When it comes to reading instruction in the elementary grades, teachers must concern themselves with students’ fluency, comprehension, and word study. All are vital building blocks to children’s overall abilities as readers, and when all are represented in the classroom, stronger readers are bound to come out.
Fluency refers to the speed and expressiveness with which a student is able to read. This part of reading instruction is where we assert that strong readers do so much more than just say the words on a page. Reading is more than just being able to see individual letters and sound them out into the word they comprise. Fluency means that one can quickly recognize words and weave sentences together in the process of meaning making. A student who can only read in a choppy… monotone… unpunctuated… manner… has not developed fluency. Without having reached that level of reading, the student will struggle to remember what they just read, having had to start and stop, start and stop. When the student stumbles slowly through a paragraph, they are more likely to come away knowing they read a stream of sounds and words rather than the meaning or message of those words.
Every level of reader has the ability to improve their speed and expressiveness, whether they are an emergent, beginner or instructional reader. As a teacher of emergent readers, I would want to use many songs and pattern books in the classroom. I believe that students’ fluency improves as their comfort and familiarity with language as a whole improves. Practicing reading with a “sing-song” voice reinforces the vocal patterns that we want children to start hearing as part of their inner voices. Automatic word recognition is often the focus with beginning readers in relation to fluency, and as such, I would want to use a lot of familiar texts in the classroom. This is a time that young readers need to feel successful and know what it is like to read accurately and smoothly, even if that means they are reading a text for the fiftieth time. To up the ante with instructional readers, I would utilize timed readings, as well as more poetry. Poetry encourages expression and self-monitored pacing, which students will then apply to all of their reading. I love the idea of working with students on poetry every week so that they have a poetry collection they can read and reread independently.
At all stages of development, practice and repetition are key to increasing students’ fluency. There are so many ways to incorporate fluency lessons into the classroom. From interdisciplinary reader’s theaters, which I have done in my fifth grade practicum, to familiar songs during transitions, there are endless opportunities to enhance this critical part of reading instruction.
Sam I Am 