Reading Fluency: The Key to Reading Comprehension

Introduction
     Welcome again to my readers! Thank you for taking the time to explore this educational blog which I hope is a wealth of resources for you. This post will explore a very important topic in literacy education that has been a topic of much discussion for many years, reading, with a focus on reading fluency. As literacy teachers we know that the goal for our students is to learn how to comprehend texts, but this cannot be done if the student does not know how to read fluently. This is because the student will have to place the majority of their attention decoding the words and grouping the phrases, rather than placing deep thought into what they are reading. Therefore, reading fluency becomes a crucial step that students must take before they are able to read deeply, a skill required for higher grade levels and for everyday life.

Reading Fluency: A Resource Overview
     As I was exploring this topic I found one particular resource which I found to be a deep well of knowledge on how to teach students to read fluently. It is a resource entitled Reading Fluency found through the Ontario Ministry of Education website where teachers can find a plethora of documents to help them in their literacy teaching. Here is a link to the particular article I am discussing: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/reading_fluency.pdf. It is such a valuable resource because it not only discusses what Reading Fluency is, but lists strategies and activities instructors can use to teach those strategies. It outlines the key elements of reading fluency as automaticity, phrasing, and expression. Automaticity refers to a person’s ability to recognize a word and immediately know its meaning. Phrasing focuses on the ability to assemble words together to understand the text. Finally, expression looks at being able to recognize visual cues in a text and how they improve the meaning of a text. 

Classroom Connections
     Perhaps the main reason to explain why Reading Fluency is such a helpful resource is because of its helpful ways to explain how reading fluency can be taught and activities I can use in my own literacy teaching. It can be used for older students if they struggle with difficult words, but I believe it is best suited for grades 4-6. For example, the article discusses the use of shared reading to demonstrate reading elements like expression, tone and rhythm, which is a practice I can use in my own teaching to show my students how to read a text. In addition, the article provides many activities to teach students phonological awareness. Although students in grades 4-6 will have a good understanding of this, the activities like using tongue twisters to recognize the sounds of words. Finally, the article talks about the connection between reading fluently and writing. For example, a teacher can use word walls that students must incorporate into their writing which can help develop their ability to recognize and learn words.

Henn, Helga. "Fluency Checklist" (Online image) Retrieved from https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/192810427767414864/. 

Other Helpful Resources
     When I looked into this topic I discovered many other resources that can be assist the Reading Fluency article. Firstly, I found a website article which also discusses how to teach reading fluency entitled Developing Fluent Readers (found here http://www.readingrockets.org/article/developing-fluent-readers). Here you will find out what research says about reading fluently and some suggestions on how students should read in order to develop their fluency. It also works in a progressive manner where it discusses how to teach early readers, then how to change your teaching approach for the older students. Another article that I found was one entitled 5 Surefire Strategies for Developing Reading Fluency (found here http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/5-surefire-strategies-developing-reading-fluency) where it lists ways teachers can help students develop their reading automaticity. From model reading to a readers theater this resource helps teachers show how they can change the way their students read based on their needs. Finally, here are a couple videos from teachers who help explain how they teach reading fluency to their students.

  

Here is a video to show how a teacher can provide feedback to build on a student's reading ability.

How it Connects to Curriculum
     The purpose of learning the topic of reading fluency is so important to literacy teachers because it is so fundamental to the literacy learning of a student. In addition, it is listed as a necessary component of the Ontario Ministry of Education curriculum with specific expectations that need to be met. The main expectations that I believe are discussed by the resources listed above are: "automatically read and understand high-frequency words, most regularly used words, and words of personal interest or significance in a variety of reading contexts" and "read appropriate texts at a sufficient rate and with sufficient expression to convey the sense of the text readily to the reader and an audience." With the resources that I have presented here I believe teachers can find a wealth of information on how to get their students to read fluently.