What is reading fluency

Fluency | Reading Rockets

Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. Their reading is smooth and has expression.

Children who do not read with fluency sound choppy and awkward. Those students may have difficulty with decoding skills or they may just need more practice with speed and smoothness in reading. Fluency is also important for motivation; children who find reading laborious tend not to want read! As readers head into upper elementary grades, fluency becomes increasingly important. The volume of reading required in the upper elementary years escalates dramatically. Students whose reading is slow or labored will have trouble meeting the reading demands of their grade level.

What the problem looks like

A kid's perspective: What this feels like to me

Children will usually express their frustration and difficulties in a general way, with statements like "I hate reading!" or "This is stupid!". But if they could, this is how kids might describe how fluency difficulties in particular affect their reading:

• I just seem to get stuck when I try to read a lot of the words in this chapter.
• It takes me so long to read something.
• Reading through this book takes so much of my energy, I can't even think about what it means.

A parent's perspective: What I see at home

Here are some clues for parents that a child may have problems with fluency:

• He knows how to read words but seems to take a long time to read a short book or passage silently.
• She reads a book with no expression.
• He stumbles a lot and loses his place when reading something aloud.
• She reads aloud very slowly.
• She moves her mouth when reading silently (subvocalizing).

A teacher's perspective: What I see in the classroom

Here are some clues for teachers that a student may have problems with fluency:

• Her results on words-correct-per-minute assessments are below grade level or targeted benchmark.
• She has difficulty and grows frustrated when reading aloud, either because of speed or accuracy.
• He does not read aloud with expression; that is, he does not change his tone where appropriate.
• She does not "chunk" words into meaningful units.
• When reading, he doesn't pause at meaningful breaks within sentences or paragraphs.

How to help

With the help of parents and teachers, kids can learn strategies to cope with fluency issues that affect his or her reading. Below are some tips and specific things to do.

What kids can do to help themselves

• Track the words with your finger as a parent or teacher reads a passage aloud. Then you read it.
• Have a parent or teacher read aloud to you. Then, match your voice to theirs.
• Read your favorite books and poems over and over again. Practice getting smoother and reading with expression.

What parents can do to help at home

• Support and encourage your child. Realize that he or she is likely frustrated by reading.
• Check with your child's teachers to find out their assessment of your child's word decoding skills.
• If your child can decode words well, help him or her build speed and accuracy by:
  • Reading aloud and having your child match his voice to yours
  • Having your child practice reading the same list of words, phrase, or short passages several times
  • Reminding your child to pause between sentences and phrases
• Read aloud to your child to provide an example of how fluent reading sounds.
• Give your child books with predictable vocabulary and clear rhythmic patterns so the child can "hear" the sound of fluent reading as he or she reads the book aloud.
• Use books on tapes; have the child follow along in the print copy.

What teachers can do to help at school

• Assess the student to make sure that word decoding or word recognition is not the source of the difficulty (if decoding is the source of the problem, decoding will need to be addressed in addition to reading speed and phrasing).
• Give the student independent level texts that he or she can practice again and again. Time the student and calculate words-correct-per-minute regularly. The student can chart his or her own improvement.
• Ask the student to match his or her voice to yours when reading aloud or to a tape recorded reading.
• Read a short passage and then have the student immediately read it back to you.
• Have the student practice reading a passage with a certain emotion, such as sadness or excitement, to emphasize expression and intonation.
• Incorporate timed repeated readings into your instructional repertoire.
• Plan lessons that explicitly teach students how to pay attention to clues in the text (for example, punctuation marks) that provide information about how that text should be read.

More information

Find out more about fluency issues with these resources:

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What Is Fluency? Why Is Fluency Important? :: Read Naturally, Inc.

What Is Fluency?

Fluency is the ability to read "like you speak." Hudson, Lane, and Pullen define fluency this way: "Reading fluency is made up of at least three key elements: accurate reading of connected text at a conversational rate with appropriate prosody or expression." Non-fluent readers suffer in at least one of these aspects of reading: they make many mistakes, they read slowly, or they don't read with appropriate expression and phrasing.

​ Developing reading fluency with Read Naturally Strategy programs

Key Concepts

Why Is Fluency Important?

For many years, educators have recognized that fluency is an important aspect of reading. Reading researchers agree. Over 30 years of research indicates that fluency is one of the critical building blocks of reading, because fluency development is directly related to comprehension.

Here are the results of one study by Fuchs, Fuchs, Hosp, and Jenkins that shows how oral reading fluency correlates highly with reading comprehension. 

