Over time, you will get more used to this technique and the /h/ will not sound quite as pronounced.

The reason this increases fluency is because you are learning how to decrease tension in the vocal folds by gently voicing a word instead of closing the vocal folds hard to initiate the word. Tension is what creates moments of stutter and the more we can avoid tension, the smoother speech will be.

This technique can be used to change how you speak in order to prevent dysfluencies from occurring. When speaking, we use our teeth, lips, and tongue to form various sounds. But if there is too much tension when forming sounds, stuttering can happen.

In order to avoid stuttering and reduce tension, implement a technique called light contact. Let's try an example.

Let's say you are trying to produce the /t/ sound. Think about how you form this sound: the tip of the tongue taps behind the front teeth.

Now say the /t/ sound 3x consecutively, each with even lighter pressure each time. By the last /t/ sound, your tongue should barely touch the back of the teeth, but still just enough to still make the /t/ sound.

This amount of pressure should be used when speaking. The reduction in tension will greatly help improve overall speech fluency!

Stretched Syllables

This technique is exactly what it sounds like - a stretched, or prolonged, syllable! Stretching syllables in words can help prevent stuttering from happening. When stretching syllables, you will want to stretch it for about two seconds each time.

Here's an example. Try the word, "singer." You would stretch the word as "sssiiingeeerrr," allowing about two seconds for each syllable.

It may seem unnatural to stretch syllables this long. And it's true - we don't typically speak this way. But if this prevents you from getting caught in a stutter, then it can definitely end up saving time and frustration!

Pullouts/Ease Outs

This technique is used during a moment of stutter. First you will need to identify what word you are stuttering on. After you do that, notice if there is any tension in your mouth. Try to release the tension. As you say the word, try to stretch the syllable you are stuttering and "pullout" or "ease out" of the dysfluency.

Here is an example. Let's say you are stuttering on the word, "talking."

If the word sounded like, "t-t-t-t-talking," then the moment of stutter is on the "t."

Now identify where the tension is. In this case, it's at the tip of the tongue, where the /t/ sound is produced. Relax and release the tension

Then stretch the syllable out to finish the word to ease out of the stutter. It should sound like, "taaaaalking."

Slow Speech

When we take time to slow down our speech, this automatically helps improve speech fluency. We can slow speech down in a couple of ways. Here are two examples:

Slow down your speech by adding small pauses between words

Slow down your speech by elongating vowels/sounds in words

If you are a parent or caregiver working with your child, be sure to model nice, slow speech in order to help them speak in a manner similar to you.

Syllable Timed Speech

This technique is part of the Westmead Program. How it works is that you will say a sentence with equal stress on each syllable. It is similar to speaking with a metronome.

If you are saying the sentence: "I went to the grocery store," it would be pronounced "I-went-to-the-gro-cer-y-store."

In order to help prevent your speech from sounding monotonous, make sure that you are still placing appropriate inflection on words. This can be tricky but you will get the hang of it over time!

Cancellations

Cancellations are a fluency technique that can be implemented after a dysfluency (stutter) has already occurred.

When a dysfluency occurs, pause and take a second to try to identify where the stutter happened in the word. Was it the beginning consonant, or on the vowel? Pay attention to your mouth and notice if there is tension anywhere that may have led you to stutter. Try to decrease the tension, then say the word again. Here is a simple breakdown of what to do when implementing the cancellation technique.

1. Identify when you are stuttering

2. Take a pause

3. While pausing, identify the parts of speech that were involved in the stutter and what is creating tension

4. Release the tension

5. Repeat the word with less tension, stretching out the sound that was stuttered on

Want To Learn More?

Check out Expressable Academy for more detailed information on each of these fluency techniques. Just navigate over the left hand column and scroll all the way down. Click the Stutter & Fluency menu option, then the Fluency Technique options. Here you can also find more info on fluency related terms and even the anatomy involved during speech production.

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7 Strategies to Help Fix a Stutter and Improve Fluency

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Stuttering can be a big communication roadblock. Difficulty getting words out and clearly expressing thoughts and ideas can be very challenging for people of all ages. In many cases, the stutter itself isn't even the worst part of the condition - it's the effects stuttering can have on a person's daily life.

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If there is no prosody when reading fluency, it does not flow. It sounds choppy. You also cannot always understand the text without using prosody.

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Quick tips to help kids read fluently

Reading fluency is the ability to read at a good pace, with accuracy, and with the right expression. Fluent readers also understand what they're reading.

Here are some ways kids can improve their fluency:

Listen to models of fluent reading, like read-alouds. Audiobooks can also be great models of reading fluency.

Practice sight words so kids can automatically recognize words.

Have kids read a short text at their reading level several times. Count how many words they read correctly in one minute. Record the results on a graph. Repeat several times. (This is called "repeated readings.") Soon they'll see that their speed and accuracy improve.

Read a sentence together. Then draw slash marks to "chunk" the text into meaningful phrases of three to five words. Kids should take a short pause at the slash marks when reading.

Dive deeper

Tell us what interests you

About the author

About the author

Ginny Osewalt is a dually certified elementary and special education teacher with more than 15 years of experience in general education, inclusion, resource room, and self-contained settings.

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How to Improve Reading Fluency in Children

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Quick tips to help kids read fluently Reading fluency is the ability to read at a good pace, with accuracy, and with the right expression. Fluent readers also understand what they're reading. Here are some ways kids can improve their fluency: Listen to models of fluent reading, like read-alouds.

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https://funinfirst.com/improve-accuracy-while-reading/

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We all know that reading fluency is an important part of becoming a good reader, but there are many components to fluency. One of those important pieces of reading fluency is accuracy. Having good accuracy is the ability to read the text with very few or no mistakes. Accuracy truly is the most essential skill of reading fluency. If a child is "reading" a passage quickly, but they are skipping over or changing every other word, they are not getting the full meaning and will not be able to comprehend what they have read, which is the main purpose of reading.

This post contains affiliate links. Items purchased from these links do not cost you any extra money, but they do help to support this blog.

There are many factors that go into improving accuracy.

First and foremost, students need to be able to decode and read words quickly. Explicit phonics instruction is so important in improving accuracy when reading. If students cannot quickly decode words, they will continue to struggle while reading. Students also need to be able to quickly read undecodable sight words in order to improve their accuracy.

Develop letter-sound fluency. Students must know letter sounds quickly.

After students are fluent with letter sounds, they need to know how to blend them together to read decodable words.

Students need to be able to quickly recognize and read sight words.

Strategies and Tips for Improving Accuracy

Use letter sound timing sheets and word timing sheets to help students increase their fluency. Grab these FREE Letter & Word Timing Sheets.

Practice sight word fluency.

Use fun pointers, finger highlighters, highlighter strips, etc. to help students stay focused on the word they are reading.

Encourage students to look for parts they know in a word.

Do not let students practice reading words incorrectly. If you are focusing on accuracy, immediately stop a student when they mispronounce a word. Say the word correctly. Then, have the student repeat that word before continuing.

Teacher Tap Method - While listening to a student read, tap a pencil or your finger on the table when the student makes a mistake. When they hear the tap, they will go back and reread to fix their error. Praise the student for the correction.

Students need to listen to themselves read. If they do not know that they are making mistakes, they will not be able to fix them. Whisper Phones are great for letting students hear themselves read. It's also very helpful to record them reading and have them listen to it.

Here are some materials that I use in my classroom to help students with improving accuracy in their reading.

As students become stronger at reading sight words and phonetically spelled words, they will not have to invest all of their thinking into decoding. They will be able to transition into improving their reading comprehension.

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Improve Accuracy While Reading - Fun in First

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Accuracy is a very important aspect of reading. These strategies and tips for improving accuracy will help to improve reading fluency.

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This link is strategies for fluency, but they could also be used to focus on the accuracy of the students reading.

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Literacy skills are one of the most important areas of ability children develop in their first few years at school. That's why it's crucial to provide fluency strategies for struggling readers as soon as a learning difficulty is picked up.

