Fleuncy is one of the most difficult skills to address at the high school level. According to Reading Rockets, fluency is "the ability to read a text quickly and accurately" (Fleuncy, n.d.). The issue with addressing fluency at the high school level is that students are often incredibly aware of this weakness and it can become embarassing for them to have to practice or perform in front of the class for fear of being made fun of. Thus, this process needs to be carefully planned in order to increase the efficacy of the process and decrease the possible embarassment of students. It is crucial that students feel safe and supported in their learning environment. The strategies below are excellent in accomplishing both of these key elements of a classroom.
Reader's theatre minimizes the element of embarassment for students that have been identified as struggling with reading fluency. In order for this to be effective, each student in class should be given a part in a script or portion of text and the beginning of the week with the intention of it being presented at the end of the week (Ming, 2018). Students should be given quality feedback regarding their reading fluency in order to continue to build their skills. Moreover, by providing feedback before the presentation, students are more likely to feel comfortable while reading aloud for their peers. At the end of the week all of the students will present their portion, which will allow educators to accurately evaluate their reading fluency, which can be used to inform further instruction (Ming, 2018).
As mentioned earlier, a lot of high school students are embarassed by their lack of fluency skills at their age. Another useful tool that can be utilized completely removes any chance of embarassment and can be practiced at home or school. The strategy in question is audio-assisted reading. Audio-assisted reading gives students the opportunity to read an engaging text with the assistance of a high quality audiobook that models proper fluency skills (Audio-Assisted Reading, n.d.). Students have the option to choose their own text, which also increases engagment, and the read aloud along with the audiobook. As they become more comfortable with shorter texts, they can remove the assistance of the audiobook and begin reading the book aloud independently, which is the eventual goal.