Why Is Fluency Important in Reading With Elementary Students
Reading fluency, like so many other milestones in a child's life, is something that can take kids a while to achieve. But with practice, consistency, and patience, your immature learner will be on the road to reading fluency!
Our experts at HOMER are here to walk you through what reading fluency is, why it matters, and how to encourage your child down the path toward smooth, confident reading.
What Is Reading Fluency?
Reading fluency describes the level of automation and accurateness a person has while reading. One time your child no longer has to decode, or "audio out," the bulk of the words they run across and can read smoothly, they're on their manner to reading fluently.
Fluent readers audio natural while reading, as if they're speaking, and empathize phrasing while reading aloud. Think of news anchors reading off a teleprompter. If you lot didn't know they had teleprompters, yous might recollect they were just telling y'all a story!
But that doesn't mean your kid needs to be a news anchor in order to read with fluency. The master goal for your child is to simultaneously recognize and pronounce the words they read while comprehending the data on the page.
Why Is Reading Fluency Important?
Without fluency, reading tin can be taxing. Stopping to audio out discussion after word tin can be exhausting for kids.
Being able to forgo the constant stopping and starting helps convalesce the stress of reading, and reading becomes easier, more effective, and fun!
Information technology's non uncommon for beginning readers to pay and then much attention to saying the words on the folio that they fail to give pregnant to what they are reading. In other words, there's a gap in reading comprehension. Reading without comprehension is actually more reciting than reading.
Understanding — reading comprehension — grows aslope children'south reading fluency. When a kid no longer has to worry about the accuracy and speed of their reading, they can focus directly on what'due south happening in the story.
Maintaining the ability to read on their ain (and sympathize what they read!) volition also give your child a confidence boost. Their newfound independence may end up making them desire to read more every bit they explore their own interests or dive into imaginative worlds!
Causes Of Reading Fluency Challenges
Before nosotros cover how to assist your child ameliorate their fluency, we must look at why this might be a struggle. At that place are many reasons why children can have difficulty with reading fluency. Two of the well-nigh mutual are:
They have non learned to decode automatically.
Your kid may nevertheless sound out words rather than reading decodable words, even ones they take not seen before, instantly.
For example, you can read the word "flimp" automatically because you lot know how to decode it fifty-fifty though you have never seen information technology before. This kind of automatic decoding is essential for fluency.
They are not yet familiar with sight words.
We'll cover how to assist your kid work on this, merely for at present, it's important to note that sight words are the words that come up up commonly in texts.
When a child doesn't recognize them, they may read slowly equally they effort to audio each of these words out.
They may not comprehend what they are reading.
As children read slowly, the focus may as well be on sounding out or decoding words instead of trying to comprehend what they are reading.
If your kid is practiced at recognizing sight words and decoding, that's great! However, this doesn't mean that they empathise the text. And when they don't sympathize the text in front end of them, they may struggle to read fluently.
Comprehension as well includes having the background knowledge to make sense of what they are reading. A kid who does not know anything about the Chill, for example, will take a harder fourth dimension reading most polar bears than children who are familiar with this geography.
While these are a few of the most mutual reasons kids may have trouble with reading fluency, the expert news is that there are multiple strategies you can implement at home to assistance your child. Permit'southward take a look.
13 Tips To Improve Reading Fluency
At present that we all know what reading fluency is and that it's critical to your child'southward learning journey, where do nosotros begin bringing their fluency to fruition?
Here are a few tips to go on in heed and guide your family's reading fourth dimension!
1) Read Aloud To Your Child
This may seem like the most platitude technique in the volume, but it'southward a cliché for a good reason — information technology works!
Reading aloud to your kid is the surest way to help them know that reading is near significant. This not only fosters your child'south growth as a volume lover, but information technology also allows them to apply reading comprehension to help them develop fluency.
In improver, reading aloud expands children'southward vocabulary, and a strong vocabulary is an important aid in fluency, especially afterwards second or third grade.
Having a familiar voice to help and guide your kid through stories may also make them more comfortable while they work on their skills.
Reading to your kid or engaging in shared reading (you read a page and your child reads the next folio) improves a child'southward confidence, marvel, imagination, and prior knowledge — all of import things that contribute to reading fluency!
Plus, it'due south a cracking option for what all families demand enough of: relaxation and bonding fourth dimension. Reading together supports the parent-child bond you have with one another by sharing ideas, stories, and moments together.
When reading to or with your kid, endeavour to include some poems with rhyming schemes in the mix. These are beneficial because the repetition of the sounds helps children conceptualize the sound at the cease of the following line, which tin aid in fluency.
Reading poems that rhyme can also help children with letter of the alphabet-sound recognition. This is because the more they read them, the more than likely they are to notice that the aforementioned letter combinations often brand the same sounds.
Another advantage is that children can pick upward on how dissimilar vowel or consonant pairings tin can make similar sounds, which may help with give-and-take decoding.
