Reading Fluency
Knowledge-Building for Teachers Series
Fluency is described as the bridge between decoding and comprehension. Often misunderstood to mean only reading quickly, it is actually a combination of accuracy, automaticity, and prosody (or expression). With the use of poetry, readers theater, and rich texts, fluency can be one of the most enjoyable parts of literacy instruction. A simple 5-10 minute routine can create a culture of engaging and expressive performance in the classroom.
Fluency with Poetry
perfect for prosody
Fluency Development Lesson p. 14, by Timothy Rasinski
Tim Rasinski’s Fluency Development Lesson combined with poetry is a standard piece of my literacy instruction. I use the recommended poems from the Core Knowledge Sequence or readers theater (see below). You can see clips of my fluency routine here.
Fluency with Readers Theater
act it out
Readers Theater by Aaron Grossman and Marilyn Stefan
This site offers a plethora of readers theater scripts to use for engaging fluency instruction in the classroom! In addition, links to the “3 Phases of Fluency” and a video of the routines are also included.
Podcast
short, sweet, on-the-go
Ep. 62: Effective Fluency Instruction with Tim Rasinski with Melissa and Lori Love Literacy
This is the episode that changed my fluency instruction forever. I learned so much about fluency from Dr. Rasinski in this episode, and his work has informed my fluency instruction ever since.
Blog with Video Clip
quick reads
Reading Aloud for Fluency: Celebration is as Important as Correction by Teach Like a Champion
This TLAC blog post highlights creating a culture for students to read out loud. When I first tried this out in my classroom, I was worried students would be too embarrassed to read in front of their peers. But they love to get chosen to read out loud.
A Beautiful Example of FASE Reading from Jessica Sliman’s Classroom by Teach Like a Champion
FASE reading from the new The Teach Like a Champion Guide to the Science of Reading, is highlighted in this blog post and video clip. It is really amazing the culture that is created in a classroom where students are supported to read out loud.
Instructional Guide
expert knowledge
Primary Reading Simplified: A Practical Guide to Classroom Teaching and Whole-School Implementation by Christopher Such
I have implemented Christopher Such’s reading lesson structure in my whole class reading lessons. One piece of that instruction includes a fluency read. This involves me (the teacher) modeling a small portion of text or poetry and then having my students practice it in pairs. I then ask a student to perform for the class. They do amazing at performing with their best prosody, and we all clap and cheer for them!
Fluency Resources
classroom staples
Increasing Fluency with High Frequency Word Phrases Grade 3 by Timothy Rasinski and Edward Fry
This series for all grade levels combines phrase reading, passages, specific fluency skills, and comprehension questions for daily in-depth fluency instruction. I just started using it this year and have already seen higher growth in fluency on progress monitoring assessments.
The Megabook of Fluency by Timothy Rasinski and Melissa Cheesman Smith
This is a fluency instruction staple! This is a must-have resource for a wide variety of fluency resources.
Thank you for this - awesome list of resources!
I started exclusively doing FASE reading with my class this year. I thought my struggling readers would not go for it. Now, I have three or four students that have their hands up nonstop to read during any lesson. It is powerful. I love getting a chance to hear them all read multiple times a week.