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Ideas for Building Fluency Fluency is the ability to read rapidly, smoothly, with little error, and appropriate expression. Good readers begin the road to building fluency in first grade or earlier.
Georgia Performance Reading Standards state that a child must be able to read 60 words per minute or more by the end of first grade.
How can I help my child work on fluency at home?
Well, use our weekly stories, your child’s AR books, and the fluency passages sent home for homework in the following ways:
- Approaches to Building Fluency:
- Simultaneous repeated reading:
Sentence: “The cat sat on the mat.”
T/P: “The cat….
Child: “The cat sat on the mat.”
- Echo reading:
T/P: “The cat sat on the mat.”
Child: “The cat sat on the mat.”
*Have student track the words as he/she reads them. He/she should not be repeating without making the connection b/w the written and spoken word.
Alternative: can also have student read first and teacher/parent echo.
- Tape assisted:
*Have student track the words as he/she reads them. He/she should not be repeating without making the connection b/w the written and spoken word.
- Choral reading – Teacher/parent and child read in unison like singers in a chorus.
(Source: Teaching
Practice sight/vocabulary words daily by:
- Writing sentences or a story using the words.
- Explaining the meaning in his/her own words.
- Writing the word and drawing a picture of it.
- Reading the word and looking it up in the dictionary.
- Reading the word and clapping out the syllables.
- Writing them in a word journal.
- Writing dictated sentences.
- Cutting them out of magazines or newspapers.
- Making flashcards and using for activities such as:
- Turning all cards face down and having the child choose a card and read the word. He/she can also read the word, use it in a sentence or question, give a rhyming word, tell a synonym or antonym, tell the meaning.
- Putting words in abc order.
- Grouping words based on part of speech, spelling pattern etc.
- Playing “My Pile, Your Pile” – quiz him/her over the words and for each word he/she reads correctly the child puts that word in their own pile. If they miss a word, it goes in your pile.
- Playing “I Spy” – give one or more clues about a word and have the child guess the word you are describing.
- Turning all cards face down and having the child choose a card and read the word. He/she can also read the word, use it in a sentence or question, give a rhyming word, tell a synonym or antonym, tell the meaning.
“This is a color word.”
“The sky is this color.”
“This word has the blend “bl.”
I have used all of these activities in my first grade classes and students love to practice reading stories and sight words in these ways!!! They have so much fun and forget they are actually learning!!!! Many of these activities can be used for spelling words as well.
Don’t forget:
**The key to fluency is to have as much exposure to appropriate texts as possible. If our weekly stories are too difficult or too easy, using your child’s level appropriate AR books are a fantastic resource. Encourage your child to read at least 2-3 AR books each week. Also, have them read, read, read everything and everywhere – in the grocery store, restaurant, movie theater, church, neighborhood street signs etc.!
