Fluency Key Points

Definition Fluency is the ability to read words automatically with no apparent cognitive effort. It involves reading with automaticity, accuracy, and prosody.

Fluency is the bridge between word recognition and comprehension.

Fluency is a requisite for and an outcome of comprehension. Fluency frees the reader’s attention for constructing meaning and making connections among ideas in the text and between the text and prior knowledge.

A thorough foundation in phonics helps students become more fluent readers.

Developing fluency is particularly important after children have learned lettersound correspondences and are reading words as whole units. The most beneficial fluency practice occurs when the text is at the student’s independent reading level (at least 95% accuracy). The readability level of a text may differ depending on the text and the readability scale used. When directly teaching fluency skills, the greatest gain will occur when the difficulty of the text used is at the student’s instructional reading level (90-95% word recognition).

Research suggests that reading fluency is a neglected reading skill in many U.S. classrooms. Studies have found that students who scored lower on measures of fluency also scored lower on measures of comprehension. Comprehension is dependent on fluency. Children who read too slowly lose meaning before they reach the end of a sentence. If students unlock words letter-by-letter, they are less able to think about meaning. When children can recognize words automatically, they can give their entire attention to understanding the meaning of the text.

Reading research has identified six ways to help children develop reading fluency: • Model fluent reading • Provide feedback and instruction • Provide support for readers • Plan for repeated readings of a text • Help children “chunk” text • Provide appropriate reading materials Students should spend 20–30 minutes reading aloud each day.