Besides helping to achieve of import learning goals, children's poems, riddles, or limericks are also just plain fun! Many are based on interesting topics and offer lots of laughter. And you lot won't have to worry about motivating your kid to read.
2) Let Your Child To Selection
There is so much power in assuasive your child to control (at least to some extent) their own reading journeying.
By encouraging your young reader to select their own books for their daily reading practice, you offer them a directly incentive for investing in their reading fourth dimension.
Letting your kid choose their books as well gives you the opportunity to get a better understanding of what books your kid loves (and could read more of in the future!).
3) Reread Favorite Books
When your child picks their own book to read, you may run into a state of affairs where they continue to pick the aforementioned volume multiple days in a row, even if they've already read the volume several times.
Don't permit the alarm bells sound — this can be a expert thing!
Past rereading books, your child becomes more familiar with the words (which helps them learn to read those words!) and tin can begin to engage more deeply with the messages inside the story.
This technique develops your child's reading comprehension and reading fluency. Their increased comfort with the words in the text and the menses of the story will naturally allow their reading to become more than shine, as they'll be less concerned almost getting the words "correct."
4) Use Discussion Trees
Word trees help your kid focus on ane give-and-take at a time, then accumulate accuracy and speed until they take the entire sentence mastered.
If you desire to consummate a discussion tree, think of a sentence your child can work on. Then write out a unmarried word at the top of the newspaper — the first discussion of the sentence.
For each line underneath the kickoff word, write the commencement word plus add the side by side word in the sentence. And so, the elevation of the paper will take ane word. Then, the line beneath it will accept two words. The line beneath that will take iii words.
This repeats until the whole judgement is written. The design should create an effect that mimics the shape of a cartoon Christmas tree (or but a big triangle!).
Accept your child read each line after you write it, and and so see if they can read the entire sentence fluently. In one case they do, suggest they and then create a word tree for you to read then that the procedure becomes a game.
This technique is helpful because it allows your child to conquer one word at a time with the goal of building toward the concluding judgement. Past the fourth dimension they consummate the sentence, they'll exist comfortable with reading all of the words!
v) Monkey See, Monkey Practise
Encouraging your child to mimic your vox and intonation while you read together is a peachy fashion to capture their attending during reading time. This teaches kids to pay attention to pronunciation and expression, both important parts of reading fluency.
We encourage you to get artistic with this! Put on a wacky robot vocalism or your all-time Mickey Mouse impression. Your child can then repeat what you did back to you while reading what you lot just read.
It will get them giggling, but information technology will as well engage their listening skills and their reading fluency skills. And what's ameliorate than a technique that balances the fun with the functional?
While reading this fashion, pay special attending to the different punctuation marks that come up up in the text and explain what they mean to your child.
Punctuation doesn't just make reading easier; it can as well give a reader cues for the proper expressions to employ. So, help your child understand what each marking ways, and practice identifying them occasionally while you read.
6) Explain What Your Child Doesn't Understand
Half of the battle when it comes to reading fluency is building a bedrock of knowledge wide enough to allow kids to read on their own.
Equally your child gets older, they will learn more, eventually enough to trouble-solve when they're uncertain of what something means.
In club to assist in this effort and keep your child learning in the concurrently, information technology's important to double-check that your kid knows the definitions of the words they're reading, likewise as the context they should be used in.
Never be afraid to ask what they know and don't know. Encouraging your kid to be curious (and never, ever embarrassed well-nigh asking questions!) is the all-time way to get a gauge on what tools they've already got and what vocabulary they still need to work on.
7) Read More than Than Books
Reading fluency isn't simply about sitting down to read a book. It's also important because of all the other tasks, ideas, and instructions your kid will need to read about in their daily life.
An easy, fun way to change up their reading practice could be by encouraging them to help you lot out and read things that aren't books. For example, they could read recipe instructions while yous cook or look upwards something on a search engine for you.
These don't have to be keen, big tasks. Assuasive your kid to use their skills and work as a helper tin can practise wonders for their confidence and reading fluency!
eight) Work On Phonemic Awareness
Sometimes kids take trouble reading fluently because they have even so to develop phonemic awareness. In a nutshell, phonemic awareness is a reader's ability to place and dispense sounds, peculiarly phonemes.
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language. For example, from the word dog, you have d/o/g. We blend these three unique sound units to pronounce the word.
Understandably, a kid who's notwithstanding struggling to grasp this skill may accept difficulty reading fluently.
At that place are multiple ways to assist your child work on their phonemic sensation, including:
- Exposing them to rhyming words (e.g., reading books or singing songs that rhyme)
- Helping them blend and segment syllables and sounds
- Encouraging your child to come up with their own rhyming words
9) Spend Time On Sight Words
As nosotros mentioned, sight words are words that frequently appear in our reading and writing. Think of the, are, of, and, or, to name a few.
