Eight Ways to Increase Reading Fluency for Elementary Students
In today’s post I am going to share all about fluency. Fluency is one of the five pillars of reading. Once our kiddos understand phonics and phonemic awareness (also two of the five pillars) then we can move on to comprehension (another pillar). Yay! Now we’re getting to the fun stories and reading to learn. But hold up! If your child is reading slow and choppy, the chances they are comprehending anything is slim. Those fun stories are becoming your child’s worst nightmare and reading is no fun. Their brains are working so hard to read the words, forget about retaining anything they just read. So to help them comprehend what they are reading, they need to be able to read fluently. Which brings me to my first answered question followed by strategies that will help increase reading fluency. Let’s go!
Pop quizz: what’s the fifth pillar of reading? (answer at the bottiom)
What is Reading Fluency?
Reading fluency is the ability to read a text at a natural pace. They can also read words accurately and are able to quickly decode unknown words. Fluent readers can automatically identify words and are able to read with expression. Readers who can read fluently have mastered phonics and phonemic awareness. Phonics is the knowledge of letter sounds and phonemic awareness is the understanding that words are made up of sounds and they are able to identify its sound parts. This means they are able to blend and segment sounds. If your reader’s reading sounds choppy and slow, it is likely they need more direct instruction with phonics and phonemic awareness.
Why is Reading Fluency Important?
Reading fluency is important because reading fluently alllows a reader to focus less on decoding words and more on comprehending the text. When a reader is able to read fluently they can move from learning to read to reading to learn. They are able to change focus and spend more brain power on making connections, learning vocabulary, understanding meaning, and think critically about a text. Also, the fun begins! If you find the right books based on interest and reading level, you have hit the sweet spot for creating a love of reading! Kids can start nurturing their relationship with literature that’s not just for learning but for enjoyment as well.
Eight Ways to Increase Reading Fluency
1. Whisper reading
Whisper reading is exactly what it sounds like. Reading out loud, but in a whisper. This can be done in several ways. You can be reading in your normal voice while your child is following along in a whisper. Your child could read out loud to themselves in a whisper. Or while your child is silent reading, you could check in and have them read a paragraph or two in a whisper and then have them go back to silent reading.
My pre-schooler is learning to read and feels a little shy reading out loud. Oftentimes she will ask to whisper read while I listen. Whisper reading is great for those kiddos who need to build their confidence in reading because they can’t be heard by everyone around but they are still practicing read aloud.
2. Choral Reading
Choral reading is reading the text together out loud. Usually the teacher selects the text and sets the pace of reading. Choral reading can be useful when introducing a new piece of writing to students because students will hear and practice how to read unfamiliar words correctly. They’ll also experience the flow of reading—pausing at commas, stopping at end punctuation, voice etc.
3. Partner Reading
Partner reading is taking turns reading with someone. Maybe you alternate at each end punctuation, paragraph or page. Partners have to track and follow along so they know where to continue when it’s their turn. Partner reading gives the experience of practicing reading but also listening.
5. Fluency Passages
When I was teaching, we used fluency passages weekly for struggling readers. Less often for advanced readers. Fluency passages will be found on reading tests and I think it’s important for students to understand how to read a fluency passage. Usually we tell students to read slowly and carefully so they don’t make mistakes. However, on a fluency assessment, reading slowly and carefully can count against you.
Fluency passages test how quickly you can read, usually in one minute. The goal is to read as many words as you can as quickly as you can. Typically the student is reading, and the teacher is recording any mispronounced words or skipped words. These mistakes will be subtracted from your words read. Your fluency score is the amount of words read minus any mistakes. For example, if your child reads 98 words per minute but made three mistakes. Their fluency score is 95 words per minute.
If your child doesn’t understand how to read a fluency passage, it may appear they need more fluency practice… or you need to teach them how to take the test. Unfortunately, it’s not always explained to kids when they are doing their reading assessments. So we must teach our children and practice.
