Break up the mid-winter slump and bring a Fluency Boot Camp into your classroom! What is a Fluency Boot Camp? No... you will not be shipping your students off (sorry), nor will students have to march around the room (your choice), but I can guarantee that your students' brains will be sweating as they participate in the classroom fluency camp you create! Just like any boot camp, students will build confidence through practice and drills. You can organize it for just one day, or you can set it up to last a full-week or month! Keep in mind, after just
15 fun and easy fluency practice activities to get your K-1 students reading at a just-right pace, with accuracy and expression!
Fluency tends to be a commonly overlooked skill, but you can change that by learning about strategies for teaching fluency with your elementary students!
We know fluency is important. We know fluent reading is the bridge to comprehension. But.... what can we do to help disfluent readers? To best help a disfluent reader, we must first determine what stage the student is at. This will help us find the best strategy for the reader. Is the student a beginning reader (kindergarten or first grade)? Is the reader one who is making adequate progress? Or, is the reader one who is struggling? Lets look at a beginning reader first. A beginning reader is someone in kindergarten and first grade who is attaching letters to their sounds and blending them into simple words. To improve reading fluency for these students a teacher should: Spend a significant amount of time on accurate text reading Implement a systematic daily practice for learning to read words accurately Model fluent reading. Give students lots of opportunity to read and re-read decodable text Encourage students to read "like they are talking." Now, lets look at a reader who is on-level or making adequate progress. These are students in grades two or higher who are average and making adequate gains. How do we keep the momentum going? How do we maintain their progress? To do this a teacher should use: Choral reading Echo Reading Cloze reading Partner reading Readers' theater Poetry readings Finally, lets look at struggling readers. Disfluent readers need a mixture of what beginning readers and on level students need. The best way for disfluent readers to become more fluent is by reading! These students need: Focus on ACCURATE text reading. Use decodable text Repeated readings Systemic daily practice of reading words accurately Modeled fluent reading Encourage students to read like they are talking LOTS of opportunities to read text (at their level) using choral, cloze, echo and partner reading. If you would like to know how to define fluency and why being a fluent reader important, check out the first post in the series by clicking here. There are a ton of great articles written by reading gurus on the topic of fluency. Check them out by clicking below. Everything You Wanted to Know about Repeated Reading by Timothy Shanahan via Reading Rockets Using Poetry to Teach Reading via Reading Rockets Developing Fluent Readers by Jan Hasbrouck via Reading Rockets I hope you will join us next time to discover ways you can fit daily fluency practice into your schedule!
Reading fluency is the bridge to comprehension. Here are important do's and don'ts for teaching reading fluency!
Fluency tends to be a commonly overlooked skill, but you can change that by learning about strategies for teaching fluency with your elementary students!
Hearing a child learn to read for the first times is one of the greatest joys for parents, teachers and kids! There is nothing like it! After children
Increasing reading fluency in our students is one of the main goals of any elementary school teacher. If they are not fluent readers, they are unable to gain meaning (comprehend) from what they are reading. There are a few components to being a fluent reader...
Does your reader sometimes sound like he’s just saying a string of words? Is it sometimes choppy? This can happen to all kinds of young readers, especially struggling readers. Instead of focusing on reading fluency and phrasing, struggling readers are often just trying to make sure they can say all the words correctly. Last week, The Measured ... Read More about Reading Fluency and Phrasing {Using Scooping Phrases}
Fluency brings the words to life!
Grab a copy of these FREE Blending Fluency Games, a sample from my Blending & Rimes Fluency Games in my shop! THREE free no prep games are included for blends, digraphs, and short vowel rimes. Find more FREE Fluency Games. *Click on the teal download button towards the END of this post to download these free blending ... Read More about FREE Blending Fluency Games
Happy Saturday friends! I am excited to be a part of the Take A Closer Look Blog Hop for March! I’ve got a product to share and a fun freebie as well! 🙂 Let’s get started! Today, I’d like to share my Progressive Bundle for Firsties! It’s been a great help to me in my...Read More »
How do you work on fluency in your classroom? We make sure to READ READ READ simple sentences to practice our fluency!
