Fluency in reading is the ability or skill to read texts accurately, quickly, and with expression. It is a very important skill as it helps children move beyond reading words to decoding their meaning and making sense of the text. It helps increase recognition of words and comprehension of information.
In simple terms, reading fluency helps students understand texts and make connections between different ideas that are being expressed.
To build a student’s reading fluency, however, a teacher must first know how to measure it.
Measuring Students’ Reading Levels
Teachers can begin measuring their student’s reading levels through initial and ongoing reading assessments. This can involve assessment measures that test reading skills.
Here are some ways to measure reading ability:
- Ask students to read passages from books that are appropriate for their reading level and record their reading behavior. Reading behavior may involve aspects like speed, accuracy, expression, and more.
- Use miscues to analyze students’ reading issues one-on-one.
- Ask students to retell the text and score their understanding of the text and its structure.
- Give the students an oral or written multiple-choice comprehension test and score their strengths and weaknesses.
- Give students a paragraph to read then ask factual and inferential questions based on actual and implied information within the text.
Once you have a good gauge of students’ reading levels, teachers can then create appropriate lessons to develop students’ reading fluency. Keep in mind that assessments should be performed regularly throughout the curriculum so you can monitor progress.
In the next section, we look at specific activities that can improve fluency in the classroom.
How to Improve Reading Fluency in the Classroom
As educators, there are many ways in which we can help our students achieve reading fluency. Here’s a list of different activities that can strengthen this crucial skill:
- Encourage students to read independently. Make them aware of books about topics they’re interested in and books that they’ll likely to want to read.
- Teach and practice vocabulary that they’re likely find in texts.
- Ask students to read aloud or take turns reading aloud with them.
- Teach students to track words on a page using a ruler or their finger.
- Ask students to read the same text multiple times.
- Use picture books, poems, or comics to get students excited about reading.
- Reread stories that students find interesting.
- Experiment with different fonts, text sizes, and colors.
- Pair students in groups of two to encourage model reading behavior.
- Ask students to read or repeat after you or an assisted tape in unison.
- Focus and drill sight words.
- Record these activities and evaluate them to assess the effectiveness of the exercises.
You can also combine your efforts with digital reading programs to help your students develop their reading skills.
Digital Programs and Student Success in Schools
Digital programs like Lumos Reading Buddy don’t just provide convenient online learning. They also offer engaging curricula that keep students motivated as they achieve reading fluency. These programs feature tailored effective learning exercises while providing insight into specific weaknesses and difficulties through its integrated analytics.
Try the Lumos Reading Buddy!
The Lumos Reading Buddy employs proven research-based strategies to improve students’ reading fluency. The program incorporates several of the exercises and assessments we listed in this article and adds an element of interactivity to make them more engaging. Moreover, it also allows you to track children’s progress during the course with intuitive and easy-to-understand reports.
