During the repeated reading fluency strategy students orally read decodable material at their instructional reading level. The teacher uses a stopwatch to time the students for a minute and records their errors. Errors are words that are read incorrectly or omitted during the repeated reading.
What is Reading Fluency?
Fluency is the ability to read a text with speed and accuracy. Students who are able to decode words in a passage but do so at a slow, laborious rate have difficulty comprehending what they read because they are spending so much mental effort deciphering the words. Conversely, students who read quickly but inaccurately also have trouble making sense of a text.
Repeated readings help elementary students increase fluency by having them read the same passage three or four times. After each timed reading the teacher provides instruction and remediation after each reading based on the students’ errors and omissions. Students’ accuracy and speed increases with each reading which in turn increases the students’ ability to comprehend the text.
How to Use the Repeated Reading Fluency Strategy
Eve Bunting’s The Pumpkin Fair [Clarion Books, 1997] is a story of rhyming verses about the narrator’s trip to the pumpkin fair. The catchy, rhyming text can be used for repeated readings with primary students in Kindergarten through second grade depending on the students’ instructional level.
Before beginning the repeated reading strategy with students the teacher determines which part of the story she wants the kids to read and blocks off a 200 word section. The teacher prints out a repeated reading chart for each student that will be using the strategy and obtains two copies of the story.
The teacher prepares independent activities for the rest of the class to do and sits in a quiet area with the first student. She explains to the students that he will read the story out loud to the teacher for one minute. The teacher tells the child to do his best and that she will be taking notes while he reads.
After the student is finished reading the teacher refers to the text and corrects any errors he made while reading. The teacher provides additional instruction in the form of a mini-lesson or practice activity and then records the speed and accuracy on the repeated reading chart.
Repeated reading is a strategy used to increase a student’s reading fluency. When a child reads more fluently he is better able to comprehend what he reads. The teacher chooses decodable text written on the student’s instructional level and records his progress on a repeated reading chart. The teacher uses the fluency data to inform reading instruction and increase reading skills.
For more information on reading strategy instruction elementary teachers can read How to Teach Elementary Kids to Make Predictions, Word Splash Vocabulary Strategy for Primary Kids, and the Language Experience Approach.
Megan Sheakoski - Megan Sheakoski is a teacher, mom and writer whose ideas have been featured in college text books, graduate courses, on websites and on ...
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