Fluency tends to be a commonly overlooked skill, but you can change that by learning about strategies for teaching fluency with your elementary students!
Does your reader sometimes sound like he’s just saying a string of words? Is it sometimes choppy? This can happen to all kinds of young readers, especially struggling readers. Instead of focusing on reading fluency and phrasing, struggling readers are often just trying to make sure they can say all the words correctly. Last week, The Measured ... Read More about Reading Fluency and Phrasing {Using Scooping Phrases}
Increasing reading fluency in our students is one of the main goals of any elementary school teacher. If they are not fluent readers, they are unable to gain meaning (comprehend) from what they are reading. There are a few components to being a fluent reader...
We know fluency is important. We know fluent reading is the bridge to comprehension. But.... what can we do to help disfluent readers? To best help a disfluent reader, we must first determine what stage the student is at. This will help us find the best strategy for the reader. Is the student a beginning reader (kindergarten or first grade)? Is the reader one who is making adequate progress? Or, is the reader one who is struggling? Lets look at a beginning reader first. A beginning reader is someone in kindergarten and first grade who is attaching letters to their sounds and blending them into simple words. To improve reading fluency for these students a teacher should: Spend a significant amount of time on accurate text reading Implement a systematic daily practice for learning to read words accurately Model fluent reading. Give students lots of opportunity to read and re-read decodable text Encourage students to read "like they are talking." Now, lets look at a reader who is on-level or making adequate progress. These are students in grades two or higher who are average and making adequate gains. How do we keep the momentum going? How do we maintain their progress? To do this a teacher should use: Choral reading Echo Reading Cloze reading Partner reading Readers' theater Poetry readings Finally, lets look at struggling readers. Disfluent readers need a mixture of what beginning readers and on level students need. The best way for disfluent readers to become more fluent is by reading! These students need: Focus on ACCURATE text reading. Use decodable text Repeated readings Systemic daily practice of reading words accurately Modeled fluent reading Encourage students to read like they are talking LOTS of opportunities to read text (at their level) using choral, cloze, echo and partner reading. If you would like to know how to define fluency and why being a fluent reader important, check out the first post in the series by clicking here. There are a ton of great articles written by reading gurus on the topic of fluency. Check them out by clicking below. Everything You Wanted to Know about Repeated Reading by Timothy Shanahan via Reading Rockets Using Poetry to Teach Reading via Reading Rockets Developing Fluent Readers by Jan Hasbrouck via Reading Rockets I hope you will join us next time to discover ways you can fit daily fluency practice into your schedule!
Like most teachers, you want your students to be successful readers. But what do you do if they struggle with reading fluency? Reading fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with
Text phrasing can be a challenging reading fluency skill to teach. Readers who struggle with text phrasing, likely stuggle with reading comprehenion.
Wondering how to improve reading fluency with young readers? Get eight practical tips!
Here are some tips and strategies on how to teach reading fluency in your homeschool or in your classroom literacy centers.
