Fluency
What is it?
In recent years, reading fluency has come to be considered a key determiner of how well children can read. This has largely focused on the rate (or speed) of reading, with the figure of 90 words per minute often being used to determine a child’s reading fluency.
When children read at 90 words per minute or more, they are less likely to be focussing on decoding and recognising words but instead concentrating on the meaning of what they read. However, reading with pace is only one aspect of fluency.
‘Reading fluency refers to the ability of readers to read the words in text effortlessly and efficiently (automaticity) with meaningful expression that enhances the meaning of the text (prosody)’. (The Fluent Reader, Timothy Rasinski, Second Edition, 2010).
These skills can be further broken down so that automaticity includes Automatic words recognition and Smoothness, and prosody includes Expression and Rhythm and phrasing: EARS – Expression, Automaticity, Rhythm and phrasing, Smoothness (Rasinski T & Cheeseman-Smith M, 2018) [sourced from the Megabook of Fluency].
This relationship between automatic word recognition and expression means that fluency is often called the bridge from phonics to comprehension.
There are a growing number of research-based approaches that teachers can take to teach reading fluency. These include:
- Modelling Good Oral Fluency
- Providing supportive or assisted reading opportunities
- Encouraging wide reading
- Undertaking repeated reading
- Teaching rhythmic and phrased reading
What does the research show?
Keith Topping’s (1987) research into assisted paired reading found that this type of reading could accelerate a reader’s progress so that students who were previously making half a month’s progress for every month of teaching could be expected to make one and a half months’ progress when assisted reading was included in the curriculum.
“Students who read orally with good expression are more likely to comprehend deeply when reading silently.” (Rasinski, T V, Reutzel, CR, Chard, D & Linan-Thompson, S (2011) Reading Fluency. In M L Kamil, P D Pearson, B Moje & P Afflerback (Eds). Handbook of reading Research, Volume IV (pp 286-319). New York. Routledge.)
One easy to implement way of improving fluency, is to read aloud to children. “Reading aloud frequently to 4-5 year olds has been shown to enhance reading, maths and cognitive skills at age 8-9” (Kalb, Guyonne R.J. and van Ours, Jan C., Reading to Young Children: A Head-Start in Life? (May 1, 2013). Melbourne Institute Working Paper No. 17/13)
