There are several components to fluency: rate, accuracy, and expression. Fluency is one component in a student's reading ability. Typically, we think of comprehension as a separate topic, but fluency can affect comprehension. A child who is struggling to sound out words and making lots of errors - especially when he or she doesn't recognize that the errors have been made - will likely not have a strong understanding of the reading material. For, now, let's focus on the components of fluency, though.

A child's reading rate is the speed at which he or she reads words on a page -or- the number of words read in a given minute. This target number changes yearly for students, increasing as they progress to each new grade level, but the average adult can read at about 200-300 words a minute. You can find more information about reading rate here: https://www.irisreading.com/what-is-the-average-reading-speed/. While a child's reading rate is important, it should be looked at in conjunction with other factors to determine where a child needs the most help and how that help should be given. We especially do not want to emphasize reading rate so much that a student sacrifices understanding what they're reading. We also do not want a student to just plow through the text as fast as they can, sounding unnatural and winded. A truly fluent reader will read like they talk. Of course, reading like you talk means you are using our other two components as well.

A child's accuracy is the number of words read correctly during the given reading. This is typically measured in a one-minute time frame while their reading rate is being measured. Typically, students' reading rates and accuracy are measured through a program called Dibels. It is a program available to schools to help teachers get information on where in their students may need the most support in reading; however, these measures can also be used to determine whether the supports students are receiving are making the desired growth for students or whether those supports should be changed. What accuracy helps us understand is how many of the words a child is understanding from their reading. Ideally, we'd like every student to read with 99% or 100% accuracy (meaning that out of 100 words read, they are understanding 99 or all 100 words) because we understand that the more words a child reads accurately gives them a greater chance of understanding the material. It is also important to realize that the types of errors a student makes when words are read incorrectly is important. Some substitutions for words have essentially no effect in terms of changing the meaning of the sentence. For instance, if a student reads "a" instead of "the," the meaning of the sentence doesn't really change. However, if they read "origami" instead of "organism," the meaning of the sentence will completely change!

Lastly, a student's expression plays a big part in their reading. If students are phrasing words incorrectly, forgetting to pause for periods, missing italicized words, or are encountering other similar problems, they may not get the full or accurate meaning of what they are reading. If students read in monotone, they may not get the character who is using sarcasm or who is emphasizing a specific word. One way to demonstrate this is to show the difference in sentences when reading italicized words. Even though the exact same words are used in all three of the following sentences, the sentences have three different and unique meanings. Students reading with appropriate expression will gain more of the author's nuance from their reading.

Jill says she didn't steal Jack's lunch.

This suggests that Jill didn't steal Jack's lunch, but she may have hidden it somewhere.

Jill says she didn't steal Jack's lunch.

This suggests that Jill didn't steal Jack's lunch, but she may know who did.

Jill says she didn't steal Jack's lunch.

This suggests that Jill didn't steal Jack's lunch, but implies that she may have taken something else belonging to Jack.

Notice that the meanings for these three sentences are very similar, but that they each have their own unique deeper meaning. Reading with proper expression will help children to understand that deeper meaning. Plus, kids typically like trying to figure out the differences!

Earlier, I mentioned that reading rate and accuracy can affect comprehension. So, what exactly is the big deal about reading fluency and comprehension? Well, think of your brain as a computer. When students are struggling to read, when they're attempting to sound out words and saying the wrong words without realizing it, their brains are working really hard to just read the words themselves. If we were talking about a computer, we obviously couldn't use terms like thoughts or ideas, as computers don't work in the exact same way as our brains. Instead we need to think of processing power and memory, as computers do have these. Think about how a computer acts if there are a lot of opened tabs or apps. It bogs the computer down, makes the running speed slower. The same is true of our brains. Given too much information to process at once, our brains process things more slowly - and sometimes less accurately! So if a child is really struggling to decode words, they may have a harder time comprehending the passage they're reading.

The following PDFs have great information on what fluency is (and isn't) as well as suggestions for you to help your children build their fluency at home: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGljvRnlzCFkPlTcfmLbmPmTMZC?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1, https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&ik=165e01f6b9&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-f:1711647363587259303&th=17c0fe355f5a3ba7&view=att&disp=inline&realattid=17c0fe2bf948bd552d21, and https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_ZjFI2CYjOutAssTuyDGg9nJIp1Uifhr/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=106322920173091393056&rtpof=true&sd=true.

Here you can find several websites that explain what fluency is and provides various resources or strategies to help your child attain better fluency: https://mythreereaders.com/how-to-teach-reading/reading-fluency-skyrocket-reading-skills/, https://www.readnaturally.com/research/5-components-of-reading/fluency, https://katelynslearningstudio.com/2020/02/reading-fluency.html, and https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/defining-fluency/.