To interpret this type of correlation data, consider that a perfect match would be 1. 0. As you can see, oral recall/retelling, fill in the blank, and question answering are all above 0.6, which indicates there is a strong correlation. But oral reading fluency is by far the strongest, with a .91 correlation.

Many researchers, including Breznitz, Armstrong, Knupp, Lesgold, and Pinnell, have found that fluency is highly correlated with reading comprehension—that is, when a student reads fluently, that student is likely to comprehend what he or she is reading.

Why are reading fluency and reading comprehension so highly correlated? Dr. S. Jay Samuels, a professor and researcher well known for his work in fluency, put forth a theory called the automaticity theory. According to Dr. Samuels, people have a limited amount of mental energy. If you want to multitask or to become proficient at a complex task such as reading, you first need to master the component tasks so you can do them automatically. For example, a reader who must focus his or her attention on decoding words may not have enough mental energy left over to think about the meaning of the text.  However, a fluent reader who can automatically decode the words can instead give full attention to comprehending the text. To become proficient readers, our students need to become automatic with text so they can pay attention to the meaning.

See also:

• Determining who needs fluency instruction
• Hasbrouck-Tindal oral reading fluency norms
• Video: Why reading fluency is important

Challenges Faced by Non-Fluent Readers

Students become fluent by reading. Some students learn to read fluently without explicit instruction. For others, however, fluency doesn't develop in the course of normal classroom instruction. 

Research analyzed by the National Reading Panel suggests that just encouraging students to read independently isn't the most effective way to improve reading achievement. Too often, simply encouraging at-risk students to read doesn't result in increased reading on their part. During sustained silent reading, at-risk readers may get a book with mostly pictures and look at the pictures, or they choose a difficult book so they will look like everyone else and then pretend to read.

Even if at-risk students do read, they read more slowly than the other students. In a 10-minute reading period, a proficient reader who reads 200 words a minute silently could read 2,000 words. In the same 10 minutes, an at-risk student who reads 50 words a minute would only read 500 words. This is equal reading time but certainly not an equal number of words read.

These students need to read more, but just asking them to read on their own often doesn't work. The National Reading Panel has concluded that a more effective course of action is for us to explicitly teach developing readers how to read fluently, step by step.

Research-Proven Fluency Strategies

How do we explicitly teach students to read fluently? The National Reading Panel found data supporting three strategies that improve fluency, comprehension, and reading achievement—teacher modeling, repeated reading, and progress monitoring.

Teacher Modeling

The first strategy is teacher modeling.  Research demonstrates that various forms of modeling can improve reading fluency. Examples of teacher modeling include:

• Teacher-assisted reading
• Peer-assisted reading
• Audio-assisted reading

Teacher modeling involves more than just listening to someone else read. Students must be actively involved 100 percent of the time and in a multisensory way.

Teacher modeling teaches word recognition in a meaningful context, demonstrates correct phrasing, and gives students practice tracking across the page. A child can benefit from teacher modeling once he or she knows at least 50 sight words and has a good sense of beginning sounds.

The reading rate of the model reader is important. Christopher Skinner, a reading researcher, found that students who read lists of words with him slowly were more fluent with the words than students who read with him at a faster rate. The slower rate enables students to learn new words and clarify difficult words.  As students learn more words, they naturally become more fluent.

Another form of modeling is the neurological impress method. In the neurological impress method, a proficient and a struggling reader read together from a passage, with the more able reader reading near the rate of the struggling reader. Heckelman (1969) showed that after 29 15-minute sessions, 24 seventh- through ninth-grade boys, who were an average of 3 years behind in reading, gained an average of 1.9 years in reading based on the Oral Gilmore and the California Achievement Test.

Repeated Reading

Another technique that research has shown significantly builds reading fluency is repeated reading. In fact, the National Reading Panel says this is the most powerful way to improve reading fluency. This involves simply reading the same material over and over again until accurate and expressive.

In the 1970s, LaBerge and Samuels studied what happens when students read passages over and over again.  They found that when students reread passages, they got faster at reading the passages, understood them better, and were able to read subsequent passages better as a result of the repeated reading.

Repeated reading is a form of mastery learning. The students read the same words so many times that they begin to know them and are able to identify them in other text. Besides helping students bring words to mastery, repeated reading changes the way students view themselves in relation to the act of reading.

Progress Monitoring

People who play video games are presented with a specific goal and with immediate, relevant feedback about their progress toward that goal. This combination of having a goal and getting feedback on progress can be very motivating.

