MODULE 9
DEVELOPING READING FLUENCY
What Is Fluency?
Fluency is the ability to read "like you speak." Hudson, Lane, and Pullen define fluency this
way: "Reading fluency is made up of at least three key elements: accurate reading of connected text
at a conversational rate with appropriate prosody or expression." Non-fluent readers suffer in at least
one of these aspects of reading: they make many mistakes, they read slowly, or they don't read with
appropriate expression and phrasing.
Reading fluency is the ability to read a text easily. Reading fluency actually has four parts: accuracy,
speed, expression and comprehension. Each part is important, but no single part is enough on its own. A
fluent reader is able to coordinate all four aspects of fluency.
Accuracy: Reading words correctly is a key to developing fluency. Children need to be able to read
words easily without having to stop and decode them by sounding them out or breaking them into
chunks. When children can accurately and easily read the words in a text, they are able to think about
what they are reading rather than putting all of their effort toward figuring out the words. To read a text
fluently, a child should be able to read almost all of the words easily. In fact, a goal of fluent reading is
for the child to read at least 98 out of 100 words accurately and easily. Accuracy combines with the
other three parts of fluency to produce fluent readers.
Speed: When children read fluently, they read at an efficient rate. This means that they read quickly.
Rate does not mean that children should read as fast as they possibly can. Rate needs to be combined
with accuracy, expression and comprehension to produce fluent reading. Some schools provide a target
rate for students in each grade level, usually as the number of correct words read per minute. You may
wish to ask your child’s teacher if there is a rate goal used for your child’s grade level. Those rate targets
are important, but they are not the only goal for fluency. For example, if a child reads very quickly but
does not read with expression or understand what is read, that child is not reading fluently
Expression: Expression in fluency refers to the ability to read in a way that sounds like spoken language.
This means that the child uses appropriate emotion to read aloud, pauses for periods and commas and
emphasizes important words. Expression also shows that the child understands what is being read.
Comprehension: Fluency is the bridge between being able to read (or decode) words and to
comprehend or understand what is read. The real goal of reading fluency is to help children read a text
with ease so they can focus on understanding what they read. The human brain is amazing, but it can
only handle a limited number of tasks at the same time. If a child is struggling to identify words, the
child’s brain must focus all of its energy on figuring out words rather than understanding what is read.
When the child is able to combine accuracy, rate, expression and comprehension, that is reading fluency
Source: https://www.cedu.niu.edu/literacy-clinic/resources/raising-readers/fluency.pdf
Research-Proven Fluency Strategies
How do we explicitly teach students to read fluently? The National Reading Panel found data
supporting three strategies that improve fluency, comprehension, and reading achievement—
teacher modeling, repeated reading, and progress monitoring.
Teacher Modeling
The first strategy is teacher modeling. Research demonstrates that various forms of modeling can
improve reading fluency. Examples of teacher modeling include:
Teacher-assisted reading
Peer-assisted reading
Audio-assisted reading
Teacher modeling involves more than just listening to someone else read. Students must be actively
involved 100 percent of the time and in a multisensory way.
Teacher modeling teaches word recognition in a meaningful context, demonstrates correct phrasing,
and gives students practice tracking across the page. A child can benefit from teacher modeling
once he or she knows at least 50 sight words and has a good sense of beginning sounds.
The reading rate of the model reader is important. Christopher Skinner, a reading researcher, found
that students who read lists of words with him slowly were more fluent with the words than students
who read with him at a faster rate. The slower rate enables students to learn new words and clarify
difficult words. As students learn more words, they naturally become more fluent.
Another form of modeling is the neurological impress method. In the neurological impress method, a
proficient and a struggling reader read together from a passage, with the more able reader reading
near the rate of the struggling reader. Heckelman (1969) showed that after 29 15-minute sessions,
24 seventh- through ninth-grade boys, who were an average of 3 years behind in reading, gained an
average of 1.9 years in reading based on the Oral Gilmore and the California Achievement Test.
Repeated Reading
Another technique that research has shown significantly builds reading fluency is repeated
reading. In fact, the National Reading Panel says this is the most powerful way to improve reading
fluency. This involves simply reading the same material over and over again until accurate and
expressive.
In the 1970s, LaBerge and Samuels studied what happens when students read passages over and
over again. They found that when students reread passages, they got faster at reading the
passages, understood them better, and were able to read subsequent passages better as a result of
the repeated reading.
Repeated reading is a form of mastery learning. The students read the same words so many times
that they begin to know them and are able to identify them in other text. Besides helping students
bring words to mastery, repeated reading changes the way students view themselves in relation to
the act of reading.
Progress Monitoring
People who play video games are presented with a specific goal and with immediate, relevant
feedback about their progress toward that goal. This combination of having a goal and getting
feedback on progress can be very motivating.
Progress monitoring takes advantage of this combination to motivate students to read. You give
students a specific, individual reading goal, and you tell them exactly how you're going to know
they've met it. Then, you give them the means to measure how they're doing. Finally, you make it
simple enough that they'll know they've met their goal even before you do. This progress monitoring
is what motivates students to practice reading the same story over and over
Source: https://www.readnaturally.com/research/5-components-of-reading/fluency