Fluency is such an important tool for readers as they move ahead to reading more challenging texts. Being able to read fluently, aloud or silently in your head, is a skill that students must be able to master as good readers. So why is fluency so important? Reading fluently is the ability to read a given text accurately, quickly, and with expression. When this happens students not only comprehend what they are reading, but also better grasp character feelings and understand the mood and tone of a text, allowing for deeper comprehension. As students get older, they read silently. As a silent reader they must recall words quickly to develop an understanding of what is read. Fluency, as a silent reader, is the key to connecting both oral reading of words to comprehension of the text, all without hearing it, or discussing it immediately. While silently reading, students are left on their own, to determine the meaning of words, situations, plot, and character analysis. With strong fluency skills, students can understand all that is read in the complex chapter books that they read independently. This is why in my classroom fluency is practiced daily in a variety of ways! It is important to me that I give my students many opportunities to practice being a fluent reader each day; both as independent readers and as readers who discuss what they have read with a partner, small groups, and with the whole class, too! Here are five ways that I practice fluency in my classroom to build stronger readers who comprehend the texts that they read deeply. 1. Daily Poetry Reading Reading a poem each day is definitely the highlight of my day and my favorite way to practice fluency. When the students arrive they take the poem of the day and head to their seat. They are responsible for reading it several times independently before it is read as a whole class. Here is what they do: *First read is to read through the poem to grasp the main idea *Second read is to circle words that tricked them up and that they either have to decode or use context clues to solve the meaning *Third read is to practice fluency, pausing at punctuation and exaggerating bolded or italicized words or phrases *Fourth read is read as needed to answer comprehension questions that align with the poems After students have had enough time to do the above steps, I select one student to read the poem aloud while the class tracks their reading. Following that reading, we read the poem as a class, practicing our choral reading fluency skills. We then discuss any issues in our reading and the comprehension questions. Students keep the poems in their folders so that they have a great typed text to practice fluency independently when needed. I love using these monthly poetry books by Scholastic for our daily poetry reading. They are organized by season, making them highly engaging for students. Do not let the grades listed on the cover fool you. These poems are perfect for upper elementary fluency practice. With cute pictures and chunky fonts, students are always eager to read these. The poetry is also chuck full of great vocabulary and figurative language. Although there are no comprehension questions, it is easy enough to create a quick question, write it at the board, and have students respond on the back or in a poetry notebook. (Direct links at the bottom of this page to the resources I use to increase fluency.) You can also tie together close reading strategies with fluency practice with this set of classic poetry. Click on the image to see more! 2. Fluent Reading Anchor Chart and Student Reference Sheet Having a class anchor chart is a great way to remind the students of fluency tips during whole group and small group instruction. It especially helps students that are working independently practice what is expected as you work with other students. The anchor chart below is one that I use in my classroom. I also keep a typed version at the reading table with me, and students keep a student reference sheet of these strategies in their reading binder. You can grab it here for FREE. 3. Writer’s Workshop Stories In my classroom, practicing to be fluent readers does not just take place during reading! Writer’s workshop is a great time for students to practice their fluency skills with their own writing pieces. During our writer’s workshop hour, we take a mid-workshop break. Students meet with their writing peer partner and discuss their writing pieces. During that time, each student finds a part of their writing that the feel is written in a way that the reader would read it with expression. Each student takes a turn reading their selected segment with fluency. Not only is this a great way to squeeze in some fluency practice, but it is also a great way to break up your writing block. 4. Student Selected Reading We like to have breaks during reader’s workshop just like during writer’s workshop, and the perfect thing to do during our break time, is to practice fluency! During our reader’s workshop break, students meet with their reading partner and after summarizing what is happening in the book they are reading, they read aloud a part of the text that made them feel strong emotions. This gives them an opportunity to read with emphasis and share the mood and tone of the text with a fellow reader. My students always love this part of our day! 5. Reading Buddies Let’s face it, kids love being in charge! What better way to practice fluency than with younger students! Having reading buddies allows students to practice fluency on multiple levels. We meet with our reading buddies on Fridays. My students have all week to select a book to read to their buddy. Once they have selected a book, they have to practice reading it for fluency and create one comprehension question that they will ask their younger reading buddy. By Friday, my students have had to meet with me to share the book they selected, read aloud one page to show their fluency, and have to be able to answer the question that they created. On Friday, the students are so excited to share the book that they selected with their younger buddy. When their “lesson” is over, they then read a book that their buddy selected. This is a great way for them to practice fluent reading with a “cold read” book. As the year progresses and their younger buddy begins to read more, my students have a chance to listen to their buddy read and offer suggestions for them to become more fluent. This strategy is great especially for your struggling readers to practice fluency. It is a confidence-building experience for them and after each session, they certainly do feel proud! How do you practice fluency in your upper elementary classroom? (Affiliate links listed below for the resources that I use to increase fluency with my students.) If you liked what you read and learned something new, please share this post!
Learn how to help your students build and use repeated reading fluency strategies and skills with these top tips.
Tips for Building Reading Fluency in Young Readers Graphics by Creative Clips by Krista Wallden , Whimsy Clips , and KG Fonts Sinc...
Fluency tends to be a commonly overlooked skill, but you can change that by learning about strategies for teaching fluency with your elementary students!
Reading comprehension strategies for all types of learners. Encourage and
Different strategies work for different students who stutter. This blog post goes into detail about teaching fluency strategies to help students.
