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Effective Science of Reading Aligned Fluency Activities for Classroom and Homeschool Learning

Research has shown that fluency instruction should be evidence-based and explicitly taught every day (Rasinski & Cheeseman Smith, 2018). Fluency instruction should not be focused on reading speed but instead a combination of prosody, rate, and accuracy. Students with phonics or code-focused instruction improved their fluency (Bratch-Hines, 2017). Therefore, teaching phonics and phonemic awareness parallel to fluency instruction is important. According to Tim Rasinski, students' fluency improvements result in improving their reading comprehension (Lambert, 2019).  


Strategies that have been shown to foster reading success in struggling readers include using explicit instruction with a rich vocabulary, a range of texts, plenty of practice, and with feedback and discussion. ​Dr. Tim Rasinski would go one step further, explaining that in addition to using explicit literacy instruction, all students need a daily twenty- or thirty-minute fluency block dedicated to evidence-based instruction to be proficient readers and comprehend what they read (Rasinski & Cheeseman Smith, 2018).​ Students with exceptionalities such as Dyslexia and ADHD would benefit from these evidence-based fluency strategies such as repeated, partner, phrased, ​choral​, and assisted speech-to-text reading.


Strategies educators use for students with exceptionalities should be evidence-based and purposeful to keep them motivated on the task. As students can use strategies like repeated reading and phrasing while reading, they will have orthographically mapped words from the text meaningfully (Loftus & Saggington, 2024). ​For example, read-aloud, choral reading, and paired partner reading.​ Tim Rasinski created an effective fluency instruction, the Fluency Development Lesson (Lambert, 2019; Rasinski & Cheeseman Smith, 2018). Through this lesson, students use multiple evidence-based strategies during a daily twenty-to-thirty-minute block. This lesson includes modeled reading from the educator, ​​then​​ paired repeated reading to practice this reading again. Before performing the text at the end of the lesson, they complete word study work and reread it to ensure appropriate rate and prosody for an audience. This authentic task enables daily success for students and has shown an impact on increased oral reading fluency (ORF) scores and reading comprehension scores.


Repeated Reading 


Dr. Rasinski has children read aloud the same passage multiple times in multiple ways every day of the week before they perform their reading on Friday (Lambert, 2019). For example, on the first day of instruction, the teacher will read a new text two or three times, then students together another three times, then independently another three times. Students are now ready to present their final reading of the text as a reader's ​theatre​ or poetry performance.  

When this strategy is done with authentic text and a clear purpose, students have more engagement and willingness to continue reading the same passage repeatedly (Lambert, 2019). As a result, confidence in children will grow, which will keep them motivated on the task at hand. By using repeated reading with a weekly task such as reader's theatre, students have an end goal in mind and keep their focus on their fluency performance. Students can also monitor their progress in their fluency rate during this activity. As a result, Rasinski's studies have shown an increase in students' fluency and comprehension compared to peers who did not use this intervention (Lambert, 2019).


Choral Reading 



​Some classrooms have large chart paper with poems or daily messages from the teacher for the class to all read together; this is an example of choral reading.​ In choral reading, the class or even a few people read the exact text in unison aloud (Rasinski & Cheeseman Smith, 2018). ​It is a strategy that can easily be used in a classroom daily to provide a connection for students with exceptionalities to feel safe enough to participate in reading aloud without the fear of the entire class or group listening to them read (Bessette, 2020).​ ​Students with exceptionalities, such as dyslexia, who struggle with decoding words may struggle to keep up with the rate of reading in choral reading but will be able to listen to an accurate, fluent reading of the passage while they still participate in parts as they can read.​ ​Choral reading is beneficial for students struggling with letter-to-sound correspondence that would impact their word recognition because they would have an opportunity to hear the correct rate, phrasing, and pronunciation of the reading in real time and still participate while also then taking time to process what was read to help in reading comprehension.​ The teacher can still provide feedback after students finish reading together. This teacher and peer modeling allows students with exceptionalities to gain confidence in their reading practice, even on a more challenging text. This scaffolding approach gives these learners different perspectives of rates and prosodies and hearing the decoding of unfamiliar words. Choral reading can be done using a wide, varied range of text such as grade-level passages, picture books, chapter books, song lyrics, poems, and teacher-created examples.


