Fluency

A website for teachers to access research-based strategies, tools, and instruments for practical classroom use with struggling readers.

Assessment Tools

Recommended Teacher Resources

Strategies

Websites

What is Fluency?

Fluent readers read with accuracy, ease, and expression.  Fountas and Pinnell (1998) refer to fluency as the way readers put words together in phrases, the expression and intonation they use, and the speed and ease with which they read. (p. 10) Fluent readers read easily and well.  (Vacca, 2000, p. 198)

In this module, you will find the most recent research on fluency.  You will also find various ways to determine the grade levels of various texts, assess fluency, and determine the reading rate of your students.  Research-based strategies designed to help the most-struggling readers are offered.  We have also provided a recommended book list and websites.  We hope you find this module to be useful and we would like to say thank you for caring enough to take the time to help those students who struggle with reading. 

Research

Fountas and Pinnell (1998) found, in a study of oral reading fluency of fourth graders, a high relationship between words per minute, accuracy, and a qualitative measure of expression or phrasing.  All of these measures were highly correlated with the scores on the standardized tests of the 1995 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Fountas and Pinnell noted several systems that contribute to fluency in reading. 

 ·        Fast processing.

·        Recognizing words and spelling patterns quickly and automatically while keeping attention on the meaning of the text.

·        Using language and meaning systems to check on reading and make predictions while reading.

·        Fluent processing of visual (letters), phonological (sound), syntactic (language structure), and semantic (meaning) cues which are the foundation of all reading.

·        Continuous checking to be sure that what is read makes sense, sounds right, and matches print. (p. 10)

Allington (2001) notes some children seem to be able to read with a high degree of accuracy, yet still do not read fluently; with phasing and intonation.  This word-by-word reading limits their rate of reading and, in many cases, has a negative impact of comprehension.  He also notes reading rate is related to reading volume.  Children with slower rates simply read fewer words than faster readers in the same amount of time. (p. 72)

A contrastive study conducted by Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding (1988) found an enormous difference in the volume of reading between higher and lower-achieving students.  Fifth-grade students kept reading logs documenting their out-of-school reading.  Students scoring in the 90^th percentile spent an average of 40.4 minutes per day reading, approximately 2,357,000 words per year. reading approximately 601,000 words per year, and students scoring in the 10^th percentile, (our struggling readers) read an average of 1.5 minutes per day, approximately 51,000 words per year. (Allington, 2001, p. 26)

Students need help to gain proficiency in fluency.  Research indicates that timed readings, a critical part of building fluency, help to promote such proficiency.  According to Samuels (1997) “Repeated reading is a meaningful task in that the students are reading interesting material in context. Comprehension may be poor with the first reading of the text, but with each additional re-reading, the student is better able to comprehend because the decoding barrier to comprehension is gradually overcome. As less attention is required for decoding, more attention becomes available for comprehension. Thus re-reading both builds fluency and enhances comprehension.”

Saenz & Fuchs (2002) conducted research with 111 learning disabled high school students. They found that these students struggled with reading and comprehending expository writing. This difficulty was due in part to their inability to read the expository format fluently. In fact, according to this and previous studies’ findings, fluency is directly correlated to comprehension.

Since reading rate and reading volume tend to go hand-in-hand, and fluency is extremely critical for comprehension, it is important that teachers provide students with opportunities to read.  Most importantly, struggling readers need to have access to texts that are at an appropriate reading level.   Listed below are ways to determine the level of books, and to assess fluency and reading rate.  You will also find various strategies to help the most struggling reader.