Most children begin by sounding out words and learning to recognize common vocabulary from books and classroom materials. With sight reading and more spelling practice comes greater fluency. Reading then speeds up and comprehension of more complex texts becomes possible as vocabulary knowledge grows exponentially. However, not all students find learning to read such an easy process. Struggling readers can quickly fall behind their peers and may develop low self-esteem and a lack of confidence as a result.

Because reading ability affects performance across all areas of the curriculum, including writing skills, it's important to provide adequate strategy training as early as possible. Ideally remediation is tailored to the individual student's needs, particularly when a learning difficulty is involved.

Different learning difficulties affect fluency in different ways but one of the most common conditions implicated in reading problems is dyslexia. If a student has poor reading skills and a somewhat inconsistent approach to spelling -they recognize or produce a word correctly one day but not the next-- dyslexia may be involved.

There are different signs but around 70% of students with dyslexia struggle to split words into their component sounds. It is this lack of phonemic awareness that prevents accurate sound-letter mapping, which is required for spelling and decoding in early reading. A focus on phonics can help students with dyslexia. Another way to help is by taking a multi-sensory approach to teaching reading and spelling - learn more in this article on Orton-Gillingham based reading instruction.

Some kids have trouble focusing their attention on the books or classroom worksheets they are meant to be reading. For students with attention related learning difficulties, including attention deficit disorder with and without hyperactivity, the challenge is not so much in sounding out the words but concentrating long enough to process what they are reading.

Sitting still and controlling impulsive tendencies can also be problematic, particularly for students with ADHD. What's crucial is that teachers recognize the root of the problem early on and find strategies to help enhance focus during reading sessions. One idea is choosing a regular time of day when the student is most calm, possibly after an outside exercise break. It's also a good idea to reduce distractions and create a quiet space where they can go to read on their own.

Parents and teachers may observe reading fluency is lacking in individuals with slow processing. This is because the brain requires more time to carry out the complex cognitive processes involved in reading, from word recognition to comprehension.

Patience, time and more time may be the solution here. In some instances, a student can appear to read fluently but not actually understand what he or she is reading. This is often true for students with autism spectrum disorder-learn more in this article on reading comprehension and autism. For information on addressing fluency issues for students with visual impairments, try this article.

Pre-literacy skills

It's extremely important and beneficial for children to read with their parents. Even 1 year-olds can enhance their vocabulary and learn more about the world as they point to objects and characters they recognize. Reading with adults helps kids understand how books work. They participate by choosing their favorite stories and turning the pages as their parents read aloud.

Ample exposure to print also gets children ready to learn the alphabet. Silly songs such as "Old McDonald Had a Farm" are used to enhance phonemic awareness and help kids develop their control over stress, rhyme and rhythm in language. Discussing their day and reciting sequences of events is a precursor for understanding how narrative works.

Learn more in 6 pre-literacy skills parents can encourage.

Decoding & comprehension

Reading is a complex cognitive task that involves parallel activity in different areas of the brain. Readers must decode the letters on a page, recognize the words they are made up of and make meaning out of groups of words, sentences and paragraphs. Issues concerning reading fluency can stem from decoding skills, comprehension skills or both. Learn more in this article on common reading problems.

Decoding

This is the process of recognizing letters and words and sounding them out. Decoding is easier said than done in English, a language in which multiple letters can be used to represent the same sounds. The only way to effectively learn how to pronounce common vowel and consonant clusters is to have seen them before. This is one reason why learning to touch-type and drilling letter combinations on a keyboard helps struggling readers. This is especially true if audio recordings of the words are played at the same time.

Comprehension

Fluency can also be affected by a failure to understand what is being read. Readers are required to hold a number of details and contextual clues in memory in order to make connections and pick up on gist, inference and main ideas in the text. If comprehension is a struggle, it can interrupt fluency as students find they cannot follow what they are reading and need to go back to re-read earlier parts of the text. In the same way, focusing too much on decoding can prevent struggling readers from paying attention to the content of a reading.

10 Strategies for fluency

1. Record students reading aloud on their own. If certain sound-letter combinations or words are causing problems, teachers will benefit from listening to the child read out loud. However, this activity can be extremely stressful in front of a classroom of kids, particularly for a student who struggles with fluency. It is best to avoid calling on struggling readers during group reading and instead have them work through a paragraph on their own. Make a recording that can be analyzed later on by a teacher or tutor in order to provide targeted help.

2. Ask kids to use a ruler or a reading window to follow along. Decoding is easier when students don't lose their place as they move across a page. It's up to the individual student how they go about this. Some may want to use a pen or pencil, others a piece of paper or a ruler that they move to help them stay focused on the sentence in front of them. A reading window is a useful tool which blocks off the text before and after the sentence the student is reading. Moving something along the page is also a good strategy for readers with ADHD because it involves a kinesthetic element.

3. Have them read the same thing several times. When you're trying to improve fluency, it helps to see the same text multiple times. Each reading becomes easier and motivation goes up as students experience enhanced fluency thanks to repeat exposure to words and phrases. It can also help when it comes to developing comprehension skills as readers have more opportunities to notice contextual cues.

4. Pre-teach vocabulary. Prime the words a student is going to see in a text and practice reading them in isolation or in phrases. You might do this via an interactive classroom based activity. Get students to use the words and then practice reading them from the board or on a piece of paper. Crossword puzzles can be an effective teaching tool or playing a spelling game. It's much easier to read a word if it is fresh in memory.

5. Drill sight words. Some words are more common than others and students who have a hard time with fluency will find it is much easier to read when they are familiar with 90% of the vocabulary in a text. Around 50% of all books and classroom based materials for young readers are composed of words from the Dolch List. Learn more in our post on teaching sight words.

6. Make use of a variety of books and materials. If a student has difficulty with reading it can be even more of a struggle to practice with material that is not of interest to them. Sometimes all it takes is getting readers excited about a topic to help them lose themselves in the activity. Try chapter books, comics and poems. Even picture books can work as long as the student doesn't perceive the material as being below their level. Experiment with texts of different lengths starting with shorter material and gradually working up to longer pieces. TOP TIP: Where fluency is concerned, emphasize the quality of the student's reading, not the quantity of pages or speed at which they read them.

7. Try different font and text sizes. If there's a visual impairment that is causing some of the difficulty, reading larger text or text printed on color tinted paper can sometimes make things easier. There are specific fonts which are more appropriate for anyone with learning difficulties, including dyslexia, because they help with discerning letters and decoding language.

8. Create a stress free environment. When students are enjoying a book, anxiety and stress are reduced and fluency is enhanced. It's also possible to foster a relaxing environment by removing any deadlines, time-limits or assessment related goals and just focusing on classroom reading for reading's sake.

9. Guide students to help them establish a steady pace. One of the hallmarks of fluent reading is establishing a consistent rhythm and pace that guides students through a text. This doesn't need to be fast and in the beginning new readers should have the option to start slow and increase their pace as they become more comfortable. Some students will want to have a guide, such as a metronome, which gives them a rhythm they can match. Others will find this strategy stressful. Playing music in the background might also work - or not!

10. Introduce a typing course. If a student continues to struggle with fluency, teachers, tutors and parents may consider introducing an extra-curricular program designed to enhance literacy skills. A multi-sensory course like Touch-type Read and Spell can be used at home and in school to learn typing and enhance spelling and sight reading at the same time. An audio component accompanies letters on the screen while students type the corresponding keys. Automated feedback and coursework is divided into discrete modules and independent lessons foster self-directed learning and enhance motivation and self-efficacy in new readers.

Offering encouragement and support

Reading and writing are essential skills and when fluency does not come naturally, strategy instruction based around the individual student's needs is crucial to help new readers gain the confidence they need to be successful at school.

Regardless of the intervention, progress takes time to achieve. That's why it is a good idea to schedule a plan of action and set up attainable goals for improving fluency in the long-run.

Parents may consider hiring a private tutor - learn more about how to choose a tutor - and teachers can adjust classroom practices to create a less stressful environment in which children can hone their skills.

