Learning and Teaching
The Importance of Fluency
Reading should sound much like speech with appropriate phrasing, pause structures, stress, rise and fall patterns, and general expressiveness. A fluent reader - someone who reads with appropriate speed and accuracy - can concentrate on what the text means and develop comprehension skills, as opposed to decoding skills. Fluency training is something all parents can do for their child. It is a skill that develops gradually over time and through substantial practice.
Here are some helpful tips to develop reading fluency at home:
Routine
Establish a daily family reading routine. 15-20 minutes is all you need!
Choice of Books
Encourage your child to choose books, poems, magazines, comic books, and newspapers that are of interest to them and that are at the child’s reading level so they develop confidence reading independently.
Strategies
Model reading aloud to your child to provide a good example of fluent reading, using expression and intonation. Your child will not only enjoy listening to you read, but they will develop their language skills and reading comprehension. Audio books can be useful for building vocabulary development and content knowledge.
Partner Reading
You and your child take turns reading. To encourage confidence in fluency, you can read a sentence or paragraph first and then your child reads the same sentence or paragraph right after.
Choral Reading: You and your child read together at the same time.
Repetition
Encourage your child to reread their favourite texts to improve fluency, word recognition and comprehension.
Heart Words and High Frequency Words
You can also review heart words and high frequency words with your child to increase automaticity. You could do 2-3 minute drills with your child a few times a week.
Effort
Keep your child motivated by encouraging and praising them for strengths and their interest in reading. This will build confidence and maintain interest.
By building consistent reading habits at home and making reading an enjoyable, shared experience, you are helping your child grow into a confident, fluent reader who can truly understand and enjoy what they read.
Learning and Teaching