Ways to Incorporate Fluency into your Classroom:
Hearing fluent reading is not the same as being a fluent reader. Developing fluency in reading requires practice; this is where the method of repeated readings comes in (Samuels, 1979). Research indicates that repeated readings lead not only to improvement in reading the passage but also to improvement in decoding, reading rate, prosodic reading, and comprehension of passages that the reader has not previously seen (National Reading Panel, 2000).
When to Implement Fluency Activities into Curriculum:
Whole group
Reading groups
Literacy centers
At home
Read aloud
Silent reading
Whole group
Reading groups
Literacy centers
At home
Read aloud
Silent reading
Instruction in Reading Fluency:
This will depend on the area in which students require the most help. Students with difficulties in accuracy require instruction in learning how to decode words. The teacher plays a key role in developing prosodic reading skills by modeling prosodic reading in classroom read-aloud sessions and then discussing the specific oral interpretation that he or she chose. If we emphasize speed at the expense of prosodic and meaningful reading, we will end up with fast readers who understand little of what they have read.
Fountas & Pinnell, (2009) state that shared and performance reading allow students to read text repeatedly, become fluent with it, and think about the meaning. Fluency activities include:
Poetry, scripts, jokes, Read alouds,
Books on tape, Books on the computer (myON, Tumblebooks, Starfall, storyline online)
Audacity, Partner reading
Readers Theater ,Echo/choral reading
Repeated readings, Silent reading or group reading
Word study
Listening Center Ideas:
Listening center-students can listen to books on tapes
Poetry center-students can copy and read poems
Song center-students can read and sing songs
Recording center-students read a story on tape
Note: Round robin reading is not a recommended method for instruction on fluency. Round-robin reading has been found to have little or no relationship to gains in reading achievement. This is because students receive little actual practice in reading because no child is allowed to read for very long (NRP report of subgroups, 2000).
For more fluency activities check out the following: