Reading Fluency

Fluency & Accuracy

"Reasonably accurate reading at an appropriate rate with suitable prosody leads to accurate and deep comprehension."
(Jan Hasbrouck Ph.D., 2010)

"Fluency should “sound like speech”
(Stahl & Kuhn, 2002)

Accuracy

If a student reads a sentence without a reasonable number of mistakes, but it sounds choppy without appropriate phrasing, a teacher may ask that student to, “Please read that again, the way that we talk.”  This can be reinforced by parents at home also, but the accuracy component shouldn’t be a lower priority than the reading rate component for students learning how to read fluently. Even a highly proficient reader wouldn’t be expected to read without any errors all of the time. But, having too many errors would begin to affect comprehension in a negative way.

Rate

Reading rate alone is not a decent measure of reading fluency.  That view can turn reading fluency into a reading race which can be harmful to accuracy and comprehension.  A student who had a high reading rate but did not understand what they read, would not be considered a fluent reader. This rate can fluctuate depending on the type of text being read. Fluent reading is not merely fast reading.

Prosody

This might be explained best as students having “good expression” when reading.  For example, a reader would use different rate and prosody while reading a nonfiction text aloud versus reading a poem aloud.

Comprehension

If the information comes into the brain and it isn’t accurate, that certainly can impact the reader’s understanding of the text.  Furthermore, if the information comes into the brain too slowly (or too quickly), the understanding or comprehension of what is being read also suffers. A good way to think about fluent readers is: Fluent readers are reading accurately and smoothly enough to support their comprehension of the text.

Goals/Benchmarks

We want students to "read how they talk".  A fluent speaker speaks about 150 words per minute.  This is a good ultimate goal for students to aim for.  On the other hand, auctioneers speak at about 220 words per minute.  This is a speed that we would consider to be TOO fast to be intelligible and to maintain comprehension.  We have different goals for reading fluency throughout elementary school. When a student is reading below this goal (benchmark), it indicates that the student may need intervention to help them read more fluently.  Here are the end of year benchmark goals for correct words read in one minute by grade level:

1st Grade: 47
2nd Grade: 87
3rd Grade: 100
4th Grade: 115
5th Grade: 130

• Have your child read aloud to you for 5-10 minutes each day (as part of their 20 minutes of daily at-home reading)
• Read with your child alternating sentences or paragraphs.  Model what good readers do to sound fluent.
• Have your child re-read parts or passages they have struggled with to improve fluency.  "Let's try that part again reading how you talk."
• Try repeated readings of passages with cold and hot timings.  See your child's teacher or your school's literacy facilitator if you would like to get some passages to help your child increase his/her fluency.  You can also download resources from education.com.
• Help your child master/memorize the most common words in the English language.  See our Sight Word page for more information.
• Jan Hasbrouck, Ph.D., presents an overview of reading fluency, including a definition of fluency and current research on the importance of fluency, how to assess fluency, and how to teach fluency.