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5 Surefire Strategies for Developing Reading Fluency

Have you ever watched your child struggle with what you know to be a great book, just perfect for their age and development? According to studies, 45 percent of all fourth graders tested in the U.S. are not fluent readers. Without that fluency, the world of imagination, humor, and drama contained in the finest books is no more than a tangle of words.

One definition of fluency is the ability to read aloud expressively and with understanding. When fluent readers read aloud, the text flows as if strung together like pearls on a necklace, rather than sounding halting and choppy.

Here are some strategies to help second through fifth graders make important gains in this area. Before you use these techniques, however, you should ask a teacher to assess your child and determine his needs.

1. Model Fluent Reading

In order to read fluently, your child must first hear and under-stand what fluent reading sounds like. From there, he will be more likely to transfer those experiences into his own reading. The most powerful way for you to help your child is to read aloud to him, often and with great expression. Choose selections carefully. Expose him to a wide variety of genres including poetry, excerpts from speeches, and folk and fairy tales with rich, lyrical language - texts that will spark your child's interests and draw him into the reading experience.

Following a read-aloud session, ask your child: "After listening to how I read, can you tell me what I did that is like what good readers do?" Encourage your child to share his thoughts. Also, ask your child to think about how a fluent reader keeps the listener engaged.

2. Do Repeated Readings at Home

Repeated readings at home are ways to help your child recognize high-frequency words more easily, thereby strengthening his ease of reading. Having your child practice reading by rereading short passages aloud is one of the best ways I know of to promote fluency.

For example, choose a short poem to begin with, and read the poem aloud several times while your child listens and follows along. Take a moment to discuss your reading behaviors such as phrasing (i.e. the ability to read several words together in one breath), rate (the speed at which we read), and intonation (the emphasis we give to particular words or phrases).

Next, ask your child to engage in an "echo reading," in which you read a line and your child repeats the line back to you. Following the echo reading, have your child read the entire poem together as a "choral read." You will find that doing readings like these can be effective strategies for promoting fluency, because your child is actively engaged.

3. Promote Phrased Reading

Fluency involves reading phrases seamlessly, as opposed to word by word. To help your child read phrases better, begin with a terrific poem. (Two of my students' favorites are "Something Told the Wild Geese" by Rachel Field, and "Noodles" by Janet Wong).

After selecting a poem, write its lines onto sentence strips, which serve as cue cards, to show your child how good readers cluster portions of text rather than saying each word separately. Hold up strips one at a time and have your child read the phrases together. Reinforce phrased reading by using the same poem in guided reading and pointing to passages you read.

4. Enlist Tutors to Help Out

Provide support for your non-fluent readers by asking tutors - instructional aides, parent volunteers, or older students - to help. The tutor and your child can read a preselected text aloud simultaneously. By offering positive feedback when you child reads well, and by rereading passages when he or she struggles, the tutor provides a helpful kind of one-on-one support. The sessions can be short - 15 minutes at most. Plus, if you provide tutors with the text that your child's teacher plans to use in an upcoming group lesson, you can give your child a jump start prior to the next lesson.

5. Try a Reader's Theater In Class

Because reader's theater is an oral performance of a script, it is one of the best ways to promote fluency. In the exercise, meaning is conveyed through expression and intonation. The focus thus becomes interpreting the script rather than memorizing it.

Getting started is easy. Simply give your child a copy of the script, and read it aloud as you would any other piece of literature. After your read-aloud, do an echo read and a choral read of the script to involve your child. Once your child has had enough practice, ask your child to read different parts. For fun, put together a few simple props and costumes, and invite family and friends to attend the performance.

For the presentation, have your child stand, or sit on a stool, in front of the room and face the audience. Encourage your child to make eye contact with the audience before he reads. Once he starts, he should hold his script at chest level to avoid hiding his face, and look out at the audience periodically.

After the performance, have your child state his name and the part that he read. You might also want to videotape the performance so that you can review it with your child later. In doing so, you will show him that he is, indeed, a fluent reader.

This article was written by professional educator Lisa Blau, who passed away after a lengthy battle with breast cancer. Lisa was a devoted, innovative and a gifted author of educational resource materials and an adjunct professor at Seattle Pacific University. For many years, Lisa traveled throughout the country, giving training seminars for K-5 educators. Lisa trained over 25,000 educators, from small country schools to huge auditoriums at state reading conferences. For information on Lisa's professional books, visit www.lisablau.com.