Reading fluency is a critical component of effective reading instruction, serving as a bridge between word recognition and reading comprehension. The National Reading Panel (NRP) identified reading fluency as one of the five essential elements of reading instruction, emphasizing its significance in the development of proficient readers. This blog post explores what reading fluency is, why it is important, and how current research continues to highlight its vital role in literacy and overall academic achievement.

What is Reading Fluency?

Reading fluency is the ability to read text accurately, quickly, and with appropriate expression. It involves three key components:

• Accuracy: The ability to recognize or decode words correctly.
• Speed: The rate at which a person reads, often measured in words per minute.
• Prosody: The use of appropriate phrasing, intonation, and expression while reading, which contributes to the overall meaning of the text.

Fluency serves as a critical link between word recognition and comprehension. Fluent readers can focus their cognitive resources on understanding the text because they do not have to spend much effort on decoding individual words.

The Importance of Reading Fluency

The National Reading Panel's report underscored the importance of reading fluency for several reasons:

• Foundation for Reading Comprehension: Fluency is closely tied to reading comprehension. Fluent readers can read text smoothly and with understanding, allowing them to focus on the meaning rather than on decoding words. This ability to read effortlessly enables better comprehension and retention of information.
• Improves Academic Performance: Reading fluency is a strong predictor of overall academic performance. Students who read fluently are better able to comprehend texts across various subjects, including science, social studies, and mathematics. This broadens their knowledge base and enhances their ability to perform well academically.
• Enhances Motivation and Engagement: Fluent readers are more likely to enjoy reading and engage in it willingly. The ability to read smoothly and understand text increases a student's confidence and motivation to read, leading to more frequent and prolonged reading experiences.
• Supports Vocabulary Development: Fluent reading exposes students to a wider range of vocabulary. As students read more fluently, they encounter new words in context, which helps them understand and learn these words more effectively.
• Addresses Reading Disabilities: Fluency instruction is particularly beneficial for students with reading disabilities. It provides structured practice and strategies to improve decoding skills, accuracy, and speed, which are essential for overcoming reading challenges.

Current Research on Reading Fluency

Since the publication of the NRP Report, further research has continued to support the importance of reading fluency. Key findings from recent studies include:

• Repeated Reading: Research consistently shows that repeated reading, where students read the same text multiple times, significantly improves reading fluency. This practice helps build accuracy, speed, and prosody, leading to better comprehension.
• Guided Oral Reading: Guided oral reading practices, where students read aloud with immediate feedback and guidance from a teacher or peer, have been found to be highly effective. This approach provides opportunities for students to practice fluency and receive corrective feedback.
• Fluency-Oriented Instruction: Instruction that integrates fluency practice with comprehension activities enhances both fluency and understanding. For example, pairing repeated reading with comprehension questions or discussions helps students see the purpose of fluency in understanding the text.
• Technology Integration: Technology, such as audio books, digital reading programs, and fluency apps, can support fluency development. These tools provide engaging and interactive ways for students to practice fluency and receive instant feedback.
• Differentiated Instruction: Differentiated fluency instruction, tailored to meet the needs of individual students, is crucial. Recognizing that students have varying levels of fluency, personalized approaches ensure that all students receive appropriate practice and support.

Practical Strategies for Developing Reading Fluency

To maximize the effectiveness of reading fluency instruction, educators should incorporate evidence-based strategies into their teaching practices. Here are some practical tips:

• Repeated Reading: Implement repeated reading practices where students read the same text multiple times until they achieve a certain level of fluency. This method is particularly effective for improving speed and accuracy.
• Guided Oral Reading: Provide guided oral reading opportunities where students read aloud with feedback from a teacher, peer, or parent. This practice helps students improve their fluency through immediate corrective feedback and modeling of fluent reading.
• Model Fluent Reading: Model fluent reading by reading aloud to students regularly. Demonstrating how fluent reading sounds, including appropriate pacing, expression, and phrasing, provides students with a clear example to emulate.
• Use of Technology: Incorporate technology to support fluency practice. Tools such as audio books, digital reading platforms, and fluency apps offer engaging ways for students to practice and improve their fluency skills.
• Reader's Theater: Engage students in Reader's Theater, where they read and perform scripts based on literature. This activity emphasizes expressive reading and provides a fun and interactive way to practice fluency.
• Fluency-Oriented Instruction: Integrate fluency practice with comprehension activities. For example, after repeated readings, engage students in discussions or ask comprehension questions to reinforce the connection between fluency and understanding.
• Differentiated Fluency Practice: Differentiate fluency instruction to meet the diverse needs of learners. Provide additional practice and support for struggling readers and challenge advanced readers with more complex texts.
• Track Progress: Monitor and track students' fluency progress regularly. Use fluency assessments, such as timed readings and fluency checklists, to identify areas of improvement and adjust instruction accordingly.

