Today is a Good Day for Fluency!

Reading Fluency
Keri Beall



Reading is more than just recognizing words.  Children should be able to comprehend what they are reading.  Reading Fluency is important for children to read smoothly and with adequate reading comprehension skills.  Independent reading is essential for the enthusiasm for reading to grow, as well as, to continue making the reader into a skillful reader. 



Stopwatch (1 per group), 1 copy per 2 children of the book, James and the Good Day, one copy per child of the fluency checklist, chart for the teacher to check the students progress, and a record sheet for each student.



  1. "Good morning, children.  Today we are going to improve our reading fluency skills.  In    

order to read fluently, it means that you can read quickly, and also understand what you are reading, which is called reading comprehension."


  1. "When you are reading, sometimes we will come across a word that we may not know or recognize.  When this happens, can anyone tell me what we might could use to help us figure out the word? You're right, we can use cover-ups.  Let's try and figure out the word net." Write the word net on the board.  "Who can tell me what sound e makes? That's right e =/e/.  What does sound does n make?  Great job, n = /n/.  Now let's put the two sounds together, /n/ /e/.  We can't forget about out last letter t.  Do we know what t says?  Awesome! t = /t/.  Now we can put all three sounds together.  /n/ /e/ /t/.  Net! Fantastic!"


  1. "Before we start our independent reading, let's practice our fluency. Let's practice with this sentence out of our book.  'Hhhhhheeee pppppllllaaaaayssssss ooooonnnn thhheee rrrruuuuuuggggg.'  Let me try again.  'Hhee ppllaays on the rruugg'.  I still have a little more to go."  Now teacher reads the sentence without expression.  Did that sound interesting to you?  Me either! It sounded boring?  What could I do to make that sound better? Correct, I need to read with expression!  Let me try one more time."  Now the teacher reads with expression.  "He plays on the rug!" 


  1. Now we are going to read a book in our pairs called James and the Good Day.  James wakes up one morning and decides he is going to have a good day! He wants to go play with his boat in the bathtub.  He turns on the water and waits and waits for the tub to fill up with water for his lake.  But James becomes bored and decides to play with games in his room, but James forgot to turn off the water! What will happen?  We'll have to wait to see once we begin reading! 


  1. When we read in our groups, you are going to have the responsibility of monitoring your partner's fluency by using the fluency checklist I have placed on your desk.  Each of you will read the book one time through.  For the second and third time, I want you to color in the chart on the back showing the improvement with expression and fluency.  We should all see great improvement!


  1. Each time you read the book, your partner will be holding a stopwatch.  When it has been a minute your partner will be stopping the stopwatch.  That is when you must stop reading.  Your partner will record the place where you stop reading.  Then it is your turn to hold the stopwatch.  We will do this procedure three times.  Make sure you record the data on your sheet of paper. 


  1. I can't wait to hear you read, so I will be calling you one at a time up to my desk! I am so excited because I know all of you are wonderful readers and have great comprehension, fluency skills, and love to read with expression!



James and the Good Day.  Educational Insights 1990.

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