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This blog post focuses on ways to increase reading fluency. Reading fluency is the ability to read automatically, pausing at punctuation marks and reading with expression.  Reading fluency is crucial because if children are reading fluently, then they can focus on comprehending the story. Here are some ways to increase reading fluency at home.

1) Model fluent reading by reading aloud to your child.  

• Read aloud to your child at home and model fluent reading.
• Point out how you stopped and took a quick breath at the punctuation marks and how you read smoothly without stopping between your words.
• Read with expression and change your voice to emphasis important words in the story. Speed up or slow down during certain parts of the story to reflect the author’s meaning. For example, you might speed up your reading to show that a character is excited about something.  You can also use this as a way to focus on higher level comprehension by discussing the character’s feelings and the author’s purpose.  When you are reading, you might stop and ask your child to tell you what words you emphasized or to identify parts where you sped up your reading and parts where you slowed down.

2) Teach your child how to read fluently by using explicit language and prompts.

•  Using clear and explicit language is important to help your child with fluency as well as in learning other skills, both academic and non academic.
• Instead of telling your child to “Read it the way I read it” or “Read like you are speaking,” be specific and say, “Make your voice go up at a question mark,” or “Be sure to connect your words together when you read.”
• You can model the sentence to show your child and point out how your voice went up at a question mark. You can also show your child how you read without stopping between your words and used the punctuation marks to take a breath.
• Check out my previous post about explicit language and prompting. https://learningtoreadtogether.com/helpful-reading-prompts/

3) Reread, reread, reread!

• Rereading books and rereading small sections of longer books helps increase reading fluency and automaticity.
• You may want to select a paragraph in a longer book that your child is reading and model reading it yourself.
• Be sure to point out punctuation, discuss the character’s feelings and point out words that you emphasized.
• Have your child practice reading this paragraph aloud to you several times (3-5 times).
• Give your child specific feedback. Instead of saying “Nice job!” say “Nice work connecting your words together when you read that part.” Giving your child specific feedback is so important in helping your child understand what fluent reading sounds like so your child can read fluently when he or she is reading independently.
• Be sure that the books that your child is reading are not too hard. You might want to go down one or two levels to practice reading fluency.
• Please see this post about reading level. https://learningtoreadtogether.com/scholastic-book-wizard-reading-level/

4) Turn a section of a book into a play script to practice and perform. 

• Taking a part of a story and turning it into a script is called Reader’s Theater.  It makes practicing fluency so much fun! You can involve the whole family and take turns reading different parts. You can even add props and costumes if you want!
• The best way to turn a part of a book into a script it to find a part in the book with dialogue and type up a short part in a word document. (1-2 pages with character’s lines)
• Here is a link to some reader’s theater’s scripts. http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/

Tim and I just read the Gingerbread Man and he loved being the different parts. He enjoyed being the fox and reading that part in a slower, sly voice. Our whole family joined in and we had a blast reading the play over and over again and changing parts.  Tim’s can read this book automatically now and reading the play really helped his reading fluency.  Reading the play helped make rereading more fun and helped give him a purpose for rereading the story.

5) Have fun!

• Reading and fluency practice should be fun.
• Keep reading practice sessions short.
• Read at a time that your child is not tired.
• Read in a special place like a cozy chair or in a tent.
• Reading should not feel like a chore and if it does, try changing things up to keep it fun!

Hope these ways to increase reading fluency are helpful when you read with your child!