Case Study: Effective Fluency Instruction in Action

To illustrate the practical application of these strategies, let’s look at a case study from a fourth-grade classroom.

Classroom Context:

Ms. Johnson is a fourth-grade teacher who prioritizes reading fluency in her literacy instruction. She uses a combination of repeated reading, guided oral reading, and technology to enhance her students' fluency skills.

Implementation:

• Repeated Reading: Ms. Johnson implements repeated reading sessions three times a week. Students select a passage at their reading level and read it multiple times, aiming to improve their accuracy and speed with each reading.
• Guided Oral Reading: During guided reading groups, Ms. Johnson provides opportunities for students to read aloud. She listens to each student, offering immediate feedback and modeling fluent reading.
• Modeling Fluent Reading: Ms. Johnson reads aloud to her students daily, demonstrating fluent reading with appropriate expression and pacing. She discusses her reading process and encourages students to mimic her fluency.
• Use of Technology: Ms. Johnson integrates technology by using digital reading programs and fluency apps. Students use these tools during independent reading time to practice fluency and receive instant feedback.
• Reader's Theater: Once a month, Ms. Johnson organizes Reader's Theater activities. Students rehearse and perform scripts, focusing on expressive reading and teamwork.
• Fluency-Oriented Instruction: Ms. Johnson pairs fluency practice with comprehension activities. After repeated readings, she engages students in discussions and comprehension questions to reinforce understanding.
• Differentiated Practice: Recognizing the diverse needs of her students, Ms. Johnson differentiates fluency instruction. Struggling readers receive additional practice and support, while advanced readers work on more challenging texts.
• Progress Tracking: Ms. Johnson regularly assesses her students' fluency using timed readings and fluency checklists. She tracks their progress and adjusts her instruction based on the assessment results.

Outcomes:

By the end of the school year, Ms. Johnson’s students demonstrate significant improvement in their reading fluency. They read more accurately and quickly and with better expression. This improvement in fluency translates into better reading comprehension and overall academic performance. Ms. Johnson’s systematic and engaging approach to fluency instruction has helped her students become more confident and proficient readers.

Reading fluency is a vital component of literacy development, as highlighted by the National Reading Panel and supported by ongoing research. It provides the necessary foundation for reading comprehension, academic success, motivation, and overall language development. Effective fluency instruction, delivered through explicit, systematic, and engaging methods, can significantly improve students' reading outcomes.

Teachers play a crucial role in fostering reading fluency. By incorporating evidence-based strategies and providing ample practice opportunities, we can help ensure that all students develop the fluency skills necessary for reading success. As research continues to evolve, the importance of reading fluency remains clear, underscoring its role as a cornerstone of literacy education.

Looking Fluency for Additional Blog Posts:

• How I Use Games to Increase Students’ Phonics Word Level Fluency
• How I Increased Reading Fluency Scores

References

• National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction. U.S. Government Printing Office.
• Hudson, R. F., Lane, H. B., & Pullen, P. C. (2005). Reading fluency assessment and instruction: What, why, and how? The Reading Teacher, 58(8), 702-714.
• Kuhn, M. R., & Stahl, S. A. (2003). Fluency: A review of developmental and remedial practices. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95(1), 3-21.
• Rasinski, T. V. (2012). Why reading fluency should be hot! The Reading Teacher, 65(8), 516-522.
• Samuels, S. J. (2006). Toward a model of reading fluency. In S. J. Samuels & A. E. Farstrup (Eds.), What Research Has to Say About Fluency Instruction (pp. 24-46). International Reading Association.
• Paige, D. D. (2011). 16 Minutes of “Eyes-on-Text” can make a difference: Whole-class choral reading as an adolescent fluency strategy. Reading Horizons, 51(1), 1-18.

I sat with my grade level team, reviewing this month’s oral reading fluency data and they could not stop asking me how I moved my group. 

In a word – games. 

The team had decided to work on accuracy instead of words correct. (I’m not sure there is a great way to increase reading fluency but okay I’m in.) Sometimes starting small is way better than not starting at all and this group has never ventured into the world of using one's data for anything. 

So…

This year, grade-level teams are working with our Coach to create monthly data-based goals. We just started using Benchmark Advanced, so teams are looking at all the reading data and making a decision on a long and short-term plan. (For most of the teams I work with–this is the 1st time they have really looked at and done anything with their classroom data.)

This one, as much as I’m shaking my head, I can see a place where I can layer in additional fluency work at the word level with their students and not sacrifice fidelity.

Over the years, I have moved the oral reading fluency scores in a variety of ways. I have never found something that works with most of the students I support for reading.  From repeated readings to focusing on specific words, nothing works for all the students in a group. 

