Kelli Mason Literacy Coach

What is fluency?  Reading quickly (Rate)  Reading accurately (Accuracy)  Reading with expression (Prosody)  Reading with automaticity

Why do I care about fluency?  A lack of reading fluency is a reliable predictor of reading comprehension problems.  Lack of fluent reading is a problem because the reader tends to read in a disconnected fashion with a focus on decoding at the word level that makes comprehension of the text difficult, if not impossible.  Because comprehension requires higher order thinking processes that cannot become automatic, word identification must be the automatic process.  Students who read slowly often fail to complete their work, lose interest in school, and seldom read for pleasure. (Hudson, Lane, and Pullen, 2005)

Reading with Automaticity  Quick, accurate recognition of letters and words (i.e. sight words)  Frees cognitive resources to process meaning (comprehension)

How to Teach Fluency  Repeated readings (especially with feedback)  Modeling fluency (audio books, reading aloud)  “Chunking” text  Partnered reading  Readers’ Theatre  Self recordings (podcasts?)