Fluency: What is It? Who Needs It?

“Developing fluency is important because the human mind is limited in its capacity to carry out many cognitive processes at once. When word and sentence reading becomes automatic, readers can concentrate more fully on creating meaning from text” (p. 37).

“Guided repeated reading (where readers are supported by a proficient English speaker) has generally led to moderate increases in fluency, accuracy, and sometimes comprehension for good and poor readers” (p. 38).

What is reading fluency? Reading fluency includes three interrelated skills:

accuracy--reading most of the words correctly and quickly
rate--reading at a rate or speed that supports understanding (not too fast or too slow)
prosody - reading smoothly, in meaningful phrases, and with some expression. Fluent oral reading should sound like speech or conversation

Who are fluency students?

These students are native or non-native English speakers who need to improve their reading fluency skills. These students can be placed into small groups at similar fluency instructional levels (GLE 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 or even GLE 1-3, 4-6, 6-8) and to read paragraphs, passages, articles, or books of slight challenge. The selected text is read aloud with a proficient reader who provides explanation, modeling, guided practice, application, and monitoring.

Click "Next" to review some key strategies for fluency instruction.