Week 7 Assignment 2: Teaching Fluency


An integral step toward producing proficient readers is to ensure that children can read fluently- smoothly, correctly and with expression. According to Richard Allington, the reason there are so many children who struggle in this area, is because they don’t have books on hands that they can read accurately and understand. In order to promote fluency, which will eventually improve student’s comprehension, it is important for children to have access to texts that they can easily read. By developing a classroom library that includes books of a wide range of genres and reading levels, all children can read at their personal independent reading level. Students should be taught how to self-assess which books are considered “just right” for them. It is also especially important that the kids should be able to relate to the text- by supplying them with rich material that they already have some background knowledge in, such as key content areas in science and social studies. When children are provided with texts that they can read at 98-100% accuracy, they can advance and slowly progress to higher level reading.
To foster a learning environment, we must try to have our students immersed in texts as much as possible. Students should be given many opportunities to practice reading- through read-alouds, guided reading, reading buddies, and independent reading. The more time a child spends engaged in fluent and accurate reading, the more familiar they become with the written word.
Modelling fluent reading to children can have many benefits, especially since many students may never have heard fluent reading at home and their teacher may be their only example. When reading to children as they follow along silently, they pick up on many fine details such as proper inflection, intonation, and expression. Not always to children perceive these, so it is noteworthy to stop and comment. Teachers should point out why they raised/lowered their voice or spoke in a certain way. A good idea is to err and have students point out what mistakes were made. Asking them, “What was missing in the way I just read this passage?” or “What should I have done differently?” will force them to stop and think. When students are given chances to analyze, they become more aware of good reading skills.


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