Progress monitoring takes advantage of this combination to motivate students to read. You give students a specific, individual reading goal, and you tell them exactly how you're going to know they've met it.  Then, you give them the means to measure how they're doing. Finally, you make it simple enough that they'll know they've met their goal even before you do. This progress monitoring is what motivates students to practice reading the same story over and over until achieving mastery.

​Developing Reading Fluency With Read Naturally Strategy Programs

The research-based Read Naturally Strategy combines these three strategies into highly effective programs that accelerate reading achievement. Students become confident readers by developing fluency, phonics skills, comprehension, and vocabulary while reading leveled text. The time-tested intervention programs engage students with interesting nonfiction stories and yield powerful results.

 Learn more about the Read Naturally Strategy
 Research basis for the Read Naturally Strategy

The Read Naturally Strategy is available in a variety of formats: 

Choosing the right Read Naturally Strategy program

One Minute Reader® Structured, supplemental reading program for developing literacy skills independently. Available in these formats: One Minute Reader Live (component of web-based Read Live for supplemental reading at school) One Minute Reader books/audio CDs (for a school-to-home checkout program)

Bibliography

Armstrong, S. W. (1983). The effects of material difficulty upon learning disabled children's oral reading and reading comprehension. Learning Disability Quarterly, 6, pp. 339–348.

Breznitz, Z. (1987). Increasing first graders' reading accuracy and comprehension by accelerating their reading rates. Journal of Educational Psychology, 79(3), pp. 236–242.

Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Hosp, M. K., & Jenkins, J. R. (2001). Oral reading fluency as an indicator of reading competence: A theoretical, empirical, and historical analysis. Scientific Studies of Reading, 5(3), pp. 239–256.

Heckelman, R. G. (1969). A neurological-impress method of remedial-reading instruction. Academic Therapy Quarterly, 5(4), pp. 277–282.

Hudson, R. F., H. B. Lane, and P. C. Pullen. (2005). Reading fluency assessment and instruction: What, why, and how. Reading Teacher 58(8), pp. 702-714.

Knupp, R. (1988). Improving oral reading skills of educationally handicapped elementary school-aged students through repeated readings. Practicum paper, Nova University (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 297275).

LaBerge, D., & Samuels, S. J. (1974). Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading. Cognitive Psychology, 6, pp. 292–323.

Lesgold, A., Resnick, L. B., & Hammond, K. (1985). Learning to read: A longitudinal study of word skill development in two curricula. In G. Waller & E. MacKinon (eds.), Reading research:  Advances in theory and practice. New York, NY: Academic Press.

National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction.  Washington, DC: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Pinnell, G. S., Pikulski, J. J., Wixson, K. K., Campbell, J. R., Gough, P. B., & Beatty, A. S. (1995). Listening to children read aloud: Data from NAEP's integrated reading performance record (IRPR) at grade 4 (NCES Publication 95-726). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics.

Samuels, S. J. (2002). Reading fluency: Its development and assessment. In A. E. Farstrup & S. J. Samuels (eds.), What research has to say about reading instruction, 3rd ed., pp. 166–183. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Samuels, S. J. (1997). The method of repeated readings. The Reading Teacher, 50(5), pp. 376–381.

Samuels, S. J. (2006). Towards a model of reading fluency. In S. J. Samuels and A. E. Farstrup (eds.), What research has to say about fluency instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Samuels, S. J. (1997). The method of repeated readings. The Reading Teacher, 50(5), pp. 376–381.

Skinner, C. H., Logan, P., Robinson, S. L., & Robinson, D. H. (1997). Demonstration as a reading intervention for exceptional learners. School Psychology Review, 26(3), pp. 437–447.

5 Simple and Effective Ways to Improve Reading Fluency

Reading fluently means reading at a natural pace, with expression, and at the same time understanding what you read. How can you help your students and children learn to read fluently? Isn't it enough just to read more?

In fact, non-verbal reading (note: reading to oneself, not out loud) does not help people who have difficulty reading fluently. The National Reading Panel states: "Empirical studies show that independent non-verbal reading has little effect on the development of reading speed." In this case, it is necessary to consider whether the student should continue to read in the wrong way in the hope of gradually improving his skills if he has difficulty reading?

​

This is very similar to learning to paint. Having received some useful advice from the teacher, the student begins to understand the basic techniques of painting. The teacher breaks down each step and then checks how each one works to make sure the students have understood everything correctly.

