Reading with Fluency = Reading with Success

Materials: Fun short text with rhythm such as poems at the
Independent Level
Parents and teachers: Assist your children/students in
becoming fluent readers by:

1. Providing them with models of fluent reading. If you
are not a fluent reader, find someone who is and allow that
person to read to the children. The person who is modeling
must read with enthusiasm while allowing the voice to fall
and rise (vary pitch) at appropriate times throughout the
reading. For example, if a question is being read, the
reader should allow his/her voice to rise at the end. For
example, "Is this sufficient?" should be read as if the
reader is actually asking the question to someone in
person. The voice will rise at the last word because it is
after all a question.

2. Ask children/students to repeatedly read passages as you
offer guidance. They should practice reading passages until
they can read them as the model did, assuming the model is
an adequate reader. Do not allow someone to model reading
unless that person is an efficient reader. An inadequate
reader will hinder a child's interest in learning to read.

3. Model fluent reading. After you model how to read the
text, ask the children/students to reread it. By doing
this, the students are engaging in repeated reading.
Usually, rereading a text four times is sufficient to
improve fluency. Text with rhythm and/or poems is a good
choice for this activity. It is the actual time that
students are actively engaged in reading that produces
reading gains. Use text that is interesting to the child
and contains 100-200 words.

By listening to adequate models of fluent reading, students
learn how a reader's voice can make written text make
sense. I cannot stress enough the importance of reading
aloud daily to children/students. By reading effortlessly
and with expression, you are modeling and teaching how a
fluent reader sounds during reading.

After you model how to read the text, ask the
children/students to reread it. By doing this, the students
are engaging in repeated reading. Usually, rereading a text
four times is sufficient to improve fluency. It is the
actual time that students are actively engaged in reading
that produces reading gains.

Encourage parents or other family members to read aloud to
their children at home. As children/students hear several
models of fluent readers, they are exposed to many ways a
reader can sound. Soon they will see that some sound more
interesting than others or that some make the text come
alive more than others. Generally, children want to sound
just like the reader who made the text come alive and kept
their attention.

In addition, students improve their fluency by combining
reading instruction with opportunities to read books that
are at their independent level of reading ability. Books
that are at a child's independent level will require
minimal assistance from a parent/teacher. (see the three
levels of text readability below)

Readability Levels

Independent level text - This type of text is easy to read
with approximately 1 out of 20 words difficult for the
reader (95% success)

Instructional level text - This type of text is challenging
to read but manageable with approximately 1 out of 10 words
difficult for the reader (90% success)

Frustration level text - This type of text is too hard to
read with more than 1 out of 10 words difficult for the
reader (less than 90% success)

About the Author:

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