Reading Fluency

• Reading fluency is measured by accuracy, prosody, and speed.
• Fluent readers pronounce words accurately with automaticity, reading words effortlessly.

Accuracy

• Accuracy is a reader's ability to correctly pronounce words.
• Supervised Oral Reading provides immediate feedback on word recognition errors, improving students' accuracy.
• Audio- and Video-Assisted Reading helps students follow along with the correct pronunciation, improving accuracy.
• Partner and Small Group Reading allows students to practice accurate word recognition in a supportive setting.
• Mispronunciation disrupts comprehension, making accuracy fundamental to reading fluency.

Prosody

• Prosody is a reader's ability to convey expression.
• Strong prosody involves appropriate phrasing, emphasis, and adherence to punctuation.
• Expression matches the tone of the passage when prosody is strong.
• Teacher-Modeled Reading helps students develop a sense of prosody by emphasizing tone and expression.
• Readers' Theater enhances prosody by encouraging students to use expression and tone.
• Choral Reading improves prosody by providing opportunities to practice reading aloud with expression in a group setting.
• Prosody refers to the expressive aspects of reading, including rhythm, tone, and pitch.
• It helps readers convey meaning and emotion in the text.

Speed

• Speed is the pace at which the reader reads the text.
• Students who read at an appropriate speed are easily understood.
• Teachers track WPM (words per minute) to determine if students are reading with the appropriate speed.
• Rereading Familiar Text allows students to focus on improving their reading rate once they have decoded unfamiliar words.
• Independent Reading helps students improve their reading rate by repeatedly practicing reading on their own.
• Timed Repeated Reading involves students completing multiple reads of the same passage while being timed to gradually increase their reading speed.
• Students need to read at a pace that allows for comprehension but is not so slow that it impedes understanding.

Measuring Reading Fluency

• Fluency can be measured through oral timed reading, where a teacher listens to a student read a grade-level passage for a set period of time, typically 60 seconds.
• Accuracy and speed are measured objectively.
• WPM is calculated by subtracting the number of errors from the total number of words read in one minute.
• Timed readings should be conducted multiple times throughout a school year to monitor student progress.
• Results can be recorded on a graph for effective data analysis.
• Prosody can only be measured subjectively by listening for intonation and expression.
• Teachers can observe and take notes during the oral reading assessment or record the reading session and then listen again later.
• Tools like the NAEP Oral Fluency Rating Scale can be used as a guide for rating fluency.
• It is important that fluency is measured using a grade-level text.

Why Reading Fluency Matters

• Reading fluency is the ability to read with accuracy and prosody at an appropriate rate.
• Improving students' fluency improves their ability to comprehend what they read.
• Students are able to concentrate on the meaning of what they are reading when they read fluently.
• Research shows that specifically targeting fluency in early grades (K-4) results in the greatest gains in reading.
• For older students who struggle to read, targeted fluency instruction improves their reading ability across content areas.