Fluency Activities

Read-alouds are a great way to model fluency. While reading, adults can model expression, pace, phrasing, and can even model thinking aloud (making predictions, asking questions, etc.) to show what proficient readers do to comprehend the text. The students hear how words are pronounced and the natural flow of reading. Read alouds also help develp students' listening skills.

To become a fluent reader, students should read and reread passages several times. Each time they read the passage, their speed, automaticity, and accuracy will improve. One way to encourage rereading is to do a Reader's Theater activity. As the students practice their lines/script their fluency will improve. According to Still et al. (2012), "When repetition is used during the reading process, both automaticity and prosody improve" (p. 157).

Automaticity means students can read words automatically without stopping to decode. Teaching sight words, or common words found in text, is a way to improve students' automaticity. The sight word game, Kaboom, is a way to practice sight words. Cards with sight words and cards with "Kaboom" written on them are put into a box or basket. Students take turns drawing a card and reading the sight word. If they read the word correctly, they keep the card. If a "Kaboom" card is drawn, the student returns all their cards to the box. In the end, the student with the most cards wins.