Help Your Student Improve Their Reading Fluency

Why is reading fluency important?

Reading fluency is a key ability needed for any of us to obtain independent reading skills.

Most people think of fluency as reading speed. However, fluency is technically defined as words read accurately per minute.

Oral Reading Fluency = WCPM + WRA

WCPM means Words Correct per Minute (speed measure).

 

Reading prosody includes the following components:

• expression - pitch and tone
• phrasing or smoothness - word groupings within a sentence, often based on grammatical structures

Try it for yourself. Read the following excerpt aloud and notice how and why you group words, and how your pitch and tone vary as you speak:

Because the ability to read in phrases is based on the student’s oral language knowledge, some learners may need additional intervention to improve their grammar and verbal intonation skills.

How do I help my struggling reader gain fluency?

Ever since the National Reading Panel identified fluency as an educational reading goal, researchers have been scrambling to find evidence-based interventions to improve fluency. The one strategy everyone seems to agree on is to have students read aloud. Reading out loud is also known as Oral Reading.

Oral Reading puts greater demands on the phonological system to strengthen those skills. (Think of Oral Reading as akin to resistance-training–it builds stronger reading muscles.)

Oral reading allows the educator to monitor the student’s reading accuracy and address concerns. At Rooted in Language, we teach you how to practice word and sentence level reading skills, so that strategies are in place for helping students read paragraphs and extended texts. We also teach a Read with a Pencil strategy to help students read with accuracy—addressing any bad reading habits of skimming through text, skipping words, or guessing due to weak decoding skills. (Note: Skimming text is a specific skill used by efficient readers to locate information. It should not be a reading habit.)

Oral reading should also include practice in breaking sentences into phrases while reading. Teaching students to break text into phrases will require repeated readings: first to read the text, then to help students identify appropriate phrases within their ability level, and then once more to practice reading in phrases.

Can I just buy a program that works on timed repeated reading practice?

The practice of using repeated reading to teach fluency is an area of debate. The problem is that many programs focus only on reading rate. Students are required to read passages repeatedly, timing themselves each time in an attempt to increase their reading speed. This type of practice does not address the cause for slower reading. Reading for speed often encourages bad reading habits that further reduce reading comprehension. Worse still, reading only for speed can leave the slow reader feeling demoralized and hopeless..

However, rereading text to apply and practice skills of reading accuracy and phrasing is an effective use of repeated reading.

Another strategy has been promoted by researcher Joseph Torgesen. Have children read various texts that all share the same vocabulary. In this way, students gain word accuracy practice applied in different contexts. Different texts are important for practice with phrasing, as well. Texts vary in their grammatical structures, giving students a broader range of phrasing practice.

At what age should I work on my student’s reading fluency?

Timothy Shanahan, an educator, researcher, and education policy-maker who served on the National Reading Panel, recommends that all students receive fluency practice until they can read high school level texts with high accuracy and a reading speed of 150-175 words per minute. In other words, students must be able to sustain this targeted fluency level and demonstrate comprehension across a large body of text (such as a novel). This is typically the high school reading level for non-struggling students. 

Researcher Carol Choomsky promoted the idea that fluency practice is only for students who have mastered decoding. In other words, fluency practice is not for brand new readers who need time to sound out words. Learning to read is slow work, and new or struggling learners need time as they go through the process of learning. However, new readers must engage in oral reading, learning to monitor their reading accuracy and comprehension.

At Rooted in Language, we recommend that students who have mastered decoding (even older students) continue to read out loud for approximately 30 minutes each day. This goal can be spread throughout their daily curriculum, as students read aloud and discuss meaningful text.

Summary of ideas:

Research continues to address methods to improve fluency, especially regarding oral reading practice in phrasing, prosody and expression. 

Reading is fluent when it sounds like talking, when the student can attend to text and comprehend its meaning, and when they can independently engage with high school level texts.

Oral reading practice is necessary for reading fluency practice. Shanahan recommends that students, who are beyond the learning-to-read level, read out loud approximately 30 minutes a day, no matter their age. Oral reading should be purposeful: 

• Be sure to explain the reason for the practice
• Be sure to guide and give feedback on accuracy, phrasing, and comprehension

Vary the types of text used in practice. It is tempting to focus on poetry reading as a means to work on phrasing, but students need most of their practice with prose. Use both fiction and nonfiction sources, and be sure to work on passages within large bodies of text (such as textbooks or novels) rather than short independent passages. Texts should include:

• mostly prose 
• books at the student’s reading level
• subject area text, such as history or science 

Repeated reading practice should include feedback on how to improve skills, such as reading with better accuracy or breaking sentences into phrases. Remember:

• reread for a purpose (to improve a skill)
• reread a text no more than three times
• throw the timer away (Don’t read for speed! Speed is the result of good reading.)

How can we help?

To learn more about your student’s current reading skills, check out our free download: 5 Steps to Assess Your Student’s Reading Skills.

For more guidance, support, and demonstrations in implementing specific teaching strategies and practice, check out these resources to improve your student's fluency:

• Pinwheels Early Literacy Curriculum
• Foundations for Teaching Reading, Writing & Spelling educator course
• Reading Accuracy, Fluency, and Comprehension educator class

 

 

Citations: 

“A Synthesis of Reading Prosody: Evaluating Phrasong and Syntax Interventions” by Aya Shhub, Zaira Jimenex, and Michael Solis. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 2023.

“Teaching Oral Reading Fluency to Older Students” blog by Timothy Shanahan