What is Reading Fluency?
Fluency is often defined as the rate (words per minute) and
accuracy (number of words correctly identified) with which
students perform reading tasks.
An additional dimension to fluency is known as prosody, or
the rhythms and tones of spoken language. Where text is
being read silently or aloud, much of its meaning comes from
the way it sounds. Students who read with expression are
able to segment text into meaningful units, marking phrase
and sentence boundaries with pauses, vowel lengthening and
changes in pitch and emphasis.
When students have learned to decode and automatically
recognize many words by sight, they begin to read simple
text aloud in a way that sounds like natural speech. By
second grade, fluent reading is generally expected, yet a
great deal of foundation building must occur in order to
make it happen. Students in the upper grades who read aloud
word by word or with little attention to commas or periods
require intervention.
Why Reading Fluency?
What does research say?
A fluent reader decodes text automatically, and
therefore can devote his /her attention to
comprehending what is read.
Laberge & Samuels
Achieving fluency is recognized as an important
aspect of proficient reading, but it remains a
neglected goal of reading instruction
Richard Allington
With greater fluency, readers can concentrate on
comprehending what they read, develop greater
self-confidence, and enjoy reading more.
Gillet & Temple
If we provide diverse learners with the tools and
strategies for achieving automatic and fluent word
recognition, we increase their chances for
successful reading experiences.
Chard, Simmons, & Kameenui
When children are allowed to reread familiar material,
they are being allowed to learn to be readers, to read
in ways which draw on all their language resources and
knowledge of the world, to put this very complex
recall and sequencing behavior into a fluent rendering
of the text. The orchestration of these complex
behaviors cannot be achieved on a hard book.
Clay, M. (1991)
Becoming Literate: The construction of inner control (p. 184)
Fluency Rubric
1
¾ Very little fluency
¾ All word-by-word reading with some long pauses between words
¾ Almost no recognition of syntax or phrasing (expressive
interpretation)
¾ Very little evidence of awareness of punctuation
¾ Perhaps a couple of two-word phrases, but generally disfluent
¾ Some word groupings awkward
2
¾ Mostly word-by-word reading, but some two-word phrasing and even a
couple of three or four-word phrases (expressive interpretation)
¾ Evidence of syntactic awareness of syntax and punctuation, although
not consistently so
¾ Rereading for problem solving may be present
3
¾ A mixture of word-by-word reading and fluent, phrased reading
(expressive interpretation)
¾ Evidence of attention to punctuation and syntax
¾ Rereading for problem solving may be present
4
¾ Reads primarily in larger, meaningful phrases
¾ Fluent, phrased reading with a few word-by-word slow downs for
problem solving
¾ Expressive interpretation is evident at places throughout the reading
¾ Attention to punctuation and syntax
¾ Rereading for problem solving may be present, but is generally fluent
Adapted from Fountas & Pinnell: Guided Reading
Auditory Modeling
Auditory modeling may be the most powerful technique for
developing prosodic reading.
Choral Reading: reading aloud simultaneously in a group
Echo Reading: reading aloud phrase by phrase, slightly
after a live or taped model
Shared Reading: teaching reading aloud with all
the students
Partner Reading: reading aloud taking turns with a partner who
provides word identification help and feedback