HOW do I start first grade fluency ? This is a really important question! As a matter of fact I am headed to Vegas to speak on fluency at the SDE iTeach1st Conference! That's how important fluency is to me and how much it benefits my students in the literacy growth. Other super key questions are WHEN should I start fluency and WHAT materials should I use? I am nobody’s boss, but let me share what I do. FALL FLUENCY & SIGHT WORDS In the fall we work really hard on sight word fluency. I want them to master 300 words by the end of the year. They are divided into groups of 10 (30 lists) and placed into daily homework folders. The sight words are very prominent in the set up. They are half sheets and become very well worn by the end of the school year! The fluency passage is right there next to the sight words, so that both can be read easily! We practice them daily in class, during afternoon reading buddies, and for homework. We really hit them hard and play a lot of sight word games I found on Pinterest. After speaking at a kinder conference in the spring, it occurred to me that I should be doing single-passage fluency in the fall. But how would I start? What would it look like? This might be how you are feeling too. FALL FLUENCY & PASSAGES: I hit the books, “Googled” it, talked to others and, honestly, I prayed. How and when would I introduce single-sheet passages to my firsties? Shouldn’t they be turning the pages of little books in the fall? Are their “reading eyes” too new for passages? First graders are fragile and if you overwhelm them, they FREAK out. Oh my goodness could I really consider timing these babies on words per minute? Prayer, Google, Diebles, and Fran Kramer, Prayer, Google, Diebles, Fran Kramer REPEAT. This was how I spent my summer and I came up with a plan. Research told me first graders should not be timed until December or January. Shared reading is how I decided to start with a soft launch into passages. This is my pocket chart. I know this looks like teaching from 1992, but this works. I wrote out the single sheet fluency passage onto sentence strips and created comprehension picture cards that go with the fluency. I also wrote the fluency to have very readable and predictable text! In this way (Pocket chart style) I begin to model fluency, 1 to 1 correlation, and vocal intonation, rate, and accuracy. Then the kids take over the pointer and the real magic happens. I mean look at those babies! Hands in the air BEGGING to read. Be still my heart! We pull picture cards off and put them back on to encourage comprehension. I hand out the cards and when you hear the line read that matches your card you get to come up and put it on the chart. The kids LOVE getting up and reading off the “Big Chart”. We do a lot of echo reading at this point too! FALL FLUENCY & SIMPLIFIED PASSAGES: Keeping it readable is key. I really think my job in this first trimester is to help the children see themselves as readers! Many of their skills are lying just under the surface and with a little practice, luck, and love those skills will come bursting through as will a confident and excited reader. So I wrote really easy, but engaging passages. They should be easily mastered within a few days so the kids can begin to build their fluent voices! Passages come with and without numbers so that children can be timed or not. FALL FLUENCY & ART: You know that I believe art is important. There is no denying I am into making learning fun. Each passage has a darling art project and bulletin board lettering for you to display. Does a pretty room equal smart kids? No. Does an engaged child equal a smart child? More often than not. I display the art we will create next to the fluency passage on my chart to get them excited and pumped up about the passage we are reading. FLUENCY and WRITING These go hand in hand!!! I LOVE having my students write about our fluency topic. The ideas are ones they are SO familiar with! By Friday, when we sit down to write, the ideas flow easily and they can concentrate a little more on conventions. Please, God, let them capitalize, punctuate, and use finger spaces. PLEASE! I adore “processes of learning” maps, Thinking maps, or smart charts. Whatever you call them, they help the kids organize their thinking and I like that! Kids at this age level need that all year, not just in the fall! These are our Circle Maps for the healthy foods we like to eat! FLUENCY MATERIALS- Informational Text In my opinion the content read by kids in a fluency manner should be Social Studies and Science based! Kids are hungry to read about the real world. This is also a simple way to get informational reading into my day! If they are going to read a passage no less than 20 times, shouldn’t it be worth while? Shouldn’t it add to their schema? I think it should. Any of the images below are clickable. If you want to try some of the Fall units you can buy a few separately to get a taste of the goodness! Plus, of course you get the comprehension pictures to go along with a pocket chart ! Pocket Chart: Obviously pocket chart, holder, or sentence strips are not included. I am pretty sure I don’t have to say that, but you never know…. Bulletin Board Lettering and Art Masters: Great blog post on how to start teaching fluency at the start of first grade Bonus Free Resource Links and Pocket Chart Pictures: Bulletin Board Lettering and Art Masters: Pocket Chart Pictures: Bulletin Board Lettering and Art Masters: Not pictured since the kids do the art on Tuesday! I promise to update this post for sure when they complete the art! FALL FLUENCY LESSON PLANS & TEACHER HELPERS Each packet comes with easy to read lesson plans and explanations for how I run my successful program. It’s a very common sense approach. 20 minutes of your school day will turn into the most powerful minutes of your day for building comprehension and fluency! If you are hungry for more games, strategies, and materials I wrote a 101 post {here}. Let’s get these little babies reading. Let’s have some fun together in the midst of Common Core drama. Let’s just teach reading to the best of our ability with Social Studies and Science passages that matter in real life! Check out the newsletter {here} where I got to share a little fluency tip! Comprehension and Fluency I really love fluency and just cannot help but share that passion! If you have any questions, inspirations, or ah-ha moments I'd LOVE to hear them! You can always email me or leave a comment! [email protected] See Ya'll in Vegas. XOXO!!!!