Above all, students need to be made aware that learning difficulties and reading ability have nothing to do with intelligence and understand that effort is more important than results. This will encourage a healthy self-image and help them maintain the motivation required to improve their skills.

Read more about encouraging children with learning difficulties, or try our tips for motivating students to read.

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fluency strategies for struggling readers

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10 Fluency strategies for struggling readers

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Learn more about literacy skills development and the best fluency strategies for struggling readers in and outside of the classroom.

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We all know that reading fluency is an important part of becoming a good reader, but there are many components to fluency. One of those important pieces of reading fluency is accuracy. Having good accuracy is the ability to read the text with very few or no mistakes. Accuracy truly is the most essential skill of reading fluency. If a child is "reading" a passage quickly, but they are skipping over or changing every other word, they are not getting the full meaning and will not be able to comprehend what they have read, which is the main purpose of reading.

This post contains affiliate links. Items purchased from these links do not cost you any extra money, but they do help to support this blog.

There are many factors that go into improving accuracy.

First and foremost, students need to be able to decode and read words quickly. Explicit phonics instruction is so important in improving accuracy when reading. If students cannot quickly decode words, they will continue to struggle while reading. Students also need to be able to quickly read undecodable sight words in order to improve their accuracy.

Develop letter-sound fluency. Students must know letter sounds quickly.

After students are fluent with letter sounds, they need to know how to blend them together to read decodable words.

Students need to be able to quickly recognize and read sight words.

Strategies and Tips for Improving Accuracy

Use letter sound timing sheets and word timing sheets to help students increase their fluency. Grab these FREE Letter & Word Timing Sheets.

Practice sight word fluency.

Use fun pointers, finger highlighters, highlighter strips, etc. to help students stay focused on the word they are reading.

Encourage students to look for parts they know in a word.

Do not let students practice reading words incorrectly. If you are focusing on accuracy, immediately stop a student when they mispronounce a word. Say the word correctly. Then, have the student repeat that word before continuing.

Teacher Tap Method - While listening to a student read, tap a pencil or your finger on the table when the student makes a mistake. When they hear the tap, they will go back and reread to fix their error. Praise the student for the correction.

Students need to listen to themselves read. If they do not know that they are making mistakes, they will not be able to fix them. Whisper Phones are great for letting students hear themselves read. It's also very helpful to record them reading and have them listen to it.

Here are some materials that I use in my classroom to help students with improving accuracy in their reading.

As students become stronger at reading sight words and phonetically spelled words, they will not have to invest all of their thinking into decoding. They will be able to transition into improving their reading comprehension.

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Improve Accuracy While Reading - Fun in First

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We all know that reading fluency is an important part of becoming a good reader, but there are many components to fluency. One of those important pieces of reading fluency is accuracy. Having good accuracy is the ability to read the text with very few or no mistakes.

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Self-Corrections
You'll also want to count the number of self-corrections. A self-correction is an indication that the student is monitoring her or his reading, and has the ability to approach tricky words or phrases in alternate ways. Self-corrections are described as a ratio and are calculated this way:

A ratio of 1:3 means that the student self-corrects one error out of three. Ratios of 1:4 and lower indicate that the student is noticing errors and has the awareness of how to fix errors effectively. Ratios above 1:4 are a flag that students would benefit from instruction in how to monitor their reading. When you've found a text the student can read with 90% or above accuracy, write the title and the percent accuracy on a Reading Record form.

About Stenhouse Publishers

Stenhouse publishes professional development books and videos by teachers and for teachers. Their titles cover a range of content areas -- from literacy and mathematics to science, social studies, the arts, and environmental education -- as well as a variety of topics, including classroom management, assessment, and differentiation.

The codes that count as errors are:

Substitutions: when a student substitutes one word for another

Insertions: when a student adds a word to the text

Omissions: when a student omits a work

Tolds: when you decide to tell a student struggling for a word what the word is

Appeals: when a student stops and asks for help

These codes are not errors:

A repetition of a word or phrase that is accurate is not an error.

If a student appeals for help, but then is able to come up with the word independently (without a prompt beyond "Try it"), the appeal is not counted as an error.

A self-correction is not an error.

Finally, if a student makes the same error several times, the error is counted each time. This allows the teacher to know whether or not a student notices the repeated error.

In addition to coding the errors and the self-corrections, I like to make note of anything the student says or does that gives me information about the student as a reader. So, if a student begins to sound out a word and comes up with a correct response, I write down this word work. Or if a student makes an interesting comment about the story or something noticed about the text, I write that down as well.

Fluency
A true measure of a student's ability to process text effectively is the ability to read accurately and fluently. Contrary to what some researchers and assessment forms suggest, fluency is not simply a matter of how fast a student reads. It's much more important than speed. To measure fluency, we consider the speed of reading; perhaps more importantly, we listen for indications of

meaningful phrasing;

expression;

intonation;

attention to punctuation; and

a rate appropriate to the genre.

When the measure of fluency includes the above indicators, a teacher knows the student has an awareness of how the structure of language works to create meaning. Fluent reading demonstrates the student's awareness of how the words in written text are presented in a predictable structure (punctuation, phrasing, intonation, and expression) that enables the reader to interact with the text to make meaning. A student reading fluently demonstrates an awareness of how

reading is about more than knowing the words;

words work together to make meaningful phrases;

words may work together to allow for varying interpretations;

words and phrases allow us to predict what will come next and to confirm that what we've read makes sense;

punctuation allows us to adjust our reading in a meaningful way; and

intonation and expression may be used to determine importance and to interpret the text.

To illustrate how fluency works, think of a child learning to play the piano. At first, all effort is put into finding the notes and playing them in the right sequence. The playing may be accurate, but since the child is playing one or two notes at a time, there may not be a noticeable tune, and there's certainly no interpretation of the music. With practice, putting the notes together becomes more and more automatic. It becomes fluent. With this automaticity comes the child's ability to interpret the music. The same applies to reading. Once a student gets beyond word-by-word reading, he can begin to relate to, interpret and use the text.

In essence, the goal is for a student to read "like a storyteller" or speaking comfortably. To measure fluency, a rubric is useful. This rubric (designed by my colleague, Janet Bright) allows for a quick assessment of a student's reading fluency.

Mainly large meaningful phrases; expressive interpretation; aware of syntax

Mainly three- or four-word phrases; aware of syntax; some expressive interpretation

Mainly two-word phrases and some word-by-word reading

It has been my experience that a student reading a text accurately and fluently either understands the text or is reading at a good level for instruction in how to comprehend the text. The "or" is an important distinction. We know that many students sound like good readers, but may have difficulty understanding what they read.

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Copyright © 2012 Education World

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Reading Assessment Tips: Accuracy and Fluency | Education World

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Self-Corrections You'll also want to count the number of self-corrections. A self-correction is an indication that the student is monitoring her or his reading, and has the ability to approach tricky words or phrases in alternate ways. Self-corrections are described as a ratio and are calculated this way: A ratio of 1:3 means that the student self-corrects one error out of three.

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We all know that reading fluency is an important part of becoming a good reader, but there are many components to fluency. One of those important pieces of reading fluency is accuracy. Having good accuracy is the ability to read the text with very few or no mistakes. Accuracy truly is the most essential skill of reading fluency. If a child is "reading" a passage quickly, but they are skipping over or changing every other word, they are not getting the full meaning and will not be able to comprehend what they have read, which is the main purpose of reading.

This post contains affiliate links. Items purchased from these links do not cost you any extra money, but they do help to support this blog.

There are many factors that go into improving accuracy.

First and foremost, students need to be able to decode and read words quickly. Explicit phonics instruction is so important in improving accuracy when reading. If students cannot quickly decode words, they will continue to struggle while reading. Students also need to be able to quickly read undecodable sight words in order to improve their accuracy.

Develop letter-sound fluency. Students must know letter sounds quickly.

After students are fluent with letter sounds, they need to know how to blend them together to read decodable words.

Students need to be able to quickly recognize and read sight words.

