Supporting Reading Fluency in our Classrooms – a

support guide for teachers

Reading fluency is an important skill for our students
to achieve. When a student reads fluently, they can
read accurately, smoothly and with expression.
Fluent readers recognize words automatically,
without struggling over decoding issues. They sound
natural, as if they’re speaking.

Why is this an important skill? Fluency is important

because it bridges between word recognition and
comprehension. It allows students time to focus on what the text is saying. They
can make connections between what they are reading and their own background
knowledge. Therefore, they can concentrate on comprehension. Over 30 years of
research indicates that fluency is one of the critical building blocks of reading,
because fluency development is directly related to comprehension.

Dr. S. Jay Samuels, a professor and researcher well known for his work in fluency,
put forth a theory called the automaticity theory. According to Dr. Samuels, people
have a limited amount of mental energy. If you want to multitask or to become
proficient at a complex task such as reading, you first need to master the
component tasks so you can do them automatically. For example, a reader who
must focus his or her attention on decoding words may not have enough mental
energy left over to think about the meaning of the text. However, a fluent reader
who can automatically decode the words can instead give full attention to
comprehending the text. To become proficient readers, our students need to
become automatic with text so they can pay attention to the meaning.

What are some strategies teachers can use to support reading fluency?

For all ages of students:

Practice, practice, practice! Teachers need to

provide students the opportunity to read and re
read passages. It sounds simple, yet many teachers
do not make time to have students re read text for
fluency. The students read the same words so many
times that they begin to know them and are able to
identify them in other text.

Size matters. To encourage reading fluency, start with a shorter text that has 50-
200 words depending on the age of the reader (K-12). Passages should not be so
long that students get lost in what they are trying to read.
Variety is the spice of life. You should also use a variety of reading materials,
including stories, nonfiction, and poetry. Poetry is especially well suited to fluency
practice because poems for children are often short and they contain rhythm,
rhyme, and meaning, making practice easy, fun, and rewarding.

Strategies for Primary Students:

Model fluent reading - By listening to good models

of fluent reading, students learn how a reader's voice
can help written text make sense. Read aloud daily to
your students. By reading effortlessly and with
expression, you are modeling for your students how a
fluent reader sounds during reading.

Student-adult reading - In student-adult reading,

the student reads one-on-one with an adult. The adult
can be you, a parent, a classroom aide, or a tutor.
The adult reads the text first, providing the students
with a model of fluent reading. Then the student reads the same passage to the adult with
the adult providing assistance and encouragement.

Choral reading- In choral, or unison, reading, students read along as a group with you (or
another fluent adult reader). Of course, to do so, students must be able to see the same
text that you are reading. They might follow along as you read from a big book, or they
might read from their own copy of the book you are reading. For choral reading, choose a
book that is not too long and that you think is at the independent reading level of most
students. Patterned or predictable books are particularly useful for choral reading, because
their repetitious style invites students to join in. Begin by reading the book aloud as you
model fluent reading. Reread the book and invite students to join in as they recognize the
words you are reading. Continue rereading the book, encouraging students to read along as
they are able.

Audio assisted reading- In tape-assisted reading, students read along in their books as
they hear a fluent reader read the book on an audiotape. For tape-assisted reading, you
need a book at a student's independent reading level and a tape recording of the book read
by a fluent reader at about 80-100 words per minute. The tape should not have sound
effects or music. For the first reading, the student should follow along with the tape,
pointing to each word in her or his book as the reader reads it. Next, the student should try
to read aloud along with the tape. Reading along with the tape should continue until the
student is able to read the book independently, without the support of the tape.

Strategies for Intermediate students:

All the above listed primary strategies would work for intermediates. In addition to those,
teachers can try the following:

Working in partners and reading to one another - You

would pair a less capable reader with a more capable reader.
The less capable reader can hear what fluent reading sounds
like and is gently encouraged by their peer. The more capable
reader can critically analyze the text they are reading.
Readers theatre- Students are usually highly motivated to do
this type of activity, they love it! Readers theatre provides
opportunities for students to focus on author’s voice and its
effect on fluent reading. A small group of readers performs for
the class, and usually, the students are motivated to practice
repeatedly for their performance. The teacher could also hand
out copies of the script for the audience to follow long with.

Promote Phrased reading in class - After selecting a poem, write its lines onto sentence
strips, which serve as cue cards, to show students how good readers cluster portions of text
rather than saying each word separately. Hold up strips one at a time and have students
read the phrases together. Reinforce phrased reading by using the same poem in guided
reading and pointing to passages you read as a class.

Resources:

Developing reading fluency. https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/5-surefire-

strategies-developing-reading-fluency/. Lisa Blau. 2019.

What is reading fluency and why is it important? https://mylearningspringboard.com/what-is-reading-

fluency-and-why-is-it-important//. Fran Nieporent. 2012.

Fluency. https://www.readnaturally.com/research/5-components-of-reading/fluency. Read Naturally.

2019.

Fluency: instructional guidelines and reading activities. https://www.readingrockets.org/article/fluency-

instructional-guidelines-and-student-activities. Texas Education Agency. 2019.