When we think about teaching our children to read, it’s easy to focus on letter recognition and the sounds that they make, but reading fluency is a critical part of reading that deserves a lot of attention.
What Is Reading Fluency?
Simply put, reading fluency is the ability to read as you speak. So let’s break that down. Reading fluency requires the ability to read a text accurately with understanding, quickly, and with the appropriate expression. While all of those things may seem like a lot to do, strong readers do all of these things simultaneously while reading. Recognizing and decoding words is essential for reading fluency. Without the ability to quickly recognize and decode words, the reader is left struggling with the mechanics of reading, leaving little to no time for understanding and expression.
Why Is Reading Fluency Important?
Reading fluency is important to enjoying and understanding what you are reading. While fluency can fluctuate based on text difficulty, being able to read with ease is the gateway to understanding what is being read. To read with appropriate expression is not only beneficial for reading aloud to others, but also for creating a narrative that is captivating to yourself when you are reading silently.
How Do You Improve Reading Fluency?
Before we talk about improving in reading fluency, let’s quickly talk about how do you know if your child is struggling with fluency? One of the easiest ways to discover if your child is struggling in fluency is to listen to them read aloud a text that is at their grade level or prior known reading level. Pay attention to the following things that are markers of fluency.
- How often do they struggle with words?
- When they come across difficult words, are they able to sound them out?
- Do they understand what they are reading?
- Can they summarize what they read?
- Are they taking note of commas and periods by pausing or stopping?
Once you have assessed these things, you will have more concrete data to work with to determine the way to help your child improve their fluency.
Now that we have discussed that, back to how to improve fluency. Because reading fluency is made up of multiple skills, there are actually many ways to improve fluency. Let’s dive in.
Read Aloud to Your Child
If you don’t know already, I am a huge fan of reading aloud! There are so many benefits to reading aloud and improving reading fluency is just one of them. There’s nothing like learning how to do something than by watching it being modeled correctly. When you read aloud to your child, they are experiencing firsthand how to use appropriate expressions (a good reason to hone your best kindergarten teacher voice), the correct pronunciation of words, and proper sentence flow. Reading aloud is great for books that your child may be interested in but are beyond their reading level.
Have Your Child Read Aloud to You
When your child sees you read aloud, it is only natural for them to also want to read aloud. While the level of the book doesn’t matter when you are reading to your child, you’ll want to make sure that the book they are attempting to read is at their independent reading level. While there are many ways to measure reading level, a quick and easy guide is the five-finger rule. The rule is that on any page of the book, your child shouldn’t struggle with more than five words. If your child is interested in reading a book that is above their reading level, encourage it, just be willing to provide more assistance.
Teach High-Frequency Words
High-Frequency words are words that are commonly found in the English language. These words are found in over 50% of all texts. High-frequency words are also sight words, which are simply words that can be recognized without the need to sound them out. These words can easily be practiced with flashcards. Be sure to also identify these words in books when your child is first learning them in order to make the connection of how often they are used and why they are important to learn.
Reread, Reread, Reread
Little kids love to reread and there’s good reason to encourage it, even if you’re tired of hearing the same story. Rereading allows for the reader to give more attention to make sense of what they are reading. It helps to develop accuracy with decoding and word identification and best of all, it builds confidence. Regardless of reading level, who wouldn’t want that?
Turn on an Audiobook
Before my eldest son could independently read, he lived on audiobooks and he still enjoys them. Yes, read-aloud time is important, but audiobooks have a very special place too. Like reading aloud, audiobooks encourage oral reading fluency, by listening to the flow of sentences, hearing the correct pronunciation of words, and they are entertaining! We love audiobooks in the car, if someone isn’t feeling well, and let’s be honest when you need a break from talking!
Make Connections
As with all things in life, we learn best when we can make connections to what we are learning. In reading, attempt to connect the story to your child in some way. Ask questions such as, “Do any of the characters remind you of someone you know or yourself?” “Have you gone through an experience similar to a character in the story?” Making connections help the child engage with the words and make meaning of them.
Ask Questions & Provide Feedback
When your child reads aloud to you, pay close attention. If they are stumbling over the same words or are always having trouble type of words (for example, words that end in a silent e), take time to review phonics rules with them. If you don’t know the rule, look it up. For those who didn’t learn phonics growing up, you will be surprised at all of the rules that can be learned to help with decoding. Admitting to your child that you don’t know a rule, but can find it out with them and learn it with them will make an automatic connection that will promote continued learning.
Reading Fluency Resources:
With the tips above, hopefully, you’re on the road to feeling equipped to help your child improve their reading fluency. Here are a few resources that can help you with those tips!
- Fry Sight Words – A list of common sight words to review
- Hooked on Phonics – Phonics based reading program
- Readability – Reading app to assist in comprehension, live reading, and vocabulary
