🔎 A Focus on Fluency 🔎

The Superkids Bulletin. Fun and Creative Inspiration for Teachers of The Superkids Reading Program | Zaner-Bloser

ISSUE 47 | FEBRUARY 2024

Fluency is important because it is the bridge between word recognition and reading comprehension. It can be easy to think about fluency and imagine students simply reading quickly. But, a more accurate definition of fluency is “reasonably accurate reading, at an appropriate rate, with suitable expression, that leads to accurate and deep comprehension and motivation to read” (Hasbrouck, Jan & Glaser, Deborah, Reading fluency: Understanding and teaching this complex skill [Austin, TX: Gibson Hasbrouck & Associates, 2012], 13.). In addition to rate, accuracy and prosody are important factors in achieving reading fluency. This month’s Superkids Bulletin explores ways to assess and improve this important skill while using The Superkids Reading Program.

You can informally assess students’ fluency by listening as they read orally in small groups. You may observe children who read with little or no expression and do not observe punctuation. Others may have difficulty saying sounds or words correctly; hesitate when reading decodable words or Memory Words; read word-by-word, slowly, and haltingly; or struggle with phrases. You may also observe halting readers have difficulty discussing what they have read. These are all indicators that additional fluency instruction and practice are needed. When children read slowly and haltingly, it’s hard for them to keep track of ideas developed across sentences and paragraphs.

You may want to assess fluency formally and keep an ongoing record about individual student progress. In addition to words read correctly in a designated amount of time, document observations about phrasing, expression, and stress. Take notes about the types of errors a child makes and whether the child self-corrects. Look for patterns in errors, such as misreading Memory Words or problems decoding a specific letter-sound correspondence. These observation records can help you determine appropriate activities and design instruction that meets the individual needs of each student.

To facilitate ongoing formal assessment of fluency with connected text in first grade, two fluency Practice Pages and teacher recoding sheets for each unit can be found in the portal on the Materials page. In second grade, a fluency passage and teacher recording sheet accompany the Progress Test for each unit.

When you identify additional instruction and practice is needed, intentional and targeted instruction is key. When planning for this additional instruction, it can be challenging to determine where to start. The Superkids Skill-Building Book is an excellent resource for determining the correct point of instruction. Use the Quick Assessments on the back of the Fluency tab to assess automaticity with words as well as fluency in connected text. The Workout Plan, on the front of the Fluency tab, points you to skill-building activities that provide targeted instruction and practice with fluency skills that will meet individual student needs.

Here are a few additional activities that will reinforce fluency at the word, phrase, sentence, or passage level.

Word Level: Word Cards

Have students create a set of cards with the words you would like to reinforce. For each activity, students lay their cards on the table in front of them.

Listen and Point: You read a word aloud and students find the word and point to it.
Self-Sort: Students read the word cards silently then independently sort them into three animal categories: Words I read fast (cheetah), words I read slower (dog), and words I read very slow (snail).
Missing Word: You read a sentence with a missing word, then students find the word card that would appropriately fill in the blank.
Beat the Clock: Flip over a timer and see how many words students can read before the timer runs out.

Word Level: Big Book Fun

Practice word fluency with the Big Book of Blending or Big Book of Decoding. Have children begin reading the words in a whisper and then get louder with each word. Or, ask children to read the words using a silly voice such as a robot voice, a squeaky mouse voice, or a loud monster voice.

Word Level: Sing It!

Try singing a list of decodable words or Memory Words to a familiar tune such as “Happy Birthday.” One first-grade class sings Memory Words to the Batman theme song. For example, “He, her, his, what, BATMAN! When, where, I, my, BATMAN! She, which, who, why, BATMAN!”

Word Level: Flashlight Fun

The teacher or the leader of the day can begin by quickly flashing a light on a word hanging on the classroom Sound Wall or Memory Word Wall. Students are encouraged to read the word before the light is turned off.

Phrase Level: Scooping

To prepare for this activity, use a fluency passage or printed sentences from Superkids text. Break the text into smaller chunks by drawing a curved line under small, meaningful phrases. Children read only the small phrases instead of the entire sentence at once, making the text more approachable for a less fluent reader.

Ask students to decode each word in the phrase, then reread the phrase smoothly as they trace the curved line underneath.

Phrase Level: Phrase Progression

Select a sentence from the Daily Routine or Superkids text. Break the sentence into meaningful phrases. Then print the sentence—adding a new phrase to each line—until the sentence is complete.

Phrase Level: Chop It!

Like phrase progression, printed fluency passages can be cut with scissors into smaller phrases. Or, you can select sentences from Superkids text and write short phrases on sentence strips or notecards for children to read.

Sentence Level: Pyramid

To prepare this resource, print individual sentences onto a triangle-shaped cut out. Start at the top of the pyramid with just the first word in the sentence. The next line will include two words. Continue adding one word to each line until the whole sentence is printed. Introducing one pyramid at a time, students read through the text as many times as needed to gain confidence and mastery. Once mastered, introduce the next pyramid with a new sentence from the passage of text. When all the sentences have been mastered, students can put the pyramids in order and read the complete sentences from beginning to end.

Passage Level: Chunking

If children struggle with reading whole passages, you can break the text into chunks. Printed fluency passages can be cut with scissors into smaller chunks that may feel less intimidating to a striving reader. Children can practice with a new, small part of the passage each day. When all parts have had repeated readings, tape the pieces together for a whole passage read.

Passage Level: Fluency Sticks

Repeated oral reading practice is one of the best ways to develop children’s fluency. Increase engagement by varying the type of reading using story sticks. You will also find a list of ways to provide reading practice with descriptions in this printable PDF.

If you want to try the sentence pyramid activity above, check out this month’s freebie! This editable document allows you to easily create pyramids with 5–10-word sentences.

Sentence Pyramid Activity