I love all things reading especially when it comes to teaching my students strategies to help them gain success. Watching my first-grade students learn to read gives me all the feels but it’s a constant work in progress to create strong readers. So, let’s talk fluency since we are approaching the end of the school year (BTW did you think we’d ever get there?). Fluency is a crucial part of reading by the end of first grade! My focus in the spring with my first graders is “reading like talking” and for them to get a firm grasp on this before sending them off to second grade! Ok, so let’s talk fluency.
Fluency plays a crucial role as the bridge between recognition and comprehension, plain and simple you need fluency to become a successful reader. It is absolutely a critical building block and it’s directly linked to a student’s reading comprehension. Check out this blog post if you want to read more about reading comprehension.
Let’s first start with the three most important components of reading fluency which is accuracy, rate, and prosody. I tell my students all the time we want to read quickly and with expression BUT quickly doesn’t mean just skimming through and skipping words. I want them to understand what they are reading, if they can’t understand it then they need to slow.it.down. There are a ton of different strategies that I use daily. Let’s dive in.
Fluency comes with reading advancement which is why it’s always been a spring goal with my first graders. The first and most important aspect of fluency is encouraging reading all the time, when you teach your students to appreciate reading these skills will develop naturally. Make your classroom text-heavy: I am always reading to my students whether it’s rereading a familiar text or finding a new book. Are you struggling with getting your students to love reading? One tip that has helped me is to fill the room with new text, try changing out the books, or renting some new ones from the library. Some of my favorites for teaching fluency are Mo Willem’s books, they are an excellent tool for teaching expression and the dialect between two characters. We do tons and tons of read-alouds with fun new books. My students enjoy these read alouds so much probably because they enjoy hearing me add SO much expression and personality into my readings. Although, they are probably laughing at me not the book, but at least they’re learning, right? You can try incorporating word walls and text throughout your classroom as well because of the more exposure to reading the better the outcome.
When I start to shift my focus to fluency, I will always always pull out these fluency cards. I love these because once the student masters one set they can move onto the next. Plus these cards make it so easy to start. We also do timed readings, you can buy some cheap timers at the dollar store and have your students practice in pairs. Be sure to have them keep track of their time and set personal goals to increase their times. My first graders love doing this with a partner and they actually look forward to it. If you have iPads in your classrooms, try using voice memos and recordings to have your students record themselves when they are reading. The best way for a child to learn is to actually hear what they sound like. Plus I can promise you they will love this activity, isn’t it funny how that changes? Who else struggles with seeing themselves on video or hearing how they sound, I know I hate it!!!!
Another great tool for practicing fluency is using reading passages, they’re high interest and perfect for more partner work. They are amazing for building fluency and comprehension. By the end of first grade, the desired wpm is about 60 and these passages include the word count at the top which makes things a whole lot easier. I have a ton of reading comprehension packages for you to check out if you don’t need the entire bundle.
My most favorite way to develop reading fluency is reader’s theatre, this is a strategy where students are involved in reading aloud by performing with reading scripts. I will admit this can be difficult because reading in front of your peers can be scary but this will develop their skills on so many levels.
Alright…so how do you calculate all of this? Fluency is calculated by taking the total number of words read in one minute and subtracting the number of errors. Only count one error per word, this gives you the words correct per minute. Another way to calculate wpm is by using this: total # words read correctly _____x (multiply by) 60; ÷ (divide by) # seconds to read passage will equal the words per minute. It sounds complicated but, I promise, it isn’t. You’ve got this!
I have been using my spring and summer fluency passages with my students to help them practice fluency. I keep a timer on the SMARTBoard. We all start reading at the same time and students note when they finish reading the article. Each article has comprehension questions too!
As educators, we feel the weight of the world on our shoulders and honestly, sometimes that weight comes from the pressure we feel from parents, the constant push to be making sure their children are receiving an adequate education. Especially this year with distance learning and the shift to classroom learning, the pressure is real. However teaching fluency isn’t just on us, they can’t only learn this at school. Our students need to be practicing at home too, so encourage your parents to do timed readings at home because it is the perfect at-home activity or may recommend this as a nighttime routine. Give them book suggestions and just let parents know that their first-grader still enjoys read alouds. They aren’t too big for those, soak it up while you can!
I have a passion for reading and have made so many goals on how to foster this love into my students as well.I want my students to be fluent and strong readers. One of my favorite ways is to read to them all the time. I do my best to make reading fun and less of a chore. Make sure you guys head to my Instagram and my Pinterest, I love to post new books that we are reading and I would absolutely love to hear some of your recommendations as well. Who doesn’t love a new book? Do you guys have awesome ways to build fluency in your readers?
