ntroduction to Reading Fluency

This session focuses on fluency, one of the five core areas of reading defined by the National Reading Panel (following previous sessions on phonemic awareness and phonics/word work).

• Definition: Reading fluency is the ability to process text quickly.
• Target Audience: Fluency activities should strictly be used for students who actually need them—those who actively struggle with fluency.
• The Music Analogy: Fluency practice is very much like practicing musical scales. You practice scales so you don't have to read a piece of music note-by-note. While it is essential, practicing scales is only one small part of your overall practice time. Similarly, fluency instruction should only take up three to eight minutes a day of a student's total reading time.

Clarifying Key Terms

• Prosody: This is when oral reading naturally sounds like speaking, featuring correct pauses and inflections. You do not explicitly teach prosody; prosody is an effect of achieving fluency.
• Expression: Reading with expression is really only necessary for theater or dramatic readings. Like prosody, natural expression is an effect of fluency rather than something we teach directly.