Reading Fluency

  • Science of Reading

    How to Use Partner Reading to Build Reading Fluency (And Why Structure Is the Difference)

    A girl reads aloud from a copy of Wonders of the Forest while her partner follows along in his own copy at a shared classroom desk during a partner reading activity.

    Structured partner reading works because it delivers two things that build fluency at the same time: repeated oral reading practice and immediate, specific feedback from a peer model. Researchers Doug and Lynn Fuchs at Vanderbilt University studied what happened when teachers paired students intentionally, assigned the text, and gave both partners defined roles for reading, listening, and responding. They found this structured approach produced greater reading gains than comparison classrooms, for struggling readers, average readers, and strong readers alike

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  • Science of Reading

    A Teacher’s Guide to Improve Reading Fluency with Decodable Texts

    Improve Reading Fluency

    Can we have a heart-to-heart about decodable texts? I know that moment when you’re sitting with your small group, decodable readers in hand, and you’re thinking, “Shouldn’t we be moving on to ‘real’ books by now?” Trust me, I’ve been there too. After twenty years of working with teachers to improve reading fluency, I’ve learned that these seemingly simple books are actually literacy gold for our beginning readers.

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  • Science of Reading

    How to Increase Reading Fluency: Moving Beyond “Just Read Faster”

    How to increase reading fluency

    When teachers ask me how to increase reading fluency for these students, I completely understand their frustration.
    Let me share something that transformed how I approach helping these readers. Jan Hasbrouck says, “We don’t want to help them read fast… we want them to help them read well.” That stopped me in my tracks. Because yes – while we want to increase reading fluency, pushing for speed alone misses the point entirely.

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