I created these to use as a weekly fluency assessment with my students. Each set includes a real word, nonsense word, and story passage which focuses on a specific sound. Each assessment is worth 15 or 16 points. For the story, only the bolded words are counted toward the score, though I do highlight any missed words as well. I do not time these assessments. The first two pages can be printed on cardstock and laminated for maximum sustainability while students use them to read. The last page, or teacher recording sheet, can be copied for each student in your classroom. As students read, highlight any missed words. After a score is taken, the student can take their recorder home to continue practicing with parents! You can choose to have your students do all three assessments, or choose one that best suites their level. I found that doing all three, the passage being last, helped my students tremendously. My students loved when it was their turn to read. I watched their confidence sky rocket after getting through the passage at then end! I hope you find this set helpful and see the same success with your own students. Other items in my store like this: Long A (a_e) - Phonics Fluency Assessment Long U (u_e) - Phonics Fluency Assessment Long O (o_e) - Phonics Fluency Assessment Long I (i_e) - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short A - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short E - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short I - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short O - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short U - Phonics Fluency Assessment R Blends - Phonics Fluency Assessment AR - Phonics Fluency Assessment OR - Phonics Fluency Assessment ER, IR, UR - Phonics Fluency Assessment AW and AU - Phonics Fluency Assessment OW and OU - Phonics Fluency Assessment O OA OW - Phonics Fluency Assessment I Y IGH - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short OO - Phonics Fluency Assessment Parent Letter for Fluency Assessment
*Avery Binder with Clear Cover (We use 1 inch binders in my room)*Small Avery UltraTabs*Large 3 x 3.5 inch Avery UltraTabs*3 Ring Hole Punch*Avery
Like most teachers, you want your students to be successful readers. But what do you do if they struggle with reading fluency? Reading fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with
15 fun and easy fluency practice activities to get your K-1 students reading at a just-right pace, with accuracy and expression!
Hi everyone, My little learners have been working SO hard on their reading these past few months and I am VERY excited to show what what they have been up to!
Looking for fluency activities? I just updated my fluency freebie. I added some short passages. If you need longer passages, I recommend visiting Reading A to Z. This is a great site with leveled passages. There are even some free books that you can download. Click HERE to get your freebie.
Does your reader sometimes sound like he’s just saying a string of words? Is it sometimes choppy? This can happen to all kinds of young readers, especially struggling readers. Instead of focusing on reading fluency and phrasing, struggling readers are often just trying to make sure they can say all the words correctly. Last week, The Measured ... Read More about Reading Fluency and Phrasing {Using Scooping Phrases}
Here are some tips and strategies on how to teach reading fluency in your homeschool or in your classroom literacy centers.
15 reading fluency activities you can do in minutes a day with strategies to improve reading fluency in your slow, choppy reader. Reading fluency games online, printable reading fluency games, reading passages and more! Education ideas - what are the 3 components of reading fluency? Wanting to know how to help your child read faster? Check out these ideas for reading fluency games, printable reading fluency games, timed reading games, plus reading fluency activities pdf format to print. If you find yourself asking - I want to know how to help my child read more fluently, check out these reading fluency activities, games, kindergarten fluency activities games, and other strategies to improve reading fluency.
