Fluency

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Reading text smoothly, accurately, and with expression

Fluent reading sounds like talking. When we are reading fluently, we do not sound like robots. We do not read as quickly as we can. We stop at punctuation and pause as we read phrases.

When we are fluent readers, we can concentrate less on what the words are and more on what the text means. Developing fluency helps us comprehend and gain meaning from what we are reading.

Here are a few things that we do to develop fluency:

We learn sight words or high frequency words. These words appear in many books and texts. They are ones we learn to read by sight; we know them when we see them. Since these words are used frequently, we can read more text because we already know these words.

We read. Then we read it again. And again. Reading over and over helps us practice reading smoothly and with expression.

We listen to other people read. We can hear someone read fluently and with expression so we will know what that sounds like. Hearing and reading poetry helps us practice fluent reading.

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