Strategies and Tips for Improving Accuracy

Use letter sound timing sheets and word timing sheets to help students increase their fluency. Grab these FREE Letter & Word Timing Sheets.

Practice sight word fluency.

Use fun pointers, finger highlighters, highlighter strips, etc. to help students stay focused on the word they are reading.

Encourage students to look for parts they know in a word.

Do not let students practice reading words incorrectly. If you are focusing on accuracy, immediately stop a student when they mispronounce a word. Say the word correctly. Then, have the student repeat that word before continuing.

Teacher Tap Method - While listening to a student read, tap a pencil or your finger on the table when the student makes a mistake. When they hear the tap, they will go back and reread to fix their error. Praise the student for the correction.

Students need to listen to themselves read. If they do not know that they are making mistakes, they will not be able to fix them. Whisper Phones are great for letting students hear themselves read. It's also very helpful to record them reading and have them listen to it.

Here are some materials that I use in my classroom to help students with improving accuracy in their reading.

As students become stronger at reading sight words and phonetically spelled words, they will not have to invest all of their thinking into decoding. They will be able to transition into improving their reading comprehension.

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Improve Accuracy While Reading - Fun in First

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Accuracy is a very important aspect of reading. These strategies and tips for improving accuracy will help to improve reading fluency.

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first attempt: 22 seconds
second attempt: 18 seconds
third attempt: 14 seconds
My rate improve because with practice and getting more accustomed to the words and flow, it became easier to ready fluently.

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My rate over the 3 times reading definitely improved. The first time I focused on getting the words correct so it took be a little bit longer. The second and third time I was a little faster because I already knew the passage.

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https://www.weareteachers.com/reading-fluency-activities/

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/top-10-resources-fluency

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/teaching-tools/articles/7-must-have-resources-to-improve-reading-fluency-right-now.html

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Learning to read starts kids on a lifelong learning journey, but literacy is more than just understanding the words on a page. Reading fluency involves comprehension, speed, accuracy, and prosody (reading with expression). There are many ways to help kids develop reading fluency, both in and out of the classroom. Here are some of our favorite reading fluency activities.

1. Start with a reading fluency anchor chart

Introduce the basics of reading fluency with an anchor chart you can hang in the classroom. It's a good reference for kids throughout the year. Here are more fluency anchor charts to try.

Learn more: Oral Reading Fluency/Teaching With a Mountain View

2. Model fluency with read-alouds

Reading aloud to kids is important for so many reasons, but one of the best is that it teaches kids what fluency sounds like. Adults can model expression, phrasing, pace, and so much more when they read to kids. Try some of our favorite read-alouds, or check out this list of the best read-alouds on YouTube as part of your reading center activities.

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3. Hang reading fluency posters

Post these in your classroom reading center to remind kids what reading fluency really means. They're simple but effective. Get your free set of reading fluency posters here.

4. Try sentence trees

Sentence trees are terrific reading activities that build fluency in younger students. They allow kids to focus on each word, improving accuracy and speed along the way.

Learn more: Sentence Trees/Fun in First

5. Put together poems and nursery rhymes

Kids often memorize nursery rhymes long before they learn to read. By breaking those rhymes apart into individual words and putting them back together again, kids see how words build into sentences and stories in a natural flow.

Learn more: Fluency To Improve Comprehension/Mrs. Winter's Bliss

6. Use line tracking and word pointers

For some kids, focus is a challenge. Their eyes wander around the page, and they have trouble developing the speed needed for fluency. Use another piece of paper to help them focus on the line they're reading, or try pointing to the words one by one.

Learn more: Reading With Fluency/Katelyn's Learning Studio

7. Read and reread ... and reread

Fluency involves lots and lots of reading and rereading. When kids read a passage over and over again, they build up their speed and accuracy automatically. One fun way to work on expression is to try rereading with different voices.

Learn more: Improve Reading Comprehension/Teach123

8. Add a timer to rereading

Combine repeated reading with a timer. Students read a passage for 1 minute, working to increase the number of words they read correctly each time. This is a nice tool for working on speed and accuracy.

Learn more: Build Reading Fluency/1st Grade Pandamania

9. Track student progress

While you don't want to overemphasize numbers, tracking a student's fluency is helpful to both you and them. Parents can help with this one at home too.

Learn more: Reading With Fluency/Katelyn's Learning Studio

10. Work on those sight words

One of reasons elementary readers focus so much on sight words is that they help to build reading fluency. Find a roundup of all our favorite sight word activities here.

11. Look to punctuation for expression cues

Punctuation makes passages easier to read, but it also gives a reader cues on proper expression. Help your kids recognize what each punctuation mark sounds like when reading fluently.

Learn more: Teaching Expression in Fluency/The Owl Teacher

12. Answer the fluency phone

These are such a fun tool for helping kids really hear themselves read! They're great for busy classrooms and reading centers. Kids talk softly into the phone, and the sound is amplified in their ear. You can buy fluency phones or make them yourself from PVC pipe.

Learn more: Fluency To Improve Reading Comprehension/Mrs. Winter's Bliss

13. Read with partners

Whether kids are reading together or you pair an adult helper with a student, taking turns reading is a terrific way to get more fluent. When one reader is stronger, have them read the passage first and have the other reader echo it back.

Learn more: Ways To Improve Reading Fluency/The Measured Mom

14. Get a reading buddy

Shy kids will especially appreciate the chance to practice reading out loud to a stuffed animal pal. Encourage them to read as if their fuzzy friend can hear everything they're saying.

Learn more: Ways To Use Stuffed Animals in the Classroom/Stories by Storie

15. Give kids a reading fluency rubric

Use this free printable rubric when evaluating students' reading fluency, or send it home for parents. Kids can even use it to self-evaluate!

Learn more: Reading Fluency Is Not Just About Speed/Teacher Thrive

16. Use a fluency bookmark

A handy bookmark keeps fluency strategies front and center when kids read. We love this idea for kids who are ready for chapter books.

Learn more: Focusing on Fluency/Upper Elementary Snapshots

17. Introduce the concept of scooping phrases

Pointing to words is good for building speed and accuracy, but scooping phrases takes things to the next level. This practice is a great help for developing expression and comprehension.

Learn more: Reading Fluency Phrasing/This Reading Mama

18. Hold a school-wide fluency challenge

Make literacy and reading fluency something the whole school focuses on. Have PE teachers post sight words for kids to read out when they run past. Invite cafeteria workers to join you for story time. Track fluency and celebrate milestones with individual and whole-school rewards! Learn more about holding a school-wide fluency challenge here.

19. Set up buddy reading

Pair older students with younger students to practice and model reading fluency. Older students can read picture books, which have longer sentences and higher vocabulary that challenge older students but are still out of reach for younger students. The older students will get practice with fluency, and younger students will benefit from hearing picture books read aloud.

20. Use highlighter strips

Highlighter strips, bright tape-like strips that students can use to follow along as they read longer books, can help upper elementary students keep their place. And keeping their place helps them read fluently.

Buy it: Highlighter Strips at Amazon

21. Teach robot vs. non-robot reading

Help students understand the prosody or expression part of fluency with a lesson on robot reading vs. fluent reading. Have students practice (silly) robot reading and then fluent reading to hear (and feel) the difference.

Learn more: Arlene Neubarth/Pinterest

22. Put on a play

Readers theater, with a script or a favorite book, is one way to practice fluent reading. Choose a book with lots of dialogue and encourage students to really feel the story.

23. Use the BEST strategy for multisyllabic word reading

When students get to multisyllabic words, they may struggle to get past longer words like "momentarily" and "topography." Teach them a strategy to sound out longer words:

Break the word apart into syllables.

Examine each part.

Say each part.

Try the whole word.

24. Host a poetry jam

Poetry is a great way to practice fluent reading, and it can be used at any grade level. For younger kids, work with simple poems and rhymes. For older children, use poems from Shel Silverstein or Jack Pruletsky. Have each child choose a poem and practice reading it with flare, then host a poetry jam where students read the poems they've practiced.

