Fluency
By Jenna Coalson
What is it?
Fluency is the ability to read with automatic word recognition, expression, and meaning.
Rationale
Fluency is not merely the rate at which a student reads. Teachers report that some of their most fluent readers do not comprehend what they read (Deeney, 2010). That is why comprehension is a critical partner of fluency. Fluent readers recognize words automatically and quickly decode unknown words. However, this is only focusing on rate. If they are not understanding the material, then they are not as fluent as they appear.
Artifacts
Reader's Theater
Reader's theater helps improve fluency by allowing the students to read aloud in front of their peers.
Listen to audio version
This recommends allowing the students to listen to an audio version while they read. This will allow them to correctly hear how the words are supposed to be announced and with what expression.
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/audio_assisted_reading
Website
Fluency practice passages
This website gives passages of text that students can work on individually or with assistance to improve fluency.