​

Should we do the same for our students - make sure they read diligently, progressing step by step, the way an art teacher approaches each student to make sure that our technique will lead us to the desired result? Would a student have a better understanding of the technique of the art of painting if he silently and clumsily tried to draw something on his own? This is exactly what happens to the student who does not talk about his reading problems.

​

Despite this, non-verbal reading plays an important role in a student's life. Once he reaches the level of fluent reading, he should continue to read everything that comes to hand at his usual speed.

​

Here are the best ways to improve reading fluency:

​

1. Show an example of fluent reading: demonstrate how to read aloud correctly. Other adults can help with this too: tutors, parents, siblings, etc. In this way, the student will hear how the text should sound in order to get a clearer understanding of how speech is built, including correctly spaced pauses at the end of sentences, rising intonation when using questions, etc.

2. Reading aloud: have your students read aloud loudly and clearly, not necessarily fast. As you gain experience in reading and improve his skills, the speed will most likely increase as well.

3. Choral reading (or reading in unison): this is a group practice in which you read a passage of text to your students and they repeat it in unison. This provides group reading practice and can also help a child who is too shy to read aloud in front of others.

4. Reader's Theatre: This is a fun transformation of ordinary reading into a kind of performance. Each student should work as a team with their classmates, reading with expression and conveying the meaning of what is written. This will help improve not only reading efficiency, but also teamwork skills.

5. Praise for fluent reading: a little praise sometimes works wonders. Remember to also gently point out problem areas so that students know what to work on. Reading is extremely difficult for some, so do not forget to encourage them to continue their work!

Now that you know that independent non-verbal reading does not help students with reading difficulties, what approach would you take for literature lessons to make them more effective? Pay attention to the Fast ForWord software package, which now includes the Reading Assistant, which is:

​

• demonstrates a sample of correct reading (reads aloud to a student)

• listens and analyzes how the child reads aloud

• helps you practice the correct pronunciation of

• helps build vocabulary

• helps to understand the meanings of unfamiliar words

This is a kind of personal reading tutor built into your computer, and this program is very effective, especially for children who are not helped by silent reading.

Practice, backed by the right methods and the right support, is the key to the success of beginning readers.

​

Source

Development of reading fluency in primary school students

Reading can be compared to the main road in the land of knowledge. All subsequent education - mathematics, biology, social sciences will be based on the child's ability to understand what is written, use the language, on his ability to isolate the meaning of the written text.

Reading is one of the complex and significant forms of human mental activity that performs psychological and social functions. Reading is a complex intellectual process, multi-level and multi-link in structure, active in flow.

In order to read correctly and at a high speed, you need the coordinated work of several analyzers: visual, speech-motor, speech-auditory. The process of reading begins with visual perception, discrimination and recognition of letters. In the future, the letters are correlated with the corresponding sounds and the sound-producing image of the word is reproduced, its reading is carried out. And, finally, due to the correlation of the sound form of the word with its meaning, the understanding of what is being read is carried out.

Reading skill characteristics include:

1. correctness;
2. consciousness;
3. fluency;
4. expressiveness.

Without the ability to read clearly, without errors, expressively, the student will not understand the meaning of the text, and the main goal of reading will not be achieved. Therefore, working on the technical side of the reading process, on developing a fairly fast pace, is very important.

Reading fluency is the normal pace of reading that contributes to the conscious and correct perception of the text.
In elementary school students, and especially in students with speech disorders, very often this skill is not sufficiently formed. There are few methodological developments on this problem.

The purpose of work is to develop reading fluency in primary school students.

The implementation of this goal was carried out in the process of solving the following tasks:

1. Reading literature on this topic.
2. Selection of special exercises aimed at developing fluent reading.
3. Creation of didactic games and visual material.
4. The use of special exercises, didactic games and aids in speech therapy classes to overcome dyslexia.
5. Development of a methodology for developing reading fluency in younger students and the implementation of experimental teaching of students.
6. Formation in children of interest in books, in independent reading.

Based on the methodological developments of Lalayeva R.I., Kornev A.N., Kostromina S.N., Nagaeva L.G., Kozyreva L.M., Gorodilova V.I. and taking into account the principles of consistency and systematicity, accessibility and specificity, a methodology was created, the purpose of which is to help students with speech disorders (fuzzy, blurry articulation, deficiencies in the development of phonemic and lexico-grammatical aspects of speech) in mastering the skill of fluent reading.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary that parallel work be carried out in the following areas:

- development of phonemic analysis, synthesis, representations;
- development of phonemic perception, differentiation of letters denoting acoustic-articulatory close sounds;
- development of mobility of the articulatory apparatus, the formation of the skill of pronunciation of words of a complex syllabic composition;
- activation and replenishment of vocabulary;
- improvement of the grammatical structure of speech;
- development of visual perception, attention and memory;
- formation of activity, independence, skills of control and self-control.

