Reading Fluency

READING FLUENCY

Reading Fluency is the ability to read quickly, accurately, and with the correct expression. Fluency is a critical gateway to comprehension. It is reading words with no noticeable cognitive or mental effort.

There are three important components to Reading Fluency:

•     Accuracy: Also known as automaticity, it refers to the ability to read words in a text correctly.

•     Rate: The speed at which a person reads. 

•     Prosody: Refers to stress, intonation, and pauses, commonly known as "reading with feeling".

Here are some entertaining activities that you can practice over and over again to increase your child’s reading fluency.

  1. Guided Practice. Have your child select a short story or poem, and read it aloud. After reading the story, break it down line-by-line, and have your child “echo” you as you read each one. Continue until the entire piece is read, and repeat several times.

  2. Readers’ Theater. This is an oral performance of a script usually based on authentic literature. Instead of memorizing the script, students choose roles and take turns practicing different voices as they “act out” the script. An excellent resource for scripts is on Reading A-Z, an online reading resource that teachers love.

  3. Recorded Readings. Even my emerging readers love to record their voices while reading! After they record themselves, they get such satisfaction out of “racing” themselves when they read along with their recorded voices.

  4. Repeated Readings. One of the best strategies for practicing fluency with your child is to provide repeated practice of the same passages. Choose a short book or passage of a book that is just a little above your child’s reading level. Have your child read it through. If your child doesn’t read a word correctly, or hesitates for longer than five seconds, read the word out loud and have your child repeat it. She should then continue reading. After you complete the entire reading, have her read it again three or four times over.

To break up any monotony, you can have your student sing the passages, or use different silly voices to read them.

Have fun!

stefanie greenberg