What is Fluency?
Fluency is the ability to read a text correctly and quickly.
Here are some things you can do at home to help your child improve fluency skills:
Things to keep in mind:
Familiar books allow a student to practice fluency.
Provide appropriate text for your child to read. (Students should be practicing fluency on text that is at their independent reading level. An independent leveled text is relatively easy for the reader. You want your child to have around a 95% success rate. No more than roughly 1 in 20 difficult words.)
Help students to read punctuation.
For Example:
Patty Lee is my best friend.
Patty, Lee is my best friend.
Who is the best friend? It depends on how the sentence is read.
- Repeated reading. Read a passage to your child, and then ask them to repeat the reading. Have them repeat the reading until they are reading smoothly and are able to read with expression.
- Choral reading. You and your child can read passages together out loud. Reading together provides an opportunity to increase vocabulary as you discuss the meanings of words in the text.
- Echo reading. Read a line or sentence from a book and/or textbook and then have your child read the same line, trying to "mimic" your expression and ease of reading.
- Tape recording. Have your child record their reading. Then ask them to re-read the passage several times and record it so they can hear the difference.
- Choice in reading. Suggest interesting and fun things for them to read. Then talk with them about what they read.
- Audio books. Students can follow along with the book while listening to the audio.
- Silent reading. The more a person reads the more automatic it becomes!
- Model fluent reading. Read out loud smoothly and with expression from a newspaper article, magazine, or your child's textbook.
Things to keep in mind:
Familiar books allow a student to practice fluency.
Provide appropriate text for your child to read. (Students should be practicing fluency on text that is at their independent reading level. An independent leveled text is relatively easy for the reader. You want your child to have around a 95% success rate. No more than roughly 1 in 20 difficult words.)
Help students to read punctuation.
For Example:
Patty Lee is my best friend.
Patty, Lee is my best friend.
Who is the best friend? It depends on how the sentence is read.