All my reading groups this year are OG. I live and breathe OG, which means there is a precise lesson plan and very little room to add “other” things. I’m not sure how many really get this. This year, teachers want me to fix everything. 

I use Yoshimoto. I really love the flexibility it gives me. I dislike the amount of flexibility it gives me but I can lay out each group's scope and sequence and add my “others” as I need to. Mind you within reason. 

Last year, I began working in very specific game days to target word-level fluency. These days tended to be on Fridays (aka Fun Friday).  When a Game Tub in tow, students played Crocodile Dentist and Squeaky Squirrel.

Slowly, the sounding out loud stopped. The confidence in the learning target increased. Slowly, the syllable understanding increased. And then the accuracy scores changed. Then the big daddy of them all, the iReady Phonics scores started to move. 

Now, was this all by adding game time to their practice do this. I have no way of knowing. But what I do know is that if students are engaged and motivated then everything falls into place.

Reflecting on this growth over the summer, led me to add phrases and sentences based on the skill being taught. You can find my game pieces in my store to begin building self-confidence, language skills, and word-level fluency in your students.

My students do have their favorites but I make a point to rotate them about every month. 

The cool thing about all of the game pieces is that it is super easy to differentiate the cards depending on who is in the group and what each student needs to work on. 

Nothing like being able to stack the deck. lol

ROAR–CVC, CCVC, CVCC is built using pictures to support the words from Smarty Symbols but you also get cards with no pictures.

You can play with just CVC or CVCC with and without pictures.

OR

When I have a group working on Five and Six sounds. I pull out Melt. Then students can work on real and nonsense words. You can add easier words to build fluency or a couple of compound words to make it more interesting.

Click on any picture to check them out for yourself. Your students will love any of them. 

What games do your students like to play?

Chat soon,

I have to brag, she beat her self-created sight word goal not just once but twice. She has DOUBLED her sight word knowledge since returning from summer break. 

She is a second-grade student who has struggled with her self-confidence when reading and just learning how to read for the last year.

She represents the students I teach reading to every day.

• No self-confidence 
• Beginning reader
• No strategies
• No sight word knowledge

Oh, but unlike others, they have increased their sight word knowledge by 50% in 15 weeks. They have self-confidence and strategies when approaching an unknown text. And classroom teachers, are seeing these changes when they are in guided reading.

How did I do this?

Most of the students I see during my day are beginning readers. Technically this means students reading Levels A-E. For students to read the book more than twice and NOT have the whole thing memorized, is a whole different problem.  (If you have looked, just like I have, then you know it doesn’t exist.)

Passage Reading with Sight Words to the RESCUE

These passages pick up where guided reading leaves off. My students love the fact they can read 90% of the words so they can focus on their reading fluency.

Each passage starts with a one-minute cold read. Students graph their score.

When you come back the next day, I help them practice the passage as many times they want before timing it again.

Students keep the same passage until reaching mastery. [Chick here to get yours.]






REASONS WHY IT WORKS

It works because students are placed in reading passages at their independent reading level. This means they are not struggling with every word like they would in most reading fluency passages.

I have written about Repeated Readings in the past as I create interventions--using John Hattie. My students love them and see each reading as a challenge to beat their score from the previous day. Tieing repeated reading with students doing their own data tracking has doubled their sight word scores and their grade level reading fluency scores.

Student’s get tripped up on the sight words and can practice them without having to worry about the remaining text.






The Sight Word Cards are a way to quickly practice 5, 10, or 20 sight words. Each card is just for five days. [grab your here]

Max does his card as soon as he comes in. He started with reviews his personalized sight word deck of 10 cards and then moves right into his Sight Word Fluency Card.

He has struggled with learning his sight words since first grade. He never thought he would learn to read; let alone learn to love it!

I love that students graph their own data. This creates ownership and by-in. It builds self-confidence. It builds a love of reading.





I do all this fluency practice at the end of my lessons because it only takes 10 minutes. In those 10 minutes, I get daily progress monitoring of IEP goals, plan reading instruction, and build fluency.

By providing students with daily sight word fluency practice where students track their own data so that their instructional reading levels increase. Hattie's data adds evidence to what has become my go-to addition to their core intervention program.


In my district carry over back to grade level curriculum is HUGE! If it doesn't close gaps or classroom teacher don't see progress--you can forget about holding the course.

For those last ten minutes of group I spend focusing on reading fluency and sight words, I have seen a growth in sight words, self-confidence to attack more difficult text, and growth on grade level reading assessments.

My Classroom teachers are reporting student spending less time in their guided reading text because students are demonstrating solid decoding accuracy that has improved reading comprehension.