With so many of my BIG KIDS struggling with fluency, I worked to make it a part of my daily work with students, a Tier 1 intervention that the majority of the class could benefit from. Reading fluency incorporates three main components: speed, accuracy, and prosody, which directly impact comprehension. While I have shared a great deal about incorporating 6-Minute Solutions, here are a few other ways I worked to make fluency fun for my 6th graders.
Increasing reading fluency in our students is one of the main goals of any elementary school teacher. If they are not fluent readers, they are unable to gain meaning (comprehend) from what they are reading. There are a few components to being a fluent reader...
fluency, tips to increase fluency, fluency in reading, improve fluency in reading, fluency rubric, fluency strategies, fluency for struggling readers, reading fluency activities
Reading fluency is one of the 5 components that are necessary when a child is learning how to read. Fluency is the ability to read words accurately, with appropriate speed, and with expression. This is not alway possible. For English Language Learners (ELLs) there can be the added challenge that they may not immediately know
While teaching students to read in my grade one classroom as well as during my reading recovery sessions, I found that for some students, reading fluency is not something that happened easily. My reading recovery trainer REALLY drilled that "la fluidité en lecture" has to happen EARLY, before students develop bad habits. Students have to be TAUGHT to read with fluency. It does not happen automatically. You have to take every opportunity to teach fluency in reading! Here are some suggestions: 1. During shared reading, try not to point to words with your finger. You do not want students to do it once they have "le mot à mot" so you should not do it yourself. 2. During shared reading, once in awhile read "comme un robot" without fluency. Students will quickly tell you that this is NOT the way to read! 3. As soon as students are ready, insist that they remove the finger from the book. "Tu es si bon que tu n'as plus besoin de mettre ton doigt sous les mots maintenant! Regarde-moi. Je lis sans mettre mon doigt. Je "touche" les mots avec mes yeux mais pas avec mon doigt. Ceci t'aide à lire plus vite et à mieux comprendre ce que tu lis! Ceci te permet de lire les groupes de mots ensemble et de lire comme tu parles. 4. Demonstrate by reading one page of the little book and then ask the student to read the next page "C'est ton tour maintenant. Lis les mots ensemble. Lis comme Madame." 5. You can also demonstrate by grouping words on a page as you read. For example, if the sentence is "Je joue avec mon petit chien brun.", I would say "Je vais lire des petits groupes de mots et tu vas m'aider." "Je joue"...Maintenant lis les mots ensemble comme moi (Je joue). Ensuite, je lis "petit chien" (L'élève répète les mots ensemble "petit chien") Ensuite j'ajoute un mot et je lis "mon petit chien" (L'élève répète...). Finalement je dis "Maintenant, nous allons lire les groupes de mots ensemble "Je joue avec...mon petit chien." We want the student to realize that certain words are grouped together when reading. Reading fluency certainly goes hand in hand with reading comprehension. By practicing this often and by congratulating success, this will become more and more automatic! In order to give the opportunity to practice grouping words together when reading, I created the following resource. It made an ENORMOUS difference with my students. It is all ready to print and use in a variety of ways. Click HERE to view one of 6 documents. Each resource contains 30 sets of 4 sentences with many sight words. A word or two is added to each sentence, forcing the student to read the "group of words", therefore encouraging fluency in reading. Here is an example: These can be used as is on a card with 4 sentences or cut up and stapled. Each set of sentences can be attached with a ring and placed in a literacy center. My students and parents LOVED the interactive notebook idea, which I simply put in their morning message duo-tang regularly. Here is an example: Check out the BUNDLE containing 6 resources by clicking HERE Give it a try with this FREEBIE
As a teacher, my ultimate goal for students is to enjoy reading and feel confident picking out books to read in their free time. There are many elements to
Reading with fluency is one of the hardest reading strategies to teach, but with these 11 interventions for reading fluency, you can give your struggling...
Are you needing a new and engaging way to provide opportunities for your students to develop reading fluency? If you are, you will love this activity using technology! Why is Reading Fluency Important? Reading fluency is an important building block in the development of a strong reader. Research shows that the more a passage is […]
Focus on fluency in your upper elementary classroom with these fun and engaging partner play scripts and seven fluency posters! Many free resources are included in this blog post!
