Why teach fluency? Why is this important to my students?
One of the goals of the reading process is have children become fluent. To be able to read with expression, to read words automatically, to read expressively these are the main goals of reading fluently. To meet those goals, students need practice. This page is dedicated to helping you and your students attain this goal. There are two primary ways in which fluency plays a part in learners' reading development (Kuhn & Stahl, 2003; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000; Samuels, 1979; Schreiber, 1991). The first involves the development of automatic word recognition, while the second deals with prosody, or those elements of fluency that allow oral reading to sound like spoken language. |
Strategies for FluencyReader's Theater: Reader's theater are a good way to actively involve all students. Practicing familiar stories helps the reader to achieve an even rate, smooth rate and great expression. Reader's theater scripts chosen based on ability, and can be used with any student. Fluency Warm-Ups: Any athlete will tell you that the warm up is important to do before the contest. The same is true with fluency. Use simple phrases to warm up children to a fluency practice session. Use phrases they may see in books like:
Recording the children as they read a familiar text to let them listen to how they sound to others. Record them when the have read a piece for the first time and have them compare that to a recording after practicing. There are many ways to record their reading one site is Audacity_. Make it a performance: Children love to perform. Have them perform the reader's theater for others, have a poetry read aloud for others,read to a buddy class. Celebrate their learning and their fluency give the children an audience to appreciate what they have done. |
The flier was designed by a group of third grade teachers. It is one that can be used with parents to explain why we teach children to read fluently.
DiversityFluency is one aspect that can be made accessible to all students.
According to Raisinski, when a reader is reading with fluency, the reader is automatically and accurately decoding the words, using proper expression, tone and phrasing. The reader is comprehending the text. Our goal in teaching fluency to children is that it is not a race against a stopwatch. Our goal as we coach children is to help them realize that fluent reading is a way to become a better reader. |
Reading Rockets is a website designed to help teachers and parents with all aspects of reading.
Reading A-Z provides teachers with leveled reading passages and leveled Reader's Theater scripts.
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Resources and References: |
Kuhn, M. (2004/2005, December/January). Helping students become accurate,
Expressive readers: Fluency instruction for small groups. The Reading Teacher, 58(4). Raisinski, T. V. (2004). Assessing Reading Fluency. Pacific Resources for Education and Learning. Serravallo, J. (2015). The reading strategies book: Your everything guide to developing skilled readers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. |