Skip to Main Content

Foundations of Literacy Digital Reference Tool

Overview of Fluency

What are the components of fluency?

How does fluency relate to motivation and confidence?

This video can help answer those questions.

Five From Five provides a robust overview of fluency, evidence based practices, assessment strategies, and ideas to support students who struggle with fluency. Here is their definition of fluency:

Once you have determined a student's oral reading fluency score, you can compare it to national norms to see where they are and how accelerated your intervention needs to be to help them reach their grade level expectation.

 

https://www.deb.co.nz/resource-hub/free-assessments/fluency-reading-rockets/ 

Big Ideas About Fluency from Research and Theory

According to NRP findings:

  • Skilled readers read words accurately, rapidly and efficiently. 
  • Children who do not develop reading fluency, no matter how bright they are, will continue to read slowly and with great effort. 
  • Studies demonstrated the effectiveness of explicit instruction (i.e., via guided oral reading) to improve reading fluency.
  • Classroom practices that encourage repeated oral reading with feedback and guidance leads to meaningful improvements in reading expertise
  • The NRP did not find evidence supporting the effectiveness of encouraging independent silent reading as a means of improving reading achievement
  • Teachers should assess fluency regularly.

Five From Five reminds us:

     

Stevens, Walker, and Vaughn (2017) found that RR (repeated reading) remains the most effective intervention for improving reading fluency for students with reading difficulties. 

There is lots of research to support the use of Repeated Reading for fluency development:

Best Practices for Fluency

Focus on fluency of:

  • Letter Sounds
  • Letter names
  • Words
  • Phrases
  • Passage Reading

For passage reading fluency in particular, Five from Five reminds us:

Methods for building fluency include:

  • Independent silent reading
  • Assisted Reading
    • Teacher-Assisted
    • Peer-Assisted
    • Audio-Assisted
  • Repeated Oral Reading
    • Timed Repeated Oral Reading (with teacher)
    • Partner Reading (with classmate)
    • Phrase-Cued Reading (class, group, or 1:1 activity with teacher)
  • Integrated Fluency Instruction

Repeated Reading

Repeated reading can be used with students who have developed initial word reading skills but demonstrate inadequate reading fluency for their grade level. (IES)

Learn about Repeated Reading here, here, and here. Below are some important instructional considerations to keep in mind.

  • Passages should be 50-200 words, with shorter passages used for students with lowest reading ability.
  • Short passages ensure that students are able to carry over what they learned in the first reading into subsequent attempts.
  • Passages should be at students' "frustration levels" - because if they're not making mistakes, they're not likely to see improvement with repetition. (Frustration = below 90% accuracy)
  • Research suggests that 3 readings are sufficient, but some teachers do 4.
  • Repeated Reading may not be as effective for students with dyslexia. (Norton, 2024)

Steps to Repeated Reading

Step 1: Select an appropriate passage
- Short (50-200 words)
- At student's current reading level
- Decodable text aligned with current phonics skills

Step 2: First Read
- Student reads passage for the first time
- Teacher tracks errors and notes reading rate (graph the results - consider color-coding each attempt)
- Focus on accuracy, not speed

Step 3: Repeated Readings
- Student reads same passage 3-4 times
- Goal is to improve:
       - Reading speed
       - Accuracy
       - Prosody (expression/intonation)

Step 4: Track Progress
- Use a fluency chart or graph
- Record words read correctly per minute
- Celebrate improvement

Step 5: Comprehension Check (optional)
- After multiple readings, ask student comprehension questions
- Ensures reading isn't just mechanical

Pro Tips:
- Use a timer
- Provide positive, specific feedback
- Make it engaging, not stressful\

Phrase Cued Reading

You can help your students improve their PROSODY by teaching them to chunk meaningful groups of words together when reading. Phrase cued reading is a good way to model and practice this. In phrase cued reading, the students are given an appropriate decodable text, then use slash marks or "scooping" lines to show where the meaningful chunks start and end. 

Here's a video of a teacher explaining and demonstrating the strategy.

Improving Reading Fluency: Tips for phrase cued reading for new intervention teachers

 

Additional Reading