Early Childhood & Elementary Educator
Fluency
Fluency is accuracy + rate + prosody. It is the ease and accuracy with which someone reads, writes, or speaks (Bendix, n.d.b).
Fluency is the ease and accuracy in which someone reads, writes, or speaks. Fluency is correlated heavily with comprehension. It is the bridge between word recognition and reading comprehension. Fluency is made up of three components: accuracy, rate, and prosody. Accuracy is how correctly someone reads. Rate is how fast or slow someone reads. Prosody is defined as the patterns of stress or intonation while reading or speaking. PREPS is an acronym that helps us to remember prosody’s five components. The 5 components of prosody are phrasing, rhythm, expression, pitch, and stress (Bendix, n.d.b).
There are many ways that students can build fluency in the classroom. Peer assisted learning strategies (PALS) are strategies that are done with partners in the classroom. They are researched based practices that can greatly benefit students’ fluency. An example of a partner activity includes partner reading. This supports fluency as well as comprehension. Repeated readings are readings that are done 3-8 times to help with fluency. This is an example of an individual instructional approach. Oral and silent reading is another example of an individual instructional approach. The teacher modeling fluency would be an example of a whole class or small group instructional approach (Bendix, n.d.b).
The theory of automaticity is that with a lot of reading practice, students will be able to automatically recognize words while reading. This is the ultimate fluency goal for all students. Students can reach this goal by participating in explicit reading instruction, by reading practice-repeated readings, by using appropriate reading materials, and by using various fluency strategies. These strategies will be further covered below (Bendix, n.d.b).
Artifact

Applications
Vooks
Storyline Online

This application would be used with students. The app offers virtual books that are read aloud to students. Students could use this app to listen to fluent reading and to read along with the stories.

This application would be used with students. The app offers popular stories to be read out loud by celebrities and other notable figures.
Amazon Kids+

This application would be used with students. The app offers virtual books and audiobooks for students to read and listen to.
Website
Commonlit.org
This website has text passages for teachers to use with their students. Teachers can filter the passages by grade, Lexile range, genre, and theme.

Intermediate Strategies
Echo Reading
Focus Skill: Fluency (Accuracy and Rate)
Age and Reading Level: Intermediate
Description: This strategy helps students work on their accuracy and rate while reading a text. The reading instructor reads a sentence from a passage near the student’s frustration level. After the instructor has read the sentence, the student repeats the sentence. This continues for the whole passage.
Materials:
-
Passage near student’s frustration level
Steps for Instruction:
-
The teacher selects a passage that is near the student’s frustration level.
-
The teacher reads a sentence from the selected text.
-
The student models the teacher and reads the same sentence after the teacher.
-
The teacher and student continue reading in this fashion until the end of the passage.
(Walker, n.d.)
Duet Reading
Focus Skill: Fluency (Accuracy and Rate)
Age and Reading Level: Intermediate
Description: This strategy helps students who lose their place while reading and/or need additional practice with rate. This strategy is for a reading instructor to use with a student in a 1:1 fashion.
Materials:
-
Short passage at a student’s independent reading level
Steps for Instruction:
-
The teacher or instructor sits next to the student.
-
The teacher explains the procedure to the student.
-
The student reads the passage aloud. The teacher implements the standard error correction procedure as needed.
-
The student reads the passage aloud a second time. However, this time the teacher and the student alternate every other word. The teacher starts first. The teacher implements the standard error correction procedure as needed.
-
The student reads the passage a third time. The teacher and the student alternate every other word. The student starts first. The teacher implements the standard error correction procedure as needed.
-
The student reads the passage a fourth time. The student reads by themselves.
(Bendix, n.d.a)
Repeated Reading
Focus Skill: Fluency (Accuracy and Rate)
Age and Reading Level: Intermediate
Description: Students read the same text multiple times to work on fluency.
Materials:
-
Text at the reader’s independent reading level
-
Audio of the text being read (optional)
Steps for Instruction:
-
The student selects a text that is at their independent reading level.
-
The student reads the text multiple times for practice.
(Bendix, n.d.b)
Choral Reading
Focus Skill: Fluency (Prosody)
Age and Reading Level: Intermediate
Description: Students in small groups or as a whole class read the same text in unison.
Materials:
-
Short passage(s) that are at students’ independent reading level (1 per student)
Steps for Instruction:
-
Choose a text that is appropriate for the group to read.
-
Provide each student with a copy of the text.
-
Read the passage aloud while modeling fluent reading. Ask students to follow with their finger tracking each word.
-
Reread the passage as a group while everyone speaks in unison.
(Choral, 2022)
Stop and Go
Focus Skill: Fluency (Prosody)
Age and Reading Level: Intermediate
Description: The stop and go strategy is a fluency strategy that teachers or other instructors can complete with students who struggle with punctuation and word phrasing while reading. This strategy encourages students to slow down while reading and to take their time.
Materials:
-
Passage at a student’s independent reading level
Steps for Instruction:
-
Select a passage students can read at their independent reading level.
-
The student will read the passage. At each ending punctuation mark the teacher will say “Stop. 1-2-3, go.” The student will stop and go on cue. This will continue through the first reading of the passage.
-
The student will read the passage a second time. At each ending punctuation mark the student will be instructed to take a breath.
-
The student will read the passage a third time. They will read naturally for this last time.
Assessment
Assessment Title: Multidimensional Fluency Scale (Rasinski, 2004)
Time Needed: 1-2 Minutes
Skills Being Assessed: Fluency
Materials Needed:
-
EARS Rubric
-
Grade Level Passage
-
Pen
Steps to Administer:
-
The instructor reviews the scoring rubric.
-
The student reads a grade level text to the instructor.
-
The instructor listens to the student read for 60 seconds. The instructor fills out the multidimensional fluency scale.
Resources
Bendix, J. (n.d.a) Duet Reading Intervention. D2L. https://winona.learn.minnstate.edu/d2l/le/content/5932651/viewContent/57852125/View
Bendix, J. (n.d.b). Fluency. [PowerPoint slides] College of Education, Winona State University. https://winona.learn.minnstate.edu/d2l/le/content/5932651/viewContent/56754916/View
Choral Reading. Reading Rockets. (2022, October 26). Retrieved December 3, 2022, from https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/choral_reading
Rasinski, T. (2004) Assessing Reading Fluency. Pacific Resources for Education and Learning. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED483166.pdf
Walker, B. (n.d.) Echo Reading. D2L. https://winona.learn.minnstate.edu/d2l/le/content/5932651/viewContent/57852127/View