Learn more: Poetry Cafe/School and the City

25. Record students' reading

Recording audiobooks for your classroom library is one way for students to see how fluent reading benefits everyone. Have students record reading a book on an audio recording app, and save it for other teachers to use with their students.

Learn more: Fluency Activities for Your First Grader/Reading Rockets

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
25 Fantastic Reading Fluency Activities To Build Literacy in Young Readers

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Help kids improve their reading fluency with these fun activities and center ideas that cover a wide range of proven strategies.

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First attempt: 23 seconds. Second attempt: 18 seconds. Third attempt: 15 seconds. I feel that my rate improved because I had more practice when reading the passage. The more I read, the more I got used to the passage and more comfortable with it. 

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First attempt: 23 seconds. Second attempt: 18 seconds. Third attempt: 15 seconds. I feel that my rate improved because I had more practice when reading the passage. The more I read, the more I got used to the passage and more comfortable with it. 

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https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/timed_repeated_readings https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/audio_assisted_reading

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Language Arts

Reader's theater lesson plans (with scripts):

Reader's theater scripts:

Math

Teachers can use reader's theater as an instructional technique for mathematical word problems. This example could be used for a reader's theater about 100's day and the concept of 100 .

Social Studies

Here are reader's theater scripts about America in varying reading levels.

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Reader's theater is a strategy for developing reading fluency. It involves children in oral reading through reading parts in scripts. In using this strategy, students do not need to memorize their part; they need only to reread it several times, thus developing their fluency skills. The best reader's theater scripts include lots of dialogue.

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After reading this passage 3 times my rate definitely improved each time I read it. The first time I read it I slow because I was trying to make sure I got all of the words right and didn't read it very slow. After being able to practice the third time was faster because I was more familiar with the passage.

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My rate got better each time I read through the text. The first time around I was really focused on getting through the words and not taking too long. As I kept going it did get easier because I didn't have to focus on each little word every time. The third time it was much faster and I was able to get through without stopping at every mess up like I made before.

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My rate got better each time I read through the text. The first time around I was really focused on getting through the words and not taking too long. As I kept going it did get easier because I didn't have to focus on each little word every time. The third time it was much faster and I was able to get through without stopping at every mess up like I made before.

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What should fluency instruction look like? And, what can teachers do to help students whose fluency is far behind their peers'? This article can help practitioners effectively use fluency-based assessments and select instructional practices.

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Peyton Yenchik

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HookedOnPhonics ® | Digital Learn To Read Program

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7 Must-Have Resources to Improve Reading Fluency Right Now

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Help your students improve their reading fluency with sight word practice pages, phonics activities, poetry, and plays available from Scholastic.

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After reading the passage three times my rate did improve. It is because every time you read something you become more comfortable and familiar with it. This causes your entire fluency including rat to improve.

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Reading Fluency Strategies for K-2 Learners | how to teach reading fluency in first grade

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26 Strategies to Help Students Improve Their Reading Fluency - The Edvocate (theedadvocate.org)

5 Surefire Strategies for Developing Reading Fluency | Scholastic

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Fluency also involves reading with appropriate expression. Fluent readers take note of things like exclamation marks and question marks and adjust their voice. Their expression sounds natural, and their voice is not as flat as they read.

Children who are fluent readers make their reading sound like talking. Their reading sounds effortless, much like carrying on a conversation.

First, it's important to choose "just right" books for children to read. They will struggle to read books that are too difficult, spending their time trying to figure out unfamiliar words. This causes fluency to break down. Also, if a child is struggling with fluency, consider having him read books that are easy. When a child doesn't have to spend energy on decoding words and instead can read the words with ease, this frees up his energy to focus on speed and expression.

Model for children how reading should sound. It's important to discuss what fluent reading sounds like but even better actually to demonstrate it. Model reading, so children understand what you mean when you ask them to use the expression or string words together more smoothly. Another option is to have children listen to audiobooks to hear what fluent reading sounds like.

Have you heard of toobaloos or "whisper phones?" They are like pretend telephones that children read into. You can buy commercial brand toobaloos or make your own using PVC pipe. When children read into a toobaloo, they can hear themselves well and use that feedback to think about their expression and reading rate. Many children also find using toobaloos fun and motivating to use!

You can encourage fluency by using choral reading. This occurs when a group of children read something together, saying the words at the same time. You might read the text out loud by yourself first, so the children can hear how the reading should sound. Then you can read it together, with them matching your pace and expression.

Children can improve their fluency by re-reading a short book or for older children, re-reading a certain passage from a story. As they become more familiar with the text, they can focus their attention on reading it fluently. Practicing the same selection will allow them to master becoming a fluent reader.

Comprehension is the ability to process and understand what we're reading. Without comprehension, children are just saying the words and not applying any meaning to them. Think of trying to read a book about a topic you know little to nothing about and have difficulty grasping. You may be able to read the words but would derive very little understanding of the complex topic.

Comprehension may involve making connections between what a child is reading and what he already knows. For example, he may relate a story about a lost toy to a time when he couldn't find one of his own toys. He may also think about what he knows about taking care of his dog before reading a story about pets.

Another part of comprehension is generating questions or "wonderings" as a child is reading. For example, she may wonder what the main character will do next or wonder how the problem in the story will be solved. Comprehension is about interacting with the story.

Choose books about topics that children can relate to. Without any prior knowledge about a topic, comprehension becomes more difficult. Before reading, you can discuss the topic together. This may be as simple as saying, "Think about a time when you felt really angry" or asking, "Has your family ever been running late in the morning?" This helps set the stage for the book and gets children thinking about the topic.

Encourage children to make predictions as they read. If you are reading aloud, model this thought process by pausing at points in the book and sharing your thinking. Invite children to make their own predictions. The goal is to get them engaging in books, not just passively reciting the words.

You can also model the questions you come up with as you're reading. Teach children to take note of what they're wondering while they read. Do these wonderings get answered by the end of the book? Another strategy to try during read alouds or when children are reading independently is to pause and check to see if they understand what's happening.

You can help support comprehension by teaching children how to visualize. Use read alouds that lend themselves to making a picture in their mind. Pause and ask them to close their eyes and think about what they see, hear, smell, taste, or feel during a certain moment in the book.

If a child is struggling with comprehension, chunk the reading into smaller sections, like one page or one paragraph. Then check his understanding after each one section. You can also teach children how to summarize information. This can be used for fiction and non-fiction books. Model how to pull out the main points in a story. Use graphic organizers to help children identify the setting, main characters, problem, and solution in a fictitious story. Teach children how to use text features such as headings and sub-headings to help them understand non-fiction books.

If your child continues to struggle with fluency and comprehension, despite your best efforts, talk to your healthcare or education professionals about your concerns. They may be able to provide you with advice about the next steps in exploring your child's learning needs.

Fluency Activities

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Strategies to Improve Reading Fluency and Increase Comprehension

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Strategies to Improve Reading Fluency and Increase Comprehension What is Fluency? Fluency is the rate at which the child reads. Think about the speed: Is the child reading word-by-word? Does it sound choppy and robotic? Are there long pauses between words?

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First Attempt: 24 seconds
Second Attempt: 18 seconds
Third Attempt: 15 seconds

My reading rate improved because the more times that I have read it, the easier it was to read because I had practice each time.

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https://www.verywellfamily.com/ways-to-improve-reading-fluency-621073

https://www.theedadvocate.org/26-strategies-to-help-students-improve-their-reading-fluency/

Peyton Yenchik

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Second Grade Fluency Goals | 2nd Grade Fluency Activities

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Learn more about second grade fluency skills and goals, as well as find free 2nd grade fluency activities to help your child be a better reader.

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Second Grade Reading Skills | Fluency

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Learning to read starts kids on a lifelong learning journey, but literacy is more than just understanding the words on a page. Reading fluency involves comprehension, speed, accuracy, and prosody (reading with expression). There are many ways to help kids develop reading fluency, both in and out of the classroom. Here are some of our favorite reading fluency activities.

