What
is fluency?Fluency refers to a student's speed, accuracy, phrasing and expression in reading. Fluent reading sounds natural, like talking. Readers who have not yet developed fluency read slowly, word by word or in short phrases, and often in monotone. While this is typical for early/emergent readers, once students have a solid sight word base and they become automatic with phonetic applications, fluency should follow.
Fluent
readers focus their attention on making connections among ideas in
text, as well as between the text and their background knowledge.
In other words, fluent readers recognize words and comprehend at
the same time. Less fluent readers, however, focus their attention
primarily on figuring out words, i.e. decoding, leaving them little
attention for understanding the text, i.e. comprehending.
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Approaches
that contribute to fluency growth and overall reading
achievement:
--Repeated and monitored oral reading with guidance
--Instructor modeling of fluent reading followed by student
re-reading
--Repeated practice with familiar text at the independent reading
level
--Graphing reading rate over repeated readings
--Buddy reading, partner reading, and student-adult reading
--Performance of reader's theater scripts
