Five Fluency Resources to Try Tomorrow!

Hi Teacher Friend! 

Oral reading fluency has a significant impact on how students translate speech into print as they learn to read and spell. Let’s quickly define fluency, then jump into resources to help build it. 

Fluency is “ text read with a reasonable accuracy, appropriate rate, and suitable expression or prosody that represents that you understand what you've read” (Episode 153). What do those terms mean? 

Accuracy refers to reading words correctly on the page. To comprehend a text, students must read at least 95% of its words accurately, and for younger students, this should be closer to 98%. Achieving accuracy requires a solid foundation in word recognition.

Rate, or pacing, is the speed at which students read. Reading rate is influenced by how quickly students can recognize and process words automatically.

Expression, or prosody, involves grouping words into meaningful phrases, pausing appropriately, emphasizing key words, and maintaining a natural tone, volume, and rhythm. The level of expression reflects how well a reader understands the text.

Try these Fluency Resources Right Away! 

1. Fluency Goals Chart 

We created a Fluency Goals Chart that didn't make it into our best-selling book, The Literacy 50 (which has an ENTIRE chapter on fluency, by the way!) AND WE'RE GIVING IT TO YOU! It will help you set and track Fluency Goals for your students.

Use this Fluency Goals Chart to help students set fluency goals around accuracy, rate, expression, phrasing, and punctuation.You’ll love how this chart helps students understand each fluency component—and gives them clear, actionable steps to strengthen their reading fluency.

Listen to expert Jan Hasbrouck talk in detail about oral reading fluency assessments, the Hasbrouck and Tindal oral reading fluency norms chart, and all things fluency.

2. Fluency Rubric

How do you measure reading expression? Easy! This Multidimensional Fluency Rubric by expert Tim Rasinski. 

The Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) assessment measures a student’s accuracy and rate. While you can listen for expression during the assessment, it’s better to hear the student read for longer than one minute to get a clearer picture. So, how can you measure expression in reading? 

The Multidimensional Fluency Rubric is a valuable tool for assessing not just expression, but also volume, phrasing, smoothness, and pace. As students read, you'll assess where they fall on the scale—whether they read smoothly with some breaks, experience occasional rhythm disruptions, or have extended pauses or hesitations. This assessment requires a fair amount of teacher judgment, but it provides insight into students' fluency and highlights areas where they can improve. It’s a great way to get a clearer picture of their progress and guide your support for their development.

Hear Tim Rasinski explain why fluency should be hot, and how to support students in all aspects of it, including accuracy, rate, and expression. 

3. Repeated Reading Routine

Here’s a sample Monday through Friday Repeated Reading Routine from our book, The Literacy 50! 📚  

This weekly schedule ensures students get daily fluency practice. At the beginning of the week, there are plenty of opportunities for providing support through modeled, choral, and echo reading, then students gradually have more independent practice as the week progresses. This approach ensures steady growth and confidence in reading skills.

Listen to author of 7 Mighty Moves Lindsay Kemeny and educator Lorraine Griffith explain how they support students in building fluency. The show notes are jam-packed with resources - from a paragraph shrinking explainer to an error correction protocol - be sure to check them out! 

4. Paired Reading Blog

Paired - or Partner - Reading is an easy and effective way to build fluency. 

• Start by pairing a more confident reader with one who may need a little extra support. 
• One student reads aloud while the other follows along in the text. 
• After a set time, have them switch roles, giving each student the chance to hear their partner read and to practice reading themselves. 

Partner reading is a great way to listen in as students practice their fluency and provides an opportunity to offer valuable feedback.

Check out this blog on Paired Reading by researcher Nathaniel Swain. After you read it, you'll feel super confident having students practice with paired (or partner) reading. 👯 

Listen to Nathaniel Swain explain Fluency Instructional Routines in this podcast episode. He breaks down his top three instructional routines to improve students’ fluency, including tracked reading, choral reading, and paired reading, and the research that supports each. 

5. Readers' Theater Scripts

Readers’ Theater is not only fun, but also proven to be effective—thanks to research! 

So, what exactly is Readers’ Theater? It’s a practice where students perform by reading a script aloud. Before performing, students rehearse by reading the script multiple times. This repeated reading offers focused, intentional practice that helps boost all areas of reading fluency. In a study involving second-grade students, participants practiced their scripts daily for a week before performing. The results? Reading comprehension improved for all students involved, with the most significant gains seen in those who initially scored lower in decoding, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.

There’s a Readers’ Theater script for every occasion on researcher Chase Young’s website! We love these for Valentine’s Day, Halloween, winter, back-to-school, teaching folk tales, and so much more. Your students will laugh out loud as they practice and perform!  🎭

Listen to Chase Young discuss Readers’ Theater in this episode Readers' Theater: Easy, Effective, & FUN! with Chase Young.