1. Start with a reading fluency anchor chart

Introduce the basics of reading fluency with an anchor chart you can hang in the classroom. It's a good reference for kids throughout the year. Here are more fluency anchor charts to try.

Learn more: Oral Reading Fluency/Teaching With a Mountain View

2. Model fluency with read-alouds

Reading aloud to kids is important for so many reasons, but one of the best is that it teaches kids what fluency sounds like. Adults can model expression, phrasing, pace, and so much more when they read to kids. Try some of our favorite read-alouds, or check out this list of the best read-alouds on YouTube as part of your reading center activities.

[contextly_auto_sidebar]

3. Hang reading fluency posters

Post these in your classroom reading center to remind kids what reading fluency really means. They're simple but effective. Get your free set of reading fluency posters here.

4. Try sentence trees

Sentence trees are terrific reading activities that build fluency in younger students. They allow kids to focus on each word, improving accuracy and speed along the way.

Learn more: Sentence Trees/Fun in First

5. Put together poems and nursery rhymes

Kids often memorize nursery rhymes long before they learn to read. By breaking those rhymes apart into individual words and putting them back together again, kids see how words build into sentences and stories in a natural flow.

Learn more: Fluency To Improve Comprehension/Mrs. Winter's Bliss

6. Use line tracking and word pointers

For some kids, focus is a challenge. Their eyes wander around the page, and they have trouble developing the speed needed for fluency. Use another piece of paper to help them focus on the line they're reading, or try pointing to the words one by one.

Learn more: Reading With Fluency/Katelyn's Learning Studio

7. Read and reread ... and reread

Fluency involves lots and lots of reading and rereading. When kids read a passage over and over again, they build up their speed and accuracy automatically. One fun way to work on expression is to try rereading with different voices.

Learn more: Improve Reading Comprehension/Teach123

8. Add a timer to rereading

Combine repeated reading with a timer. Students read a passage for 1 minute, working to increase the number of words they read correctly each time. This is a nice tool for working on speed and accuracy.

Learn more: Build Reading Fluency/1st Grade Pandamania

9. Track student progress

While you don't want to overemphasize numbers, tracking a student's fluency is helpful to both you and them. Parents can help with this one at home too.

Learn more: Reading With Fluency/Katelyn's Learning Studio

10. Work on those sight words

One of reasons elementary readers focus so much on sight words is that they help to build reading fluency. Find a roundup of all our favorite sight word activities here.

11. Look to punctuation for expression cues

Punctuation makes passages easier to read, but it also gives a reader cues on proper expression. Help your kids recognize what each punctuation mark sounds like when reading fluently.

Learn more: Teaching Expression in Fluency/The Owl Teacher

12. Answer the fluency phone

These are such a fun tool for helping kids really hear themselves read! They're great for busy classrooms and reading centers. Kids talk softly into the phone, and the sound is amplified in their ear. You can buy fluency phones or make them yourself from PVC pipe.

Learn more: Fluency To Improve Reading Comprehension/Mrs. Winter's Bliss

13. Read with partners

Whether kids are reading together or you pair an adult helper with a student, taking turns reading is a terrific way to get more fluent. When one reader is stronger, have them read the passage first and have the other reader echo it back.

Learn more: Ways To Improve Reading Fluency/The Measured Mom

14. Get a reading buddy

Shy kids will especially appreciate the chance to practice reading out loud to a stuffed animal pal. Encourage them to read as if their fuzzy friend can hear everything they're saying.

Learn more: Ways To Use Stuffed Animals in the Classroom/Stories by Storie

15. Give kids a reading fluency rubric

Use this free printable rubric when evaluating students' reading fluency, or send it home for parents. Kids can even use it to self-evaluate!

Learn more: Reading Fluency Is Not Just About Speed/Teacher Thrive

16. Use a fluency bookmark

A handy bookmark keeps fluency strategies front and center when kids read. We love this idea for kids who are ready for chapter books.

Learn more: Focusing on Fluency/Upper Elementary Snapshots

17. Introduce the concept of scooping phrases

Pointing to words is good for building speed and accuracy, but scooping phrases takes things to the next level. This practice is a great help for developing expression and comprehension.

Learn more: Reading Fluency Phrasing/This Reading Mama

18. Hold a school-wide fluency challenge

Make literacy and reading fluency something the whole school focuses on. Have PE teachers post sight words for kids to read out when they run past. Invite cafeteria workers to join you for story time. Track fluency and celebrate milestones with individual and whole-school rewards! Learn more about holding a school-wide fluency challenge here.

19. Set up buddy reading

Pair older students with younger students to practice and model reading fluency. Older students can read picture books, which have longer sentences and higher vocabulary that challenge older students but are still out of reach for younger students. The older students will get practice with fluency, and younger students will benefit from hearing picture books read aloud.

20. Use highlighter strips

Highlighter strips, bright tape-like strips that students can use to follow along as they read longer books, can help upper elementary students keep their place. And keeping their place helps them read fluently.

Buy it: Highlighter Strips at Amazon

21. Teach robot vs. non-robot reading

Help students understand the prosody or expression part of fluency with a lesson on robot reading vs. fluent reading. Have students practice (silly) robot reading and then fluent reading to hear (and feel) the difference.

Learn more: Arlene Neubarth/Pinterest

22. Put on a play

Readers theater, with a script or a favorite book, is one way to practice fluent reading. Choose a book with lots of dialogue and encourage students to really feel the story.

23. Use the BEST strategy for multisyllabic word reading

When students get to multisyllabic words, they may struggle to get past longer words like "momentarily" and "topography." Teach them a strategy to sound out longer words:

Break the word apart into syllables.

Examine each part.

Say each part.

Try the whole word.

24. Host a poetry jam

Poetry is a great way to practice fluent reading, and it can be used at any grade level. For younger kids, work with simple poems and rhymes. For older children, use poems from Shel Silverstein or Jack Pruletsky. Have each child choose a poem and practice reading it with flare, then host a poetry jam where students read the poems they've practiced.

Learn more: Poetry Cafe/School and the City

25. Record students' reading

Recording audiobooks for your classroom library is one way for students to see how fluent reading benefits everyone. Have students record reading a book on an audio recording app, and save it for other teachers to use with their students.

Learn more: Fluency Activities for Your First Grader/Reading Rockets

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
25 Fantastic Reading Fluency Activities To Build Literacy in Young Readers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Help kids improve their reading fluency with these fun activities and center ideas that cover a wide range of proven strategies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
7 Must-Have Resources to Improve Reading Fluency Right Now

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Help your students improve their reading fluency with sight word practice pages, phonics activities, poetry, and plays available from Scholastic.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Literacy skills are one of the most important areas of ability children develop in their first few years at school. That's why it's crucial to provide fluency strategies for struggling readers as soon as a learning difficulty is picked up.

Most children begin by sounding out words and learning to recognize common vocabulary from books and classroom materials. With sight reading and more spelling practice comes greater fluency. Reading then speeds up and comprehension of more complex texts becomes possible as vocabulary knowledge grows exponentially. However, not all students find learning to read such an easy process. Struggling readers can quickly fall behind their peers and may develop low self-esteem and a lack of confidence as a result.

Because reading ability affects performance across all areas of the curriculum, including writing skills, it's important to provide adequate strategy training as early as possible. Ideally remediation is tailored to the individual student's needs, particularly when a learning difficulty is involved.

Different learning difficulties affect fluency in different ways but one of the most common conditions implicated in reading problems is dyslexia. If a student has poor reading skills and a somewhat inconsistent approach to spelling -they recognize or produce a word correctly one day but not the next-- dyslexia may be involved.

There are different signs but around 70% of students with dyslexia struggle to split words into their component sounds. It is this lack of phonemic awareness that prevents accurate sound-letter mapping, which is required for spelling and decoding in early reading. A focus on phonics can help students with dyslexia. Another way to help is by taking a multi-sensory approach to teaching reading and spelling - learn more in this article on Orton-Gillingham based reading instruction.

