Increase reading fluency by teaching print styles

With all the computer fonts and graphic design programs out there, the same letter can look vastly different depending on the font choice. Children need to be familiar with many different visual forms of the same letter.    read more...

Target reading rate with closed captioning

Fluency is something most primary teachers target naturally. However, intermediate and middle school language arts teachers need to have regular elements of fluency in their curriculum, too. (It's not just about reading to learn; some students are still learning to read in the upper grades.)    read more...

Strategies to target reading fluency with older students

If you are an intermediate or middle school teacher (or a resource teacher, Title One teacher, or special education teacher who works with students in the intermediate and middle grades), then reading comprehension is probably a struggling area for many of your students.    read more...

Tracking words while reading

It's not uncommon for young readers to need help following the words in a book from left to right without losing their spot. Their eyes have to be trained to hold onto a single line of text. This takes practice.    read more...

Build a kid-friendly fluency rubric

Even if students can decode words in their reading, that doesn't mean they will comprehend what they read. If they read too slowly, then the text doesn't make sense. If they don't chunk words in phrases, breathing at punctuation marks, then the text doesn't make sense. If they lack expression, then the text is flat and also doesn't make sense. I've come to realize what fluency expert Tim Rasinski has said for years--- Reading fluency is the secret ingredient to comprehension.    read more...

Utilize the Internet to target reading fluency

For the classroom teacher who doesn’t have books on CD readily available, check out these two favorite websites that include authors and actors reading aloud popular children’s literature.    read more...

Tackling obscure proper nouns in reading

Many reading selections and stories include names of characters, cities, and countries that the average student has never heard of. It's pretty difficult to read fluently if there are words you can't even pronounce.    read more...

Hearing punctuation

Many teachers associate speed or reading rate with fluency. That’s true, if a student reads too slowly or too quickly, he will struggle to make meaning. But another key component to reading fluency is how students break phrases and word groupings among sentences.    read more...