I’ve been writing fluency passages for the last four years. I never really dreamed that it would help so many teachers across the country, but it has, and I am truly grateful. I’ve been asked many times over the years to provide fluency for third grade and I’ve said no. Largely because it would take...Read More »
Grab these FREE fluency passages for your kindergarten and first grade students. They are printable and low-prep! Students will love practicing decoding, comprehension, and fluency skills with these fun and engaging passages. Get 10 activities in this free download! Grab them now
Bossy R reading comprehension passages for 1st grade reading practice for words with R controlled vowels. These cute worksheets practice phonics, fluency, and comprehension skills all in one passage. Each reading comprehension passage focuses on a different bossy R sound (OR AR ER IR UR) for 10 passages total. Look in the top right corner to see what sound each passage focuses on. This reading passages pack focuses on AR, OR, ER, IR, and UR. Each passage has a picture in the corner to aid comprehension as well as a version of each without a picture for easily distracted students. If you like these, I have a TON of passages like this for other sounds (see below)! Save a TON by getting this in the Bossy R ULTIMATE BUNDLE or in the Reading Comprehension Passages ULTIMATE BUNDLE! For more BOSSY R practice, here are a few of my favorites: ER IR UR Worksheets & Activities {NO PREP!} AR Worksheets & Activities {NO PREP!} OR Worksheets & Activities {NO PREP!} Bossy R Word Roll Centers Bossy R Fluency and Sequencing Puzzles ER IR UR Pocket Chart Centers and Materials OR and AR Pocket Chart Centers and Materials Secret Word Centers - Bossy R Bossy R Bottle Cap Centers Bundle Clip Cards Bundle - Bossy R Bossy R Word Families Posters Bossy R Reading Fluency Passages Bossy R Little Phonics Books Bundle For a LOT more reading passages like this, check out: Part 1 which focuses on short vowel word families: Kindergarten Reading Fluency and Comprehension Passages which has the following word families included: -at, -an, -am, -ap, -ag, -ad, -ack, -et, -en, -ed, -ell, -it, -ip, -in, -ick, -ill, -id, -ig, -ot, -ob, -op, -og, -ock, -un, -um, -ug, -uck For Part 2 which mostly focuses on long vowel word families: Kindergarten Reading Fluency and Comprehension Passages Part 2 Word families included: -ake, -ate, -ave, -ale, -ame, -ade, -ape, -ane, -ace -ine, -ike, -ive, -ide, -ite, -ile, -ime, -ice -ole, -ope, -ote, -ose, -oke, -one -uke, -ude, -ute, -une -ish, -ash, -ush, -itch, -atch, -ath -oop, -ool, -oom, -eed, -eel, -ight, -ang, -ing For Part 3 which focuses on beginning blends: Kindergarten Reading Fluency and Comprehension Passages Part 3 It includes the following beginning blends: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, wr, bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sc, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw, tw For Part 4 focusing on ending blends, check out: Kindergarten Reading Fluency and Comprehension Passages Part 4 It includes the following blends: mp, nd, nt, nk, ng, st, sk, ft, pt, ct, ld, lt, lf, lk, lp, lm, mb For the digraphs edition, check out: Digraphs Reading Fluency Passages It includes the following digraphs: sh, ch, th Vowel Teams: Vowel Teams Reading Passages It includes the following phonics sounds for 22 passages total: ai, ay, ai/ay mix, ee, ea long e (x2), ee/ea long e, ea short e, ea long & short e mix, igh, ie long i, igh/ie long i, oa, ow long o, oa/ow long o, ou, ow as in cow, ou/ow as in cow, ow long o/ow as in cow, oo as in zoo, oo as in book, oo both sounds Soft C and G: Soft C and G Passages It includes 18 Soft C passages and 5 Soft G passages for 23 passages total I also have a set of gradually harder first grade reading fluency passages in a different style here: First Grade Reading Fluency and Comprehension Passages {Entire Year Set} It focuses on phonics sounds and gets progressively harder. It includes the following sounds: short a, ck, short o, short i, short e, short u, all, ing, qu, wh, sh, ch, -le, a_e, o_e, i_e, u_e, oo, or, ar, er, ir, ur, ea (long e), ee, oa, ow (long o), ow (ou sound), igh, _y (long i), _y (long e), hard g, soft c, ay, ai, ou, ea (short e), ie, oi/oy. - Miss Giraffe
I created these to use as a weekly fluency assessment with my students. Each set includes a real word, nonsense word, and story passage which focuses on a specific sound. Each assessment is worth 15 or 16 points. For the story, only the bolded words are counted toward the score, though I do highlight any missed words as well. I do not time these assessments. The first two pages can be printed on cardstock and laminated for maximum sustainability while students use them to read. The last page, or teacher recording sheet, can be copied for each student in your classroom. As students read, highlight any missed words. After a score is taken, the student can take their recorder home to continue practicing with parents! You can choose to have your students do all three assessments, or choose one that best suites their level. I found that doing all three, the passage being last, helped my students tremendously. My students loved when it was their turn to read. I watched their confidence sky rocket after getting through the passage at then end! I hope you find this set helpful and see the same success with your own students. Other items in my store like this: Long A (a_e) - Phonics Fluency Assessment Long U (u_e) - Phonics Fluency Assessment Long O (o_e) - Phonics Fluency Assessment Long I (i_e) - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short A - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short E - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short I - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short O - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short U - Phonics Fluency Assessment R Blends - Phonics Fluency Assessment AR - Phonics Fluency Assessment OR - Phonics Fluency Assessment ER, IR, UR - Phonics Fluency Assessment AW and AU - Phonics Fluency Assessment OW and OU - Phonics Fluency Assessment O OA OW - Phonics Fluency Assessment I Y IGH - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short OO - Phonics Fluency Assessment Parent Letter for Fluency Assessment
Phonics Based Decodable Readers
Last year I started writing these silly little fluency passages that would give my students practice at reading our CVC spelling words. I on...