Some kids have trouble focusing their attention on the books or classroom worksheets they are meant to be reading. For students with attention related learning difficulties, including attention deficit disorder with and without hyperactivity, the challenge is not so much in sounding out the words but concentrating long enough to process what they are reading.

Sitting still and controlling impulsive tendencies can also be problematic, particularly for students with ADHD. What's crucial is that teachers recognize the root of the problem early on and find strategies to help enhance focus during reading sessions. One idea is choosing a regular time of day when the student is most calm, possibly after an outside exercise break. It's also a good idea to reduce distractions and create a quiet space where they can go to read on their own.

Parents and teachers may observe reading fluency is lacking in individuals with slow processing. This is because the brain requires more time to carry out the complex cognitive processes involved in reading, from word recognition to comprehension.

Patience, time and more time may be the solution here. In some instances, a student can appear to read fluently but not actually understand what he or she is reading. This is often true for students with autism spectrum disorder-learn more in this article on reading comprehension and autism. For information on addressing fluency issues for students with visual impairments, try this article.

Pre-literacy skills

It's extremely important and beneficial for children to read with their parents. Even 1 year-olds can enhance their vocabulary and learn more about the world as they point to objects and characters they recognize. Reading with adults helps kids understand how books work. They participate by choosing their favorite stories and turning the pages as their parents read aloud.

Ample exposure to print also gets children ready to learn the alphabet. Silly songs such as "Old McDonald Had a Farm" are used to enhance phonemic awareness and help kids develop their control over stress, rhyme and rhythm in language. Discussing their day and reciting sequences of events is a precursor for understanding how narrative works.

Learn more in 6 pre-literacy skills parents can encourage.

Decoding & comprehension

Reading is a complex cognitive task that involves parallel activity in different areas of the brain. Readers must decode the letters on a page, recognize the words they are made up of and make meaning out of groups of words, sentences and paragraphs. Issues concerning reading fluency can stem from decoding skills, comprehension skills or both. Learn more in this article on common reading problems.

Decoding

This is the process of recognizing letters and words and sounding them out. Decoding is easier said than done in English, a language in which multiple letters can be used to represent the same sounds. The only way to effectively learn how to pronounce common vowel and consonant clusters is to have seen them before. This is one reason why learning to touch-type and drilling letter combinations on a keyboard helps struggling readers. This is especially true if audio recordings of the words are played at the same time.

Comprehension

Fluency can also be affected by a failure to understand what is being read. Readers are required to hold a number of details and contextual clues in memory in order to make connections and pick up on gist, inference and main ideas in the text. If comprehension is a struggle, it can interrupt fluency as students find they cannot follow what they are reading and need to go back to re-read earlier parts of the text. In the same way, focusing too much on decoding can prevent struggling readers from paying attention to the content of a reading.

10 Strategies for fluency

1. Record students reading aloud on their own. If certain sound-letter combinations or words are causing problems, teachers will benefit from listening to the child read out loud. However, this activity can be extremely stressful in front of a classroom of kids, particularly for a student who struggles with fluency. It is best to avoid calling on struggling readers during group reading and instead have them work through a paragraph on their own. Make a recording that can be analyzed later on by a teacher or tutor in order to provide targeted help.

2. Ask kids to use a ruler or a reading window to follow along. Decoding is easier when students don't lose their place as they move across a page. It's up to the individual student how they go about this. Some may want to use a pen or pencil, others a piece of paper or a ruler that they move to help them stay focused on the sentence in front of them. A reading window is a useful tool which blocks off the text before and after the sentence the student is reading. Moving something along the page is also a good strategy for readers with ADHD because it involves a kinesthetic element.

3. Have them read the same thing several times. When you're trying to improve fluency, it helps to see the same text multiple times. Each reading becomes easier and motivation goes up as students experience enhanced fluency thanks to repeat exposure to words and phrases. It can also help when it comes to developing comprehension skills as readers have more opportunities to notice contextual cues.

4. Pre-teach vocabulary. Prime the words a student is going to see in a text and practice reading them in isolation or in phrases. You might do this via an interactive classroom based activity. Get students to use the words and then practice reading them from the board or on a piece of paper. Crossword puzzles can be an effective teaching tool or playing a spelling game. It's much easier to read a word if it is fresh in memory.

5. Drill sight words. Some words are more common than others and students who have a hard time with fluency will find it is much easier to read when they are familiar with 90% of the vocabulary in a text. Around 50% of all books and classroom based materials for young readers are composed of words from the Dolch List. Learn more in our post on teaching sight words.

6. Make use of a variety of books and materials. If a student has difficulty with reading it can be even more of a struggle to practice with material that is not of interest to them. Sometimes all it takes is getting readers excited about a topic to help them lose themselves in the activity. Try chapter books, comics and poems. Even picture books can work as long as the student doesn't perceive the material as being below their level. Experiment with texts of different lengths starting with shorter material and gradually working up to longer pieces. TOP TIP: Where fluency is concerned, emphasize the quality of the student's reading, not the quantity of pages or speed at which they read them.

7. Try different font and text sizes. If there's a visual impairment that is causing some of the difficulty, reading larger text or text printed on color tinted paper can sometimes make things easier. There are specific fonts which are more appropriate for anyone with learning difficulties, including dyslexia, because they help with discerning letters and decoding language.

8. Create a stress free environment. When students are enjoying a book, anxiety and stress are reduced and fluency is enhanced. It's also possible to foster a relaxing environment by removing any deadlines, time-limits or assessment related goals and just focusing on classroom reading for reading's sake.

9. Guide students to help them establish a steady pace. One of the hallmarks of fluent reading is establishing a consistent rhythm and pace that guides students through a text. This doesn't need to be fast and in the beginning new readers should have the option to start slow and increase their pace as they become more comfortable. Some students will want to have a guide, such as a metronome, which gives them a rhythm they can match. Others will find this strategy stressful. Playing music in the background might also work - or not!

10. Introduce a typing course. If a student continues to struggle with fluency, teachers, tutors and parents may consider introducing an extra-curricular program designed to enhance literacy skills. A multi-sensory course like Touch-type Read and Spell can be used at home and in school to learn typing and enhance spelling and sight reading at the same time. An audio component accompanies letters on the screen while students type the corresponding keys. Automated feedback and coursework is divided into discrete modules and independent lessons foster self-directed learning and enhance motivation and self-efficacy in new readers.

Offering encouragement and support

Reading and writing are essential skills and when fluency does not come naturally, strategy instruction based around the individual student's needs is crucial to help new readers gain the confidence they need to be successful at school.

Regardless of the intervention, progress takes time to achieve. That's why it is a good idea to schedule a plan of action and set up attainable goals for improving fluency in the long-run.

Parents may consider hiring a private tutor - learn more about how to choose a tutor - and teachers can adjust classroom practices to create a less stressful environment in which children can hone their skills.

Above all, students need to be made aware that learning difficulties and reading ability have nothing to do with intelligence and understand that effort is more important than results. This will encourage a healthy self-image and help them maintain the motivation required to improve their skills.

Read more about encouraging children with learning difficulties, or try our tips for motivating students to read.

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fluency strategies for struggling readers

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10 Fluency strategies for struggling readers

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Learn more about literacy skills development and the best fluency strategies for struggling readers in and outside of the classroom.

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Prosody is so important to fluency because when a student doesn't use proper prosody when reading their story sounds chopping, unappealing, and it's hard to understand.

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I honestly found it pretty hard to read like that or try to anyway. With a different text I think it could sometimes be impossible to understand content. With this one we mostly understood what was going on it was just hard to listen to.

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My rate improved after reading the passage. The first time I was focused on reading the words correctly and comprehending the passage. The next two times I read it faster. 

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My rate improved after reading the passage. The first time I was focused on reading the words correctly and comprehending the passage. The next two times I read it faster. 

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1st attempt-20 secs
2nd attempt- 18 secs
3rd attempt-16 secs

When I read it the second and third time I was able to quickly get through the words I know and had more time to get the words that were more difficult.