There are tons of passages online you can download for free. You want to choose passages at your child’s reading level. You can print off two, one for your child to read and one for you to mark up. Or can keep track of mistakes on your fingers. If I keep track of mistakes on my fingers, I will hide my hand under the table. Sometimes if your child sees they made a mistake, it can trip them up so I keep it a secret until the end. You can also re-read the passage in one reading session and try to beat your score each time. When I was teaching, we used the program Six Minute Solution. Each person got three turns (one minute each) to beat where they stopped the previous time. They get faster each time!
6. Interest led books
Get to know your child. Ask them what they want to read and what they enjoy reading. Who wants to be forced to read a lameski book? High school World History class anyone? The most boring book on the planet. I remember being bored to tears and I don’t remember a thing, except the Romans were stoic. My point is, when kids can see themselves via their interests in stories, they are more likely to want to read them. If your kid loves horses, find some horse books. If they love science, find books with science. You get my point right?
I spent a long time tormenting myself reading books that I just did not get intellectually and had no interest. I mostly thought it would make me smart, or I would look smart at least, if I could read the classics. I read A Tale of Two Cities, Virginia Woolf, Catch 22 and a bunch of others and I was dying inside. I pushed through because I had to finish but it was a terrible reading experience. I don’t do that anymore because... who cares. Please don’t do that to your reader and make them read books where their enjoyment of reading is slowly shriveling into a tiny old raisin. Gross.
7. Re-reading
Re-reading is exactly what it says.. read again and again and again. When a new story is introduced, re-read the same story every day… for the week… or until the next story is introduced in your curriculum. The more they read the same text, the more familiar they’ll become with the text, and the faster they’ll read it each time.
8. Appropriate level books
Have you checked your child’s books lately? Are they reading books too advanced for their reading skill? Nothing kills reading like taking ten minutes to sound out a four syllable word and then repeating the same process three words later. Maybe their books are for younger readers and they need more interesting plot twists and challenging words and new vocabulary. Nothing sparks reading like finding out your going to be slaughtered but your friends are going to save your life and you become so popular everyone comes from all over to see you. And it’s the spider who dies in the end! Charlotte’s Web baby. I’m still upset she had to die. My point is, you need that goldilocks book where it’s not too easy they could read it with their eyes closed and where it’s not too hard their eyes are closing because it’s making them tired. You need to find those books right in the middle that push your child to become a better reader while enjoying what they are reading.
How to Incorporate Fluency into Reading
Now that we’ve gone over some strategies, how do we incorporate fluency into your reading block? Here’s how I do it with my daughter. We use All About Reading. She gets a new story to read every few days. The first day of the story she usually reads it out loud by herself. If she mispronounces a word, I wait until she is finished with the sentence and then I’ll go back and re-read the sentence so she can hear it pronounced correctly. Then she continues on reading. The next day we partner read the same story. We will either alternate pages or paragraphs. The day after that we might choral read or do a different variation of partner reading. I am also going to start incorporating weekly fluency passages where she will read the passage for one minute and then we’ll record her score.
There are so many different ways you can include fluency into your reading session! The first day you could read aloud while your child whisper reads along. Then choral read the next day. Then partner read the day after that. Ask your child how they’d like to read the story for that day. My daughter usually wants to partner read. If your child excels at reading, you may want to try fluency passages once a month, whereas a struggling reader might need weekly or daily fluency practice. You know your kiddo best so it’s totally up to you on how you want to customize your reading session!
I hope this was helpful and the Lord blesses you and your child with a love of reading. May He encourage the struggling readers to keep practicing and persevering. You will get there kiddo. You can read. May He give those who struggle with reading the knowledge to put sounds together and hold them in their minds. There are lovely stories waiting for them to read, such as your word. May He bless you and keep you, may He shine is face upon you and be gracious to you, may He turn his face towards you and give you peace. ❤️
Answer: vocabulary
