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The Science of Reading: Fluency - What EdLeaders Need to Know

Fluency Poster - I can read with expression and understand what I read.


Recently as I dove headfirst into attempting to understand The Science of Reading, I found myself immersed in The Reading Wars with Whole Language or Balanced Literacy on one side and The Science of Reading on the other. As I researched the divide between the two, I noted a side skirmish and made myself a note to come back to it. Lost in the vitriol over phonics instruction was the respect given or denied to fluency as a metric to pay attention to. 

At a basic level, fluency is a reader's ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. If comprehending what they read is the goal, children must be able to read fluently. This is true in reading aloud and in reading silently. In many ways, fluency is the bridge between word recognition and reading comprehension. "Fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding the words [so] they can focus their attention on what the text means" (Teaching Reading Basics - Fluency.)

The Oregon Department of Education has stated that "knowing how to assess and teach fluency, is critical to improving reading instruction at all levels" (Fluency Development.) If then, teaching and assessing fluency is critical, it becomes important for EdLeaders to know and understand what it is. (In particular, educational administrators that may not have had a background in teaching children to read must take the time to learn the foundational concepts of literacy instruction.)

Colorful graphic of sight words


Fluent readers have mastered Tier 1 words (Sight Words), Tier 2 words, and are able to quickly use word parts (Prefixes, Suffixes, and Root Words) to decode Tier 3 words. As a reader's decoding ability becomes stronger and quicker, they are able to spend more time making connections in and with the text. Readers who are less fluent spend their time deciphering the words on the page, increasing frustration and decreasing the likelihood that they will understand the meaning of the text. 

According to the Partnership for Reading article, An Introduction to Fluency, "Fluency develops gradually over time and through practice. At the earliest stage of reading development, students' oral reading is slow and labored because students are just learning to "break the code" – to attach sounds to letters and to blend letter sounds into recognizable words." Key in that description is the word practice. Fluency is developed through practice.

Here then comes the skirmish. Should novice readers read and reread one passage multiple times to practice fluency or is their time better spent reading many different texts? The latter was the prevailing thought under the tenets of Whole Language with its emphasis on increasing the quality and quantity of good books children spent time with. However, as with other explicit instructional activities, practicing and increasing fluency has again been recognized as a powerful practice.

For the EdLeader who may not have a background in early literacy, never fear, you too can easily differentiate between a fluent reader and one who has not yet developed fluency.  Fluent readers read aloud with expression, with an easily understood pace, with natural pauses informed by the punctuation in the text, and with voice inflection. Their reading sounds as if they are speaking. By contrast, non-fluent readers read slowly, word by word, often in a monotone, and will leave out words or add words that change the meaning of the text or simply confuse the listener.

The two terms or concepts encountered in fluency work that may be new to non-literacy experts are automaticity and prosody.


What is Automaticity?

Automaticity is the ability to quickly and accurately identify letters, letter-sound correspondences, and isolated words. In both the Simple View of Reading theory and Scarborough's Reading Rope theory (described in The Science of Reading post), there are two elements to reading comprehension: Word Recognition (Decoding, Phonological Awareness, and Sight Word Recognition) and Language Comprehension (Background Knowledge, Vocabulary, Language Structures, Verbal Reasoning, and Literacy Knowledge.) 

Readers have a limited or finite amount of working memory to use in comprehending what they are reading. Cognitive energy or working memory devoted to decoding words is not available to use for language comprehension. The more automatic word decoding becomes, the more mental resources are available for language comprehension and the stronger reading comprehension will ultimately be. When a reader is no longer thinking about sounding out words, they are able to devote themselves to making meaning. "The faster text is processed, the easier it is to access meaning directly and integrate new information with prior knowledge" (Automaticity in Reading by Shirley Houston.)

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education stated, "Many children who experience problems with automaticity and fluency did not receive systematic and explicit instruction and practice in foundational skills of reading. For many children, problems with automaticity and fluency can be prevented with strong core instruction, that includes phonological awareness, phonics, and decoding" (Mass Literacy.)

Increasing automaticity requires explicit instruction in word recognition skills and multiple practice opportunities.



What is Prosody?

In The Science of Learning Blog, Logan De Ley described prosody as "the defining feature of expressive reading, [that] comprises all of the variables of timing, phrasing, emphasis, and intonation that speakers use to help convey aspects of meaning and to make their speech lively." Research studies (linked below) have found a strong correlation between a reader's prosody in early grades with their reading comprehension achievement in later grades.

"Reading aloud with expression" is a simple shorthand for prosody. When a skilled reader reads aloud, the listener can detect text features like punctuation as the reader pauses briefly for commas or identify questions as the reader raises their pitch at the arrival of a question mark. Prosody improves as readers learn to read dialogue aloud in a way that conveys the intended meaning. 

When teachers listen to a child's prosody, they gain meaningful insights into a reader's ability to accurately read words at a reasonable rate and use grammar and punctuation to help construct meaning. Teachers who are helping a reader improve their prosody will often ask them to read a passage so that a listener can easily understand what is being read. They help them learn this skill by modeling reading aloud and then may choose to use teaching strategies like choral reading or echo reading.

Ultimately, “Fluency is more than reading words in a text accurately and automatically; it is also reading the words in texts with appropriate phrasing and expression that reflects and amplifies the meaning of the passage.” (Timothy Rasinski, et al)


I love the William James' visual of young readers beginning to read fluently, effortlessly taking to the sky ready to soar as learners.


References Not Linked in the Text Above

A Longitudinal Study of the Development of Reading Prosody as a Dimension of Oral Reading Fluency in Early Elementary School Children. by Miller, J. & Schwanenflugel, P. J. (2008). Reading Research Quarterly, 43, 336-354.

Building Fluency Through The Phrased Text Lesson by Rasinski, T., Yildrim, K., & Nageldinger, J. (2011). The Reading Teacher, 65, 252-255.

Fourth-Grade Students Reading Aloud: NAEP 2002 Special Study of Oral Reading(NCES 2006-469) by Daane, M.C., Campbell, J.R., Grigg, W.S., Goodman, M.J., and Oranje, A. (2005). U.S. Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics.

Helping Struggling Readers Target Fluency by Reading Rockets, (A national public media literacy initiative offering information and resources on how young kids learn to read, why so many struggle, and how caring adults can help.)

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Location: Atlantic Beach, NC, USA

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