Reading Fluency

Previewing

Explain to students how practice helps reading.

Select appropriate reading rate goals for each student.

Select reading selections at appropriate reading levels for each student.

Determine how to calculate the reading rates by using pre-counted passages or by using a designated amount of minutes each time.

Teach students how to calculate, record, and interpret reading rates.

Choose a story that interests you from the list provided by your teacher.

Practice reading the story by yourself, or with your teacher or friend for 10 minutes. (Alternatively ask students to: Read the story or selection 3 times.)

Ask for help in pronouncing words when you need it.

After practicing the story, read it as fast as you can while using the stop watch to time yourself.

Record your progress on your graph.

Compare your performance with the reading rate given to you by your teacher.

Group students into pairs.

Some researchers suggest ranking students by reading levels from 1 to 20. Then match the #1 reader with the #11 reader, #2 with #12, #3 with #13, and so on.

This results in each pair having a stronger and less strong reader. You may want to select special tutoring partners for your students with disabilities.

Teach students how to be both a tutor and tutee and provide role-play practice and feedback.

Provide special instruction and practice on what you want the tutors to do, including how they should correct errors during oral reading, and how they should record performance and points.

Review classroom rules for tutoring.

Assign the groups to one of two teams for which they will earn points throughout the tutoring process.

Use a timer to tell students to start and stop reading.

Award points for appropriate tutoring and classroom behavior.

At the end of the week have the students report the number of points earned to determine which team is the winner.

Publicly praise both teams for their respective positive performance.

At the beginning of the next week reassign groups to teams.

For all Learners:

Pick up your tutoring materials and go to your tutoring place in the classroom.

Follow all tutoring rules, including using a quiet voice and being polite with your partner.

Find the place where you left off and begin reading when the teacher starts the timer.

For the Tutee:

Read aloud continuously for (to-be designated #, e.g., 5-10) minutes from the assigned text to your tutor.

Read as much as you can without making mistakes.

Once you have read for (to-be designated #) minutes, switch roles with the tutor.

Follow all rules for being a good tutor!

While the tutee is reading, watch for words missed.

If the sentence was read correctly award (to-be-designated #) points.

If the tutee makes a mistake, point out the word, say it correctly and have the tutee repeat the word and reread the sentence.

Record the reading performance and appropriate number of points.

Record the reading performance and appropriate number of points.

Once the tutee has read for (to-be designated #) minutes, switch roles.

Previewing by Listening Reading Fluency Strategies

Decide on an appropriate passage for the student.

Explain the procedures to the student.

Instruct the student to follow along as you read the passage orally at a relatively slow conversational rate (approximately 130-160 words per minute).

Instruct the student to read aloud from the same passage for 1 minute.

Mark errors on a copy of the reading passage while you follow along.

Record and chart the number of words read correctly per minute. This is figured by subtracting error words form the total number of words read.

Start the next lesson at the point where reading instruction stopped the previous lesson.

Follow along in your book as the teacher reads aloud.

Read aloud from the text to the teacher for 1 minute.

Record your performance on your chart.

Check your progress on your graph. Work towards reading as much as you can without mistakes.

Begin the next lesson where you stopped reading.

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