The trouble with these words is that many don't fit standard phonetic patterns. For a young reader, this can exist challenging, as information technology's not easy to audio out or decode them.
Helping your kid recognize these words tin can ameliorate their reading fluency because they won't need to pause every time they come across them in a text. A good identify to start is by using fun games and activities for sight words.
10) Help Your Kid Scoop Phrases
Let's have a look at the post-obit sentence: The piffling boy ran straight into his mother's arms.
When children begin reading, they tend to focus on each word separately, which often makes it sound monotonous and choppy. (The…petty…boy…ran…straight…into…his…female parent's…artillery.)
But when someone is a fluent reader, they naturally group phrases together. (The niggling boy…ran straight into…his female parent'southward artillery.)
This grouping of words into meaningful chunks is called phrasing. Information technology helps the reader flow the text together improve. When children develop this skill, they intuitively know when to intermission instead of pausing afterward every word.
To assist your child get started with phrasing, you tin can utilise a pencil to bespeak each phrase of a sentence (by circling or drawing half a circle around the words in a phrase).
Then, encourage them to pause after each phrase while they read. Once they get the hang of it, they can move on to indicating the phrases themselves.
11) Focus On Your Kid's Electric current Reading Level
If you notice that your kid'southward reading skills are a little behind their peers, information technology can be easy to get frustrated (or worried) and just buy the books their peers are reading in hopes of helping them "catch upward."
While this may be the outset instinct for some, information technology's not the most effective. Edifice fluency is a gradual process, and the best identify to start is where your child currently is.
Fortunately, you can detect out from your child's teacher what their reading level is. Bank check out this article to help guide you.
In one case you lot know your young learner'due south level, choosing books that correspond to that level is easier. In other words, y'all'll desire to find books that won't make your child experience overwhelmed.
As your child continues practicing and gets comfortable with the books they're reading, they can move up a level.
While on this journey, please don't forget the importance of reading for pleasure. One time yous're aware of your child's reading level, allow them to add together books that involvement them, regardless of the level.
This will encourage your child to continue reading and may assistance them develop a love for it.
12) Fourth dimension Your Child
Reading speed, as highlighted to a higher place, is 1 of the components of fluency. When your kid reads at a faster pace, it tin can also give them the conviction to move forward with more advanced texts.
To assistance your child master this skill, y'all tin can give them a passage to read in a set time frame:
I've set the stopwatch for one minute. Let's see if you tin can complete reading this passage inside earlier the timer goes off.
When they read, pay attention to the areas where your child stops, struggles, or breaks fluency. If there's an unfamiliar word, explain the meaning and encourage them to practice it a few times.
You can and then set the timer again to one infinitesimal and allow them to give it another get:
Permit's come across if you lot can read even faster this time!
To keep your child motivated, consider charting their progress. When doing so, note the words they once struggled with merely now read fluently. Information technology can be smashing for your kid to encounter how far they've come and volition encourage them to proceed going.
Tip: Be certain to continue things fun hither! You don't want your child to feel pressured with this action.
13) Encourage Your Child To Perform
It can take a while for immature learners to get into the habit of adding expression to their voices every bit they read. An effective way to help your child develop this ability is to encourage them to perform the text as they go.
Annotation: Try not to give your child the reading passage to practice beforehand. Instead, y'all want the performance to happen as they read. Doing this regularly can aid your child learn how to read, comprehend, and express whatsoever text in front of them.
Where tin can they perform? You tin easily pull this off at home.
Information technology can be equally uncomplicated as asking your child to re-read a phrase and actually deed out the character. But if you lot want to go all out, all your kid needs is a passage, book, or poem and a friendly audience (i.eastward., family members).
If the text has multiple characters, you and other family members tin join in for added fun! Add some costumes and props to the mix and, just like that, y'all take a show.
Reading Fluency And A Honey Of Learning
At HOMER, we understand that reading fluency doesn't happen overnight. But when it does, it can build a love of learning in your kid for years to come!
The about of import part of any new skill in your child's reading journey is practicing with patience and consistency. Don't ever fret if you lot feel similar your kid isn't learning their new skill immediately.
Children master skills at unlike times and in dissimilar means. With you in that location to assistance, though, your child will be on the road to reading fluently in no time!
But nosotros know equally well as you that parenting can be tough. For those nights when you lot need an extra mitt to become everything done, nosotros promise you'll lean on us! Our Larn & Grow app has loads of personalized activities, games, and comprehensive lessons for your child.
They're able to access all sorts of fun, specialized reading practice to assist build their reading fluency and other skills. You'll know they're in adept easily while you grab upwards on your decorated schedule!
In the meantime, nosotros promise these tips gave yous some keen options for your reading fluency practice at dwelling house. If you lot're still looking for more fun ideas, check out some helpful reading games to add together to your routine to spice things upward!
Source: https://www.learnwithhomer.com/homer-blog/3839/reading-fluency/
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