Discover how to bring the Science of Reading into your classroom by exploring evidence-based strategies for teaching phonics, comprehension, and more!
We know fluency is important. We know fluent reading is the bridge to comprehension. But.... what can we do to help disfluent readers? To best help a disfluent reader, we must first determine what stage the student is at. This will help us find the best strategy for the reader. Is the student a beginning reader (kindergarten or first grade)? Is the reader one who is making adequate progress? Or, is the reader one who is struggling? Lets look at a beginning reader first. A beginning reader is someone in kindergarten and first grade who is attaching letters to their sounds and blending them into simple words. To improve reading fluency for these students a teacher should: Spend a significant amount of time on accurate text reading Implement a systematic daily practice for learning to read words accurately Model fluent reading. Give students lots of opportunity to read and re-read decodable text Encourage students to read "like they are talking." Now, lets look at a reader who is on-level or making adequate progress. These are students in grades two or higher who are average and making adequate gains. How do we keep the momentum going? How do we maintain their progress? To do this a teacher should use: Choral reading Echo Reading Cloze reading Partner reading Readers' theater Poetry readings Finally, lets look at struggling readers. Disfluent readers need a mixture of what beginning readers and on level students need. The best way for disfluent readers to become more fluent is by reading! These students need: Focus on ACCURATE text reading. Use decodable text Repeated readings Systemic daily practice of reading words accurately Modeled fluent reading Encourage students to read like they are talking LOTS of opportunities to read text (at their level) using choral, cloze, echo and partner reading. If you would like to know how to define fluency and why being a fluent reader important, check out the first post in the series by clicking here. There are a ton of great articles written by reading gurus on the topic of fluency. Check them out by clicking below. Everything You Wanted to Know about Repeated Reading by Timothy Shanahan via Reading Rockets Using Poetry to Teach Reading via Reading Rockets Developing Fluent Readers by Jan Hasbrouck via Reading Rockets I hope you will join us next time to discover ways you can fit daily fluency practice into your schedule!
Reading strategies useful in every content area include Questioning the text, Visualization, and using Context Clues to infer meaning.
10 Activities to Increase Reading Fluency for your first grade students. Ideas for small groups instruction and stations.
Ideas for teaching addition strategies in 1st grade to set students up for fact fluency success! Plus get 5 tips for making fact fluency fun!
Reading with fluency is one of the hardest reading strategies to teach, but with these 11 interventions for reading fluency, you can give your struggling...
While teaching students to read in my grade one classroom as well as during my reading recovery sessions, I found that for some students, reading fluency is not something that happened easily. My reading recovery trainer REALLY drilled that "la fluidité en lecture" has to happen EARLY, before students develop bad habits. Students have to be TAUGHT to read with fluency. It does not happen automatically. You have to take every opportunity to teach fluency in reading! Here are some suggestions: 1. During shared reading, try not to point to words with your finger. You do not want students to do it once they have "le mot à mot" so you should not do it yourself. 2. During shared reading, once in awhile read "comme un robot" without fluency. Students will quickly tell you that this is NOT the way to read! 3. As soon as students are ready, insist that they remove the finger from the book. "Tu es si bon que tu n'as plus besoin de mettre ton doigt sous les mots maintenant! Regarde-moi. Je lis sans mettre mon doigt. Je "touche" les mots avec mes yeux mais pas avec mon doigt. Ceci t'aide à lire plus vite et à mieux comprendre ce que tu lis! Ceci te permet de lire les groupes de mots ensemble et de lire comme tu parles. 4. Demonstrate by reading one page of the little book and then ask the student to read the next page "C'est ton tour maintenant. Lis les mots ensemble. Lis comme Madame." 