Chat Soon,

We all have a love-hate relationship with reading fluency. Though all students benefit from fluency work, focused activities like repeated reading (for the millionth time) especially help struggling, word-by-word readers, word callers, and readers who sound fluent but lack comprehension. (Does your need some freshening up like mine?--KEEP READING)

As a whole--struggling readers have spent more instructional time learning decoding skills at the word level than reading connected text. Meaning??? Because of all hard word put into accurate word-by-word reading readers are using all their mental energies during a first reading, struggling readers benefit from activities that require them to do a second, third and even fourth or fifth reading. Hence why repeated reading are so important but get soooo boring for students as they focus on the sound of the language and the meaning. In this way, their reading becomes smoother and they continue to build comprehension skills.

Repeated readings also help word callers--readers who are skilled at decoding but do not focus on reading words in an expressive way to show what the text means. Having them practice the same text, their mindset changes from just getting through the reading to actually making sense of it through presenting it aloud in a meaning way.

What does this have to do technology?

I recently made some group changes.This is not the groups first year of Wilson but have not moved beyond book 1. My district expects students in Wilson to move at a pace of about 3 books a year--making this a three commitment. In many cases by the time we get to Books 6 and 7 their needs change and no longer need to be in the program.

Wilson is a balancing act between accuracy and fluency. If you know that the student can read the word without making a mistake then you don't have them tap it but if you have doubts than you have them tap it out. But you also have to make sure they don't become overly reliant on tapping--at some point towards the end of a sub-step you have to have to cut them off. That's where this group is. They have become SO reliant on tapping that even words that they should know they can't read without tapping them. This forces them to spend way more time on a sub-step than they need to because they don't learn to trust themselves while reading.

Helping students move to becoming fluent reader at each sub-step means building in a little extra practice for them. Like a fluency games help while doing word cards or while reading sentences. I have found that students need more than just this practice. So, I give then a fluency "ticket out." It is either word card in strips of three or phrases. The set below was designed with this group in mind and focus on reading phrases in Sub-Step 1.3. I also use the Fry Phrases as well with students. It takes then a try or two get all the strips read fluently. I also break apart sub-step sentences into phrases and do the same thing with. 

Have a great week. The countdown has started to the end of the year.

A couple of years ago my school created a kindergarten through four grade benchmarking norms for reading sight words. We have a list of five hundred words that we think that all our students should know by the spring of their four grade year.

What we don't have in writing is what does sight word fluency sound like. In the Wilson Reading System, fluent is a no more than 2 seconds a word with the first thing that comes out of your month counting. So, in talking with my special education team, we decided that if a student could read this list of 500 sight words correctly with the first thing out of their month counting taking no more than 5 seconds a word that we would consider that fluent.

To do this, I created a Google presentation that flashes the word for 5 seconds and then moves no to the next one. I did this 1) so I wouldn't have to time the student and 2) so it could be used with fidelity with the same idea being used with all our identified students or students needing their sight word fluency check. We also created benchmark scores for grades Kindergarten through Fourth grade with recommendations for Fifth and Sixth as to where to take students sight word knowledge. Have a great week!

Just a quick note on this long (much needed) relaxing weekend away with my family. I was surprised this past Friday to be awarded with being one of the Top 25 Special Education blogs by Teacher Certification Degrees. To thank my followers and fellow Blog Hoppers, I  have posted my latest High Frequency fluency game here for the next 72 hours for you. Up Against the Wall is a student favorite and great to send home to play with parents. I hope you have an great long weekend and a great first week in September.





Sorry this freebie is no longer available.

I have a couple of non-readers that have been working in Wilson the last couple of weeks. They have become strong, accurate readers and ready to begin working on reading those words fluently in sentences. These sentences contain the words they have learned plus the sight words they have been taught. The color coding helps them know which words they can't sound out. These sentences allow me to ask questions about what in going on the the sentence--such as "Is the lid hot?" I can ask them "What's hot?" Yes, this level of comprehension is basic but its at a level that they can decode and understand. For them is very cool. As their decoding builds through out the year, I add sentences that match the words they are learning to read, so their comprehension can grow. 
Just Words Unit 1 High Frequency Sentences

Both Just Words and Wilson Reading System are great programs from Barbara Wilson. I have seen first hand how these program can take nonreaders to fluent grade level readers. Granted it takes a couple of years. One thing they have always struggled with is applying sound/letter knowledge to reading and spelling nonsense words. Students have to be able to apply their sounds to letters so that they can decode unknown words. One game that I have created that they have been asking for more is a small group version of I have Who has for Halloween. It focuses on reading nonsense words from Just Words Unit 3 and Wilson Reading System Book 2. For more information about both of Barbara's programs check out her website at www.wilsonlanguage.com/.

I Have Who Has Just Words Unit 3 Nonsense