This technique is a system of exercises and speech games presented on cards (size 10*15) and designed as individual albums, as well as a set of visual material for group reading. The addressee is students of 2-3 grades. Selectively, the methodology can also be used in work with students of the 1st and 4th grades.

The optimal conditions for correctional and developmental work are the joint activities of students, teachers, speech therapists and parents. Classes are recommended to be carried out 3 times a week, lasting 10-15 minutes (with individual lessons 5-10 minutes), with daily training exercises at home.
Based on the tasks listed above, 2 sections of the methodology were developed.

The first section is aimed at developing the skill of fluent reading through various, unusual exercises with syllables, words, sentences and texts, the implementation of which in a relaxed atmosphere creates a positive emotional background and ensures the formation of a number of perceptual and mental operations and abilities, which, as components components are included in the reading process. In other words, the child with difficulty in reading is encouraged to take a break from this "tedious" activity for a while and instead engage in fun exercises with verbal material; the implementation of these exercises leads to the formation of a number of important operations that underlie reading; having mastered them, the child subsequently reads much better.

The proposed set of exercises is aimed at the formation and automation of reading skills in the following sequence:

1) reading syllables;
2) reading words;
3) reading phrases and sentences;
4) reading tongue twisters and tongue twisters;
5) reading texts.

Here are some examples of cards:

1. Reading open syllables .

Tasks:

- read syllables in green, red, etc.;
- read syllables consisting of large letters, from letters of small print;
- read syllables with the vowel A, with the vowel I, etc.;
- come up with words that begin with these syllables;
- read the syllables in columns, line by line;
- read 1 line of syllables in one breath, 2 lines of syllables;
- read the syllables in columns from bottom to top, in lines from right to left;
- read the syllables for a while.

2. Reading words

3. Reading sentences

4. Reading tongue twisters

Read the poem
TRACTOR in the sky is like a bird,
BOAT rushes along the rails,
TRAIN runs on the river,
Glider plows in the distance,
FISH neighs under the rider,
The HORSE leads with its fin.
Now try to "arrange" the words correctly.

The second section of is devoted to developing the skill of fluent, clear reading in speech therapy classes to overcome lexical and grammatical disorders and fill in the gaps in the development of the sound side of speech (stages I and II of correctional work).

When conducting classes with a group of children, a speech therapist very often has to deal with a lack of practical material for students to read. Therefore, the second section includes exercises aimed at correcting and improving various aspects of speech:

1. Development of a clear auditory-pronunciation differentiation of oppositional sounds on the material:

- syllables;
- words;
- phrases and sentences;
- tongue twisters and tongue twisters;
- text.

2. Activation and replenishment of the dictionary both by accumulating new words that are different parts of speech, and by developing the ability to actively use various methods of word formation. Students should be encouraged to read:

- single-root words;
- words formed with the help of different prefixes from the same root;
- words that have the same prefixes, but different roots;
- words formed with the help of suffixes from one root;
- words that have the same suffixes but different roots;
- different words with the same endings;
- antonyms, synonyms.

3. Improving the grammatical structure of speech by students mastering word combinations, the connection of words in a sentence, models of various syntactic constructions.

Practical reading material includes exercises to develop the following skills:

- use of prepositional case constructions;
- the use of nouns in the singular and plural;
- agreement of nouns with adjectives, numerals;
- differentiation of verbs singular. and many others. numbers, changing past tense verbs by gender;
- the use of sentences of complex syntactic constructions.

Thus, the second section presents exercises that develop not only reading fluency, but also one of its most important qualities - awareness.

Examples of reading cards:

1. Differentiation C - G

a) on the material of words

b) on the material of phrases

Gift, to give, donated.
Offended, offended, offended.
Runaway, runaway, runaway.
Gait, walking, marching.
Clean, clean, clean.
Greenery, greenery, greenery.
Freshness, refresh, fresh.
Fun, have fun, cheerful.
Freeze, freeze, frosty.

Repair deformed text using words with the same root.

It's snowing. The lungs smoothly fall to the ground ... . And now they have already dressed in ... a fur coat on the roofs of houses, streets, squares. Toddlers expanse. Ka-tyat ... clods, they mold fat ones .

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