Happy Saturday friends! I am excited to be a part of the Take A Closer Look Blog Hop for March! I’ve got a product to share and a fun freebie as well! 🙂 Let’s get started! Today, I’d like to share my Progressive Bundle for Firsties! It’s been a great help to me in my...Read More »
Phonics fluency notebooks are one of my favorite literacy activities for teaching students to read with fluency and comprehension. I...
Reading fluency is essential to overall reading proficiency; however, it does not always come naturally to students. For those students, there are many interventions and research-based activities that can implemented to improve fluency skills. An effective fluency intervention to use with your disfluent students is something called 'Cold Reads' and 'Hot Reads.' This quick and easy to implement intervention can be used to improve fluency, but also to monitor progress with specific fluency skills. All students could benefit from a sprinkle of fluency practice, so this activity could be used with your reading groups, RTI students, or entire class. What
I created these to use as a weekly fluency assessment with my students. Each set includes a real word, nonsense word, and story passage which focuses on a specific sound. Each assessment is worth 15 or 16 points. For the story, only the bolded words are counted toward the score, though I do highlight any missed words as well. I do not time these assessments. The first two pages can be printed on cardstock and laminated for maximum sustainability while students use them to read. The last page, or teacher recording sheet, can be copied for each student in your classroom. As students read, highlight any missed words. After a score is taken, the student can take their recorder home to continue practicing with parents! You can choose to have your students do all three assessments, or choose one that best suites their level. I found that doing all three, the passage being last, helped my students tremendously. My students loved when it was their turn to read. I watched their confidence sky rocket after getting through the passage at then end! I hope you find this set helpful and see the same success with your own students. Other items in my store like this: Long A (a_e) - Phonics Fluency Assessment Long U (u_e) - Phonics Fluency Assessment Long O (o_e) - Phonics Fluency Assessment Long I (i_e) - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short A - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short E - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short I - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short O - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short U - Phonics Fluency Assessment R Blends - Phonics Fluency Assessment AR - Phonics Fluency Assessment OR - Phonics Fluency Assessment ER, IR, UR - Phonics Fluency Assessment AW and AU - Phonics Fluency Assessment OW and OU - Phonics Fluency Assessment O OA OW - Phonics Fluency Assessment I Y IGH - Phonics Fluency Assessment Short OO - Phonics Fluency Assessment Parent Letter for Fluency Assessment
15 fun and easy fluency practice activities to get your K-1 students reading at a just-right pace, with accuracy and expression!
Increasing reading fluency in our students is one of the main goals of any elementary school teacher. If they are not fluent readers, they are unable to gain meaning (comprehend) from what they are reading. There are a few components to being a fluent reader...
Wondering how to improve reading fluency with young readers? Get eight practical tips!
Decodable reading passages are a great way to teach phonics skills to first graders while also increasing reading comprehension and fluency.
Grab these FREE fluency passages for your kindergarten and first grade students. They are printable and low-prep! Students will love practicing decoding, comprehension, and fluency skills with these fun and engaging passages. Get 10 activities in this free download! Grab them now
