Emergent Readers - Fluency

You will begin to see the same guided reading book being sent home twice.

Rereading text improves fluency.

Parents and their students can think of reading fluency as the bridge between the two major components of reading: decoding and comprehension. Differences in reading fluency can distinguish good readers from struggling readers.  An analogy for understanding the relationship between excelling as a reader and the connection with fluency might be that fluency is to reading as body temperature is to your good health.  It is one measure of whether or not there is something going wrong.  

Fluent reading is NOT necessarily FAST reading.  Reading should move along at an appropriate rate of speed reflecting the mood and expression of the text.  Fluent reading rates differ for each grade level  

Children that read in a laborious manner, slowing or stopping to figure things out, will have difficulty comprehending text.  This difficulty compounds as the student proceeds to higher grades and reads more complex text.  Lack of fluency adds extra stress to completing every school assignment and is not just evident during reading lessons or reading tests.  Lack of fluency also contributes to the amount of homework a child has and the time it takes a child to complete homework. 

Here are a few things a child can do to improve in fluency:

1.  BEFORE READING:  Skim and scan the text then orally predict what the text will be about.  That helps your child's brain get ready for a whole group of associated words s/he might need to read in the selection.

2. DURING READING:  Partner read aloud.  Read the words together with both voices on.  Your child should point to the text to keep you together.  Don't stop for a phonics lesson.  Just say the right word and point to the part the child should notice.

3.  AFTER READING:  Partner discuss, react to your reading, clarify and summarize the message.  Look back int eh text to find the part of the text that supports what you are talking about.  Stop and talk often.

4.  READING ALOUD is a valuable and NECESSARY part of helping students become proficient readers.  As little as 10 minutes per night for a school year makes a large difference!

To support students in self-assessing their reading fluency, visually friendly rubrics with clear criteria for success can be very helpful.

Your student will bring home the below rubric.  We will be using this rubric during Guided Reading.  Please keep this rubric with you as you read.

I can read with fluency. I put my words together so my reading sounds right and makes sense. This means that I am paying attention to my phrasing.

PHRASING:

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I read word-by-word, or one word at a time, like a robot. I   -    like  -    to  -    read.  -  It - is    -  fun.	I am trying to read the way the author wrote the words. Sometimes I read 2 or 3 words at a time. Sometimes I read word by word, like a robot. I  like -  to  -    read.  It -  is fun.	I am really close to reading the words the way the author wrote them. I usually read in 3 or 4 word groups. I  like to  -    read. It  -  is fun.	I like to read. It is fun! I put the words together the way the author wrote them. I put the words together so that it makes sense.

I can read with fluency. I read at the correct rate. Not too quickly, and not too slowly. My reading sounds right and makes sense.

RATE:

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I am really slow and have to figure out each word on the page. I read so slowly that it really does not make sense.	I can be slow because I have to read word-by-word when I don't know the words. I take breaks, pause too much, and repeat words when I read.	I try to read like I talk. Sometimes I go too fast, or too slow. I might slow down when I am trying to figure out a tricky word. Sometimes I pause or stop when it doesn’t make sense.	I read like I talk. I only slow down, stop, or repeat words when it make sense and sounds right.

I can read fluently. I use the punctuation to help me know how to read the story, so that it sounds right and makes sense.

PUNCTUATION:

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I don’t pay attention to periods, commas, exclamation points, question marks, and quotation marks when I read. My reading doesn’t sound right or make sense.	Sometimes I use the punctuation, but I might use it the wrong way.	I usually pay attention to the punctuation. I may make a mistake every once in a while.	I always pay attention to the punctuation. My reading sounds right and makes sense.

I can read fluently. I read with expression so that it sounds interesting and makes sense.

EXPRESSION:

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My reading sounds boring and doesn’t really make sense because I don’t read with expression.	I am trying to read with expression, but I may read it the wrong way sometimes.	I read with expression most of the time. My reading sounds interesting most of the time.	I always read with expression so it always sounds interesting and exciting.