Fluent Reading
In this week’s blog, I cover a few simple and effective strategies and activities to help improve your kiddo’s fluent reading.
There are a variety of ways to help develop fluency skills. Here are seven fun and simple activities and strategies that you can use with your child to help them improve their fluency.
Repeated Reading
One way to help build fluency is through repeated reading. This strategy involves having students read a short passage multiple times. They should aim to read a little faster, smoother, and with better prosody than the last with each reading.
First, have them find a short passage on a topic they enjoy and are interested in. Read the passage out loud to model how the passage should sound and the speed, prosody, and rhythm to use.
Then have them read the passage aloud to you. As they are reading, time them so that they can track their progress and see how much faster they are reading each time.
Each time they read to you, give them some tips on where to improve and praise them for their improvements.
After a few readings, ask them questions about what they just read to check for comprehension.
Choral Reading
Choral reading is a great way to help build fluency skills and is especially helpful for students who are shy or have difficulty reading aloud. Teachers can do this in your classroom with small groups of readers at similar fluency levels.
Then give them a short passage to read together. As they read, they should aim to stay together and match each other’s speed and prosody.
You can still use this strategy if you are doing this with just you and your child at home. Read the passage out loud first and then read the passage together. Try to match each other’s speed and prosody as much as possible. This will develop the students reading fluency.
Fluency Partners
This is an excellent activity for pairs or small groups of kids. Each
After reading the passage a few times, have them break up into pairs and take turns being the leader and follower. The leader should read the passage aloud while the follower tries to stay with them, matching their speed and prosody. Then they can switch roles.
This is an excellent way for kids to get extra practice reading aloud and build their confidence in reading with expression.
Echo Reading
This is another activity for larger groups of students. The teacher or one student reads a passage aloud while the rest of the group echoes back what they heard. Watch a demonstration.
Echo reading is a great way to help students hear the language’s rhythm and improve their prosody. You can have them echo back just certain words or phrases to make this more challenging. For example, you could have them echo back all verbs or adjectives.
Timed Reading
This is an activity for kids who need extra practice reading aloud and tend to read too slowly. It involves timed readings of a passage with the goal of reading faster each time.
First, have them find a short passage on a topic they enjoy and are interested in. Read the passage out loud to them first to hear how it should sound.
Then have them read the passage aloud to you. As they are reading, time them so that they can track their progress and see how much faster they are reading each time.
Each time they read aloud to you, give them some tips on where to improve and praise them for their improvements.
Read and Listen
Children may engage in reading by following along with audiobooks on their own. Text may be read and highlighted using specific software. This allows children to see and hear the text being read, which can help with their fluency.
You can also find online articles or websites with audio playback where your child can listen and read along. This is an excellent way for kids to get extra practice reading aloud and build their confidence in reading with expression.
Read to Your Children
One of the easiest and often forgotten strategies is to read to your children. Reding to your kids is a potent strategy to help improve their fluency and a host of other advantages, and bedtime stories will never go out of style!
Stay Consistent and Practice
These seven simple tips should help get you started on improving your child’s fluency skills. Remember, it is essential to be patient and consistent with these activities. It will take time and practice for your child to see results. What strategies do you use to improve fluency in your child? Let us know!
