Cold, Warm and Hot reads is a repeated reading routine that’s useful for building reading fluency. In this article you will learn about the steps in the routine and the materials needed for implementing this strategy.

Preparation

For this routine, the teacher should select a passage that is at the student’s instructional level (that is, slightly above the level at which the student can read independently) and which is between 50 - 200 words. For suggestions on how to choose “instructional level” text, you can read more here.

Materials needed

3 copies of the text (student copy, cold read copy, hot read copy).

1 blue pen

1 red pen

Stopwatch/timer

For an easy way to make a cold read and hot read copy, use this tool.

Cold Read

A ‘cold’ read refers to reading a new or unfamiliar passage. In the first step of this strategy, a student is given a new or unseen passage to read. The teacher sets the timer for one minute. While the student is reading, the teacher marks on the cold read copy of the text with a blue pen any words that are mispronounced or skipped. At the end of the minute, the teacher also marks the last word read.

After the cold read, the teacher gives the student some feedback about the words that the student read incorrectly, any punctuation that was missed, and ensures that the student understands any new vocabulary words in the passage.

Warm Read

In this next stage, the student reads the passage aloud for two minutes. The teacher provides feedback to the student while he/she is reading. The student makes any corrections (e.g. rereads a word) as the teacher is providing feedback.

Model Read

In this step, the teacher models reading the passage aloud for one minute, so that the student can hear the passage read fluently, accurately and with the correct intonation and expression.

Hot Read

At this step, the student rereads the passage again independently for one minute. The teacher marks errors on the hot read copy with red pen and notes the last word read after one minute.

Calculating fluency scores

Reading fluency scores are typically calculated as correct words per minute. In order to obtain this score, please refer to the equation below. The teacher should calculate the CWPM for both the cold read and the hot read. The scores should be noted on a graph. Here is an example of a student’s graph.

Total number of words read in one minute - number of errors = correct words per minute

Total words - errors = CWPM

The benefits of repeated reading are that students become more comfortable as they read the same text. They should also become more fluent with each repeated read. The teacher’s input in terms of feedback as well as model reading will serve to increase the student’s confidence in their reading. Over time, the teacher should notice that both the cold read and hot read scores have improved and that the student is reading more fluently. The cold wam hot read strategy can be done over one day or over three days in the week.

Further Reading

• Cold Read? Warm Read? Hot Read? What does it all mean?