Phrased Reading 



Children who read the text in meaningful phrases demonstrate comprehension of what is being read. Therefore, an evidence-based strategy is to help give students practice with reading phrases. Some teachers teach scooping, using a marker or highlighter, and drawing a line under a phrase in a text so students read the sentence phrase by phrase instead of word by word (Loftus & Saggington, 2024). Repeated reading can also be done at this time of the activity. When children can read text in meaningful phrases, they can comprehend what is being read. Another way to use phrasing is to use a list of common high-frequency words into meaningful phrases for students to read. ​Dr. Tim Rasinski made these lists available on his website (Rasinski, 2016; Lambert, 2019). This resource includes Dr. Edward Fry's Instant Word List, also turned into a phrase list. ​By using these lists, students can practice reading multiple words simultaneously to increase their automaticity and prosody. Students show they comprehend a text as they read it aloud in meaningful phrases (Lambert, 2019). Repeated reading of these phrases using different prosody and emphasis from different punctuations can also be helpful for students to hear the changing meaning and purpose of the phrase in the text.


Partner Reading 

Partner reading is when students with similar reading abilities or fluency rates read text together. Unlike choral reading, which is reading simultaneously together, partner reading is when the stronger reader usually reads the passage first, followed by the weaker reader reading the same text. This activity could also be done by taking turns reading a line or paragraph at a time and then the partner rereading the same text (Rasinski & Cheeseman Smith, 2018). Students with exceptionalities will be able to hear a preview of the text, which has been shown in studies to improve fluency in students (Loftus & Saggington, 2024). 



Paragraph Shrinking Partner Reading

An extension of the basic model of partner reading is partner reading/ paragraph shrinking, by Dr. Matt Barns (Loftus & Saggington, 2024). This evidence-based strategy has students complete a twenty-minute daily fluency activity in paired reading. The text is based on the student's reading ability level or using DIBELS scores. Pairs were partnered based on these assessments, with Partner One scoring slightly higher in fluency than Partner Two. For five minutes, the first partner would read aloud. ​Partner two corrects and provides feedback as needed.​ Then, for the next five minutes, partner two reads the same text the original partner just read. Again, partner one provides feedback and help as needed. Then, for the remaining time, they switch to paragraph shrinking. This part uses another passage for students to read a paragraph aloud; students then pause and orally explain what was most important in the text and create a quick ten-word or less summary of what was read. ​Then, in the last five minutes, the second partner does the same and creates a summary of what they read.​ The results from this activity show a significant improvement in students' ORF and comprehension scores. Passages from the same topic can allow students to make multiple text-to-text connections and grow their understanding of a concept while improving their fluency and vocabulary acquisition.


Resources


Bessette, Harriet J. (2020) Using choral reading to improve reading fluency of students with exceptionalities. Georgia Journal of literacy: Vol 43: No.2,     Article 4. https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/gil/vol43/iss2/4 

Bone, E. K., & Bouck E. C. (2017). Accessible text-to-speech options for students who struggle with reading. Preventing School Failure, 61(1), 48–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/1045988X.2016.1188366

Lambert, Susan. (Host). (2019, November 26). S1-04. The importance of fluency instruction: Tim Rasinski [Audio podcast episode]. Science of Reading the Podcast. Amplify. https://amplify.com/science-of-reading-the-podcast/

Loftus, Melissa & Sappington, Lori. (Host). (2024, August 23). [Listen Again] Ep.98: Improving Student Reading Growth in Months with Fluency

Instruction and Practice (Ep. 98) [Audio podcast episode]. Melissa & Lori Love Literacy. Great Minds. https://literacypodcast.com/podcast

Rasinski, T.V. (2016). Timothy Rasinski Website. Teacher Created Materials. http://www.timrasinski.com/

Rasinski, T.V. & Cheeseman Smith, M. (2018). The Megabook of Fluency: Strategies and texts to engage all readers. Scholastic.

 
 
 

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