What is fluency?
Why is fluency important?
Fluency is the ability to read words in a text accurately and without effort. When children no longer focus on decoding or figuring out words, their ability to recognize words has become automatic. However, automatic word recognition is not enough for children to be completely fluent. Fluency also means reading aloud with expression, changing tone, as well as pausing and phrasing appropriately.
Fluency is the bridge between word recognition and comprehension. Fluent readers are able to focus their attention on making meaning of the text. Students who lack automaticity in word recognition read at a slower pace, making the reading experience difficult and impacting comprehension and reader confidence negatively.
Watch Dr. Tim Rasinski explain why fluency is not fast reading.
Myth Buster! Fluency is not fast reading!
Need more?
Contact your child's teacher for additional information.
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Reading fluency is an indispensable key to success in reading. Tim Rasinski, leading researcher in fluency development
Helping Your Child Develop Fluency
Model fluent reading by reading aloud with your child or by listening to audiobooks.
Provide support for readers by giving your child opportunities to read aloud with you or independently using text that is easy to read.
Provide feedback on your child's oral reading by asking him or her to read with expression and to read smoothly (not word-by-word).
Reread your child's favorite books as often as requested. Continue to model fluent reading, but experiment with different voices, emotions, or rates of reading to help tune your child's ear to what fluent reading sounds like.
Show how to "chunk" text by reading sentences in phrases. For example, the sentence We went to the store. can be phrased like this: We went (brief pause) to the store. Modeling phrasing discourages word-by-word reading which hinders fluency.
Provide easy reading materials for your child to practice reading fluently.
What books support fluency?
Books whose text follows a repeating pattern like...
Books that have rhyming text like............................
Books that have text you can sing like....................
Books that are wild and silly like.............................
Books that have poems & nursery rhymes like.........