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Peyton Yenchik
I struggle with reading with prosody when I am reading to people who are not young children. This is something I need to work on for when I get observed. If you don't read with prosody, the story feels like it drags on. It is so boring to listen too. Which in turn, makes young readers lose focus and attention towards you and the story.

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https://www.themeasuredmom.com/10-ways-to-improve-reading-fluency/
https://www.understood.org/articles/en/improve-reading-fluency-children

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/5-surefire-strategies-developing-reading-fluency/

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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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https://educationandbehavior.com/how-to-improve-reading-fluency/

3 resources would be:
- Fluency in the Classroom
- Building Fluency through the Repeated Reading Method
- https://ttsreader.com/

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What Is Reading Fluency?

Reading fluency is the ability to read quickly, accurately, and effortlessly while using expression. Fluency is just as important of a skill as understanding phonics (knowing the letters and their sounds), knowing sight words, and comprehending what is read.

Readers who are successful with fluency can concentrate on comprehension because they don't have to focus on figuring out the words.

Below is a list of strategies to help your child or student(s) become fluent readers (be sure to pick passages that spark your students' interest):

Side-Note: All the strategies below can be done with a parent and child or teacher and students. You can also pair an older child with a younger child, or a higher level reader with a lower level reader to practice these techniques.

Be sure you pick a child who will be sensitive to a struggling reader. If you have any concerns about the child or tutor you chose, make adjustments.

Sponsored Link from Reading Head Start

1. Read Aloud to Your Child/Student

If your child can hear examples of fluent reading they are more likely to understand how to apply fluency in their own reading. Read outloud to your child often and with expression.

In order to read fluently, students must first hear and understand what fluent reading sounds like. Text can come from books, magazines, the internet, or anywhere you can find interesting reading material for your child. Talk to your child about what fluency means.

After you read to them, have them share their thoughts on exactly what you did that made your reading sound fluent. This will help ingrain the meaning of fluency into their memory, making them more likely to think about fluency when working on their own reading.

To read about the research on the benefits of reading aloud to children see A Synthesis of Fluency Interventions for Secondary Struggling Readers.

2. Use Choral Reading

Choose a short passage that your child or students can read independently (although they may have trouble with fluency they should be able to recognize most of the words without spending too much time sounding them out).

If you are a teacher, have a copy for yourself and a copy for your class or group. You also might want to put the passage on an overhead projector for the whole class to see. If you are a parent, have a copy for yourself and your child.

Next, read the passage out loud for your child/students to hear. Tell them to follow along with their finger as you read.

After reading the passage, re-read it and have your child/students read along with you, trying to match your speed and expression.

To read about the research on choral reading see Fluency in the Classroom.

3. Use Echo Reading

Echo Reading is similar to Choral Reading except you read the passage first aloud, and then have the child/students echo (or copy) you, by rereading the passage out loud trying to match the way you just read it.

In choral reading, you re-read the passage with the students, while in Echo Reading, they read it themselves the second time. Find out what the research says about the effects of echo reading on reading fluency.

Check Out The Video Below On Choral and Echo Reading!

4. Use Repeated Reading

Remind your child of the criteria for fluency (quickly, accurately, with expression). Have them pick a topic they enjoy. Then find them or have them find a short passage on that topic.

Read the passage to them to show him what it sounds like to read the passage fluently. Then have them re-read the passage several times, out loud and in their mind on their own over a period of time, until they feel they have developed fluency in reading that passage.

You can have your child/student practice in front of you a few times first just to get them started and talk about strengths and areas that need improvement. Have your child/student read the passage for you again, once they believe they have mastered fluency.

If they still have difficulty, talk to them again about their strengths and areas of need. Have them continue to practice on their own and read it for you again once they feel they have mastered the errors.

Repeat the cycle until you feel your child/student has mastered fluency of the passage to the best of their ability. After mastering one passage, have them choose more topics of interest and apply the same strategy to those passages.

To check out the research see Building Fluency through the Repeated Reading Method.

5. Use a Rapid Word Recognition Chart

Create a sight word recognition chart. For example, have four rows, with five words per row. Have the child read the words in the rows as quickly as possible, providing assistance when needed.

Keep practicing until your child can automatically recognize all the words without sounding them out. Reverse the order of the cards and practice again.

It is important to reverse the order to ensure your child is reading the words and not simply reciting the order of the cards from memory.

You can use a pocket chart to make your rows of words, as shown below:

or use push pins to pin words to a bulletin board.

You can create your own word cards on index cards or purchase sight word flash cards.

To read more about the research on Rapid Word Recognition Charts see Improving Reading Fluency.

Check out Rapid Recog nition Chart Generator for a free chart generator of the words of your choice.

Recognizing sight words is a critical skill for improving reading fluency. For more strategies on helping children learn sight words see our article Five Fun Activities to Teach Your Child Sight Words.

6. Read and Listen at the Same Time

Children can listen to audiobooks and follow along as they read. Certain programs like Microsoft Word and ttsreader.com will read text aloud and highlight the word or section it is on.

Here are two free websites that allow children to read along and listen at the same time:

7. Encourage Independent Reading About Topics of Interest

Encourage your child to read independently as often as possible. Allow them to choose topics that interest them. If your child/student is open to it, encourage them to tell you what they read about.

You might ask them what happened in the story, who the main characters were, where the story took place, what they thought of the story, etc. Don't do this every time as you want your child to have some independent reading time for pure joy, where they will not feel pressured to have to answer questions at the end. Mix it up (about 50/50).

For more about the research-based effects of independent reading see Independent Reading and School Achievement.

Additional Information:
Keep in mind that the strategies in this article are recommendations. Please do not try to pressure a child into participating in any of these strategies. This can lead to frustration, which can turn your child off to fluency practice.

Remember to always stay calm when working with a child or student, even if you think they should be getting something that they are not getting. If you get frustrated with them, they may start to feel anxious, angry, inferior, stupid, etc. which will lead to a less productive learning session.

Keep practice sessions short (5 to 10 minutes for younger children or children who get easily frustrated and 10 to 15 minutes for older children or children who can work for longer periods without frustration), unless the child is eager to keep going.

For suggestions on ways to encourage children to complete tasks or assignments they do not want to do, see 3 Ways to Use Timers to Encourage Homework and Chore Completion and How to Use Schedules to Improve Children's Behavior.

Also, remember that some children respond to several of these strategies, others respond to a few, and some may not respond to any. If your child is significantly struggling with reading fluency or acquiring other academic skills, despite consistent practice and guidance, talk to your child's school and/or doctor.
What is an IEP and How Do You Know if Your Child Needs One in School?
They should be able to refer you to the appropriate professionals to determine what might be interfering with your child's progress and what additional strategies might help.

Video Presentation on 7 Research-Based Strategies to Improve Reading Fluency

You may also wish to review the following reading programs, geared towards younger students, and developed from research-based practices:

You Might Also Like:

Education and Behavior - A free online library of research-based strategies providing academic, behavioral, and social-emotional support for children. Keeping us all on the same page!

Books and Tools to Help Improve Reading Fluency

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Try These 7 Effective Strategies to Improve Reading Fluency for Your Child or Student

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Reading fluency is the ability to read quickly, accurately, and effortlessly while using expression. Fluency is just as important of a skill as understanding phonics (knowing the letters and their sounds), knowing sight words, and comprehending what is read. Readers who are successful with fluency can concentrate on comprehension because they don't have to focus on figuring out the words.

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This source has 3 links that I think would be very useful to me.
1. Understand and Assessing Fluency
2. Reader's Theater
3. Target the Problem

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Learn about fluency assessment, the importance of fluency in building comprehension skills, finding the right book level for kids, effective classroom strategies like reader's theater and choral reading, and more.

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Without prosody students are not understanding what they are reading, they are just reading. Also without prosody readings sound choppy and as if they do not know what they are doing. Fluency is when you can read something with not only proper accuracy, prosody, and rate but also being able to read with comprehension and sounding understandable. Without prosody readers are not comprehending what they read and also they are not understandable.