5. You can also demonstrate by grouping words on a page as you read. For example, if the sentence is "Je joue avec mon petit chien brun.", I would say "Je vais lire des petits groupes de mots et tu vas m'aider." "Je joue"...Maintenant lis les mots ensemble comme moi (Je joue). Ensuite, je lis "petit chien" (L'élève répète les mots ensemble "petit chien") Ensuite j'ajoute un mot et je lis "mon petit chien" (L'élève répète...). Finalement je dis "Maintenant, nous allons lire les groupes de mots ensemble "Je joue avec...mon petit chien." We want the student to realize that certain words are grouped together when reading. Reading fluency certainly goes hand in hand with reading comprehension. By practicing this often and by congratulating success, this will become more and more automatic! In order to give the opportunity to practice grouping words together when reading, I created the following resource. It made an ENORMOUS difference with my students. It is all ready to print and use in a variety of ways. Click HERE to view one of 6 documents. Each resource contains 30 sets of 4 sentences with many sight words. A word or two is added to each sentence, forcing the student to read the "group of words", therefore encouraging fluency in reading. Here is an example: These can be used as is on a card with 4 sentences or cut up and stapled. Each set of sentences can be attached with a ring and placed in a literacy center. My students and parents LOVED the interactive notebook idea, which I simply put in their morning message duo-tang regularly. Here is an example: Check out the BUNDLE containing 6 resources by clicking HERE Give it a try with this FREEBIE
Here in third grade, we practice fluency daily with: -Word Lists -Phrase Lists -Passages/Running Records My Mental Journey I have had a love-hate relationship with fluency. As a third grade teacher, my students are subject to end of year, high-stakes testing for the first time. Fluency is not tested on these exams, students have
Okay, let’s talk guided reading for emergent readers. Reading comprehension and fluency are vital reading competencies for any reader, especially our beginning readers. These leveled reading pointers provide a FUN, hands-on system for your students to grow their fluency. These reading sticks will help children follow and understand the text that they are reading. When I taught kindergarten […]
Fluency is an important components of reading, yet it is often neglected. What type of activities could I plan that were NOT teacher directed? To improve fluency, students need to read over and over which takes time. Time is in short supply for most teachers. Some parents listen to their children read at home, but not ALL. How could I fix this problem to ensure ALL of my students were getting enough practice? The answer was partner fluency checks. You can try a free partner fluency check. Teachers who downloaded the file above asked if I had more activities like the ones in the file. I recently made a Kindergarten-1st grade Fluency Check file and a 2nd-3rd grade Fluency Check file. Color Code the fluency cards by reading levels so you can quickly see the difference without looking at the bottom of the card. Punch a hole and put the cards on a ring for easy storage. The reading passages come in two formats - fluency cards and comprehension printables. More formats means more times reading the same passage which improves fluency. There are also comprehension signs. Punch a hole and put the signs on a ring. Use them to ask questions after a read aloud or with your small group. Comprehension signs are perfect for quick checks after a read aloud. Put the comprehension signs on a ring. Keep the ring where you read to your class. Set up a literacy center using the signs and comprehension passages. This is a quick center to set up. Reading the passages in different formats will improve students' fluency. Partner fluency checks and literacy centers are NOT teacher directed activities. Perfect fluency activities for busy teachers! I currently have the following Fluency Check files available: Kindergarten and 1st Grade Fluency Check Fluency and Comprehension Passages Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Christmas themed passages Bundle - Volume 1 & 2 2nd and 3rd Grade Fluency Check Fluency and Comprehension Passages Volume 1 Volume 2 Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.
what are effective reading comprehension strategies to help readers and struggling readers in your upper elementary classroom? this reading strategies list will help guide your reading instruction
Reading with fluency is one of the hardest reading strategies to teach, but with these 11 interventions for reading fluency, you can give your struggling...
15 reading fluency activities you can do in minutes a day with strategies to improve reading fluency in your slow, choppy reader. Reading fluency games online, printable reading fluency games, reading passages and more! Education ideas - what are the 3 components of reading fluency? Wanting to know how to help your child read faster? Check out these ideas for reading fluency games, printable reading fluency games, timed reading games, plus reading fluency activities pdf format to print. If you find yourself asking - I want to know how to help my child read more fluently, check out these reading fluency activities, games, kindergarten fluency activities games, and other strategies to improve reading fluency.
Take close reading to the next level in your classroom. Use the six Close Reading steps guide from Appletastic Learning for a deeper understanding of text.
Using the right assessments for reading is crucial, but it can be confusing. This is your guide for how to assess reading the best way and...
Intervention in reading can be the difference that changes a student's path. What teacher doesn’t want to be that difference? But, finding...
