May 10, 2023
Defining and Understanding Reading Fluency
There are many necessary skills that children need in order to become strong, independent, motivated readers. Fluency is chief among these skills. It bridges the gap between learning the sounds of a language and comprehending that language. The science behind early literacy suggests there are five pillars of learning to read that children progress through in a specific order (A Closer Look at the Five Essential Components of Effective Reading Instruction: A Review of Scientifically Based Reading Research for Teachers, 2004). These five pillars are:
- Phonemic awareness
- Phonics
- Fluency
- Vocabulary
- Comprehension
After children have acquired the basic building blocks of spoken language (link to post about the role of phonology), they must develop reading fluency, which entails “reasonably accurate reading, at an appropriate rate, with suitable prosody, that leads to accurate and deep comprehension and motivation to read" (Hasbrouck and Glaser, 2012).
Fluency is a complex and nuanced idea, so it is important to understand each individual component. We have broken them down here:
Reasonably accurate reading
Accuracy means a student can immediately and correctly read a word without sounding it out. “Reasonably accurate” refers to the percentage of words the student would be expected to read correctly at a particular level. Importantly, no child in the beginning stages of reading fluency is expected to be 100% accurate. In fact, making mistakes is a large part of gaining reading fluency. Reading “levels” are typically broken down according to grade level and the average developmental ability children of that age range have. However, all readers develop at different rates, and “reasonably accurate” may contain different expectations for individual children.
Appropriate rate
A student reading at an appropriate rate can move smoothly from word to word without pauses. This is not to be confused with speed, as faster is not always better. If a student is reading too quickly, they may not be able to fully pronounce the words or absorb the meaning of the text.
Suitable prosody
Suitable prosody means being able to read in a conversational tone, group words together for proper phrasing, and take cues from punctuation. A student’s voice may inflect upwards when they are reading a question, or take on an urgent or excited tone when they see an exclamation mark. Having a suitable prosody indicates a student’s ability to pay attention to the language and the meaning of a text.
When a student is able to successfully bring together these three components of fluency, reading gradually becomes more accessible. Once a child becomes a fluent reader, the world of reading opens up to them, allowing them to participate more fully in academics and engage their imaginations in a new way.
Accurate and deep comprehension
Being able to read fluently does not guarantee the reader is comprehending the meaning of the text. Accurate comprehension simply means the child is reading the correct words on the page and understands their meaning. Deep comprehension takes this “face value” understanding a bit further. Deep comprehension is the ability to retell or summarize the events of a story accurately, make inferences about the text and/or the characters, and discuss the author’s possible intentions behind writing the text. All of these are advanced skills that are built slowly in young readers. Without first developing fluency, these challenging skills are very difficult to perfect.
Motivation to read
Without fluency, students need to spend a disproportionate amount of time and effort on decoding words, which doesn’t allow for an easy path to comprehension. When this happens, students may come to view reading as a non-preferred activity. When children practice often and have opportunities to build their fluency and comprehension skills, they grow to love reading because they are proud of their abilities. With this pride comes a motivation to continue reading and learning.
Fluency is important because reading is important. The abilities to read fluently and comprehend accurately are critical for self-confidence and success in school. Reading is used across subject areas in school, and students are constantly introduced to new vocabulary. A lack of fluency in reading can hinder the development of a child’s vocabulary, leading to a domino effect of falling behind due to insufficient language skills. If a student can’t read efficiently and comprehend the material, then reading-heavy subjects (like social studies) will be difficult. Even subjects like math require adequate reading fluency to understand and complete basic word problems and follow intricate directions. Reading ability also ties closely to speaking ability, and students are always engaging in pragmatic development – whether they realize it or not. When children interact with each other and adults, they learn how to use language in new ways, discover the perspectives of others, and have meaningful conversations.