The Importance of Fluency: A Critical Factor

Accuracy is getting a lot of attention right now.  And rightly so.  If a child isn’t accurately reading the words, there’s not much chance of them gaining much meaning from the text.  Along with language development, the idea that readers need to be familiar with the majority of the words they’re reading, are what make up the 1986 Simple View of Reading.  But reading isn’t that simple, as even one of the two creators of that model, William Tumner, has recently said.  Tumner admits that there are holes in that model, saying “There is much more to understand about reading than what is represented in the SVR.” (Hoover,  W.A.,  &  Tunmer,  W.E.  (2018).  Which is why Duke and Cartwright’s Active View is so much more clear.  In this greatly updated reading model, another critical factor in reading comprehension is spelled out–the importance of fluency.

Effective approaches to developing reading fluency often draw on and foster both language comprehension and word recognition (e.g., Kuhn et al., 2006; Stevens, Walker, & Vaughn, 2017), so it is important that practitioners are presented with a model more consistent with the science of reading that names fluency and reflects its shared variance with both of these constructs in contributing to reading.

Duke & Cartwright, ILA (2021)

Why is fluency so important?  

Because fluency is the bridge between saying the words on the page and comprehending them.  Without that bridge, comprehension suffers.  This is backed by many, including Duke and Cartwright, (2021), Rasinski, (2014), Silverman, Speece, Harring, & Ritchey, (2013), and Tilstra et al., (2009).

What can this look like in kids’ reading?  

Here are just a couple of examples that underscore the importance of fluency:

Here’s an example of how fluency affects meaning in terms of phrasing and attending to punctuation.  It’s taken from the level K book,  Surprising Animal Senses, from the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment.

Time and time again, kids omit the period after “taste” and insert one after “butterfly” in the first line, making it You use your tongue to taste a butterfly.  Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time I’ve witnessed a child do this, I could retire tomorrow!

Kids do this when they are still reading to the end of lines vs ends of sentences.  When you read it as the child did, it becomes very obvious why the importance of phrasing as a part of fluency cannot be ignored.

Here’s another example.  

Read each of the three following sentences, making sure to stress the word that’s in bold in each.  

She ate the chocolate cookies.  

She ate the chocolate cookies.  

She ate the chocolate cookies.  

She ate the chocolate cookies.  

The demand for a different emphasis in each dramatically affects meaning.  The stress changes the meaning entirely.  This level of attention to fluency requires a high level of focus on the meaning and tone of the text to be able to reflect that understanding in their voice (whether in their head or orally).  

And these are just two aspects of fluency.  Fountas and Pinnell name six:  

• Rate 
• Phrasing 
• Intonation 
• Pausing 
• Stress 
• Integration

If I had permission to share their excellent fluency rubric with you I would, but I don’t.  I’m a rule-follower, so you’ll have to Google it–MANY others have not followed those rules.  🙂

If you, too, are a rule follower, no worries.  Tim Rasinski has another, simpler version of this, which he shares freely on his website.  Because I can share this one and still sleep at night, just click the image below to access it:

And Cunningham and Burkins share another one for free on their website to complement their new book, Shifting the Balance, 3-5.  This one is a student self-assessment, which is different from both the Fountas & Pinnell and Rasinski versions.

Any of these tools are simple and fast to use, and give a lot of insight about where a child may need targeted 1:1 or small group instruction.  The Cunningham & Burkins version is a fantastic tool for student goal-setting and reflection.  Just note that the context for each tool should be in real text, not isolated drills like word lists.  These are not at all the same. 

Here’s one more reason fluency is so important.

If fluency is not on par, it’s a strong indication that the reader will need reading intervention. 

“[T]hose students below or significantly below benchmark are at possible risk of reading difficulties. They are good candidates for further diagnostic assessments to help teachers determine their skill strengths or weaknesses, and plan appropriately targeted instruction and intervention.”

–Hasbrouck & Tindal, Reading Rockets

So, my fellow teacher, I’m giving you some homework.  

Do some careful noticing of a few kids’ fluency in the coming week.  Running records are a fantastic tool for capturing a student’s fluency with text, as is a simple tool like Rasinki’s rubric to note where they could use a boost.  Then, do some small group work with them.  

There are many, many ways to do this very easily.  The simplest?  Model with an excerpt of a read aloud or other short text–then have kids echo you and/or choral read together.  This is a common shared reading practice, and can easily be done with any grade level, using any text.  

Bonus tip!  

Use a leveled book that’s slightly higher than where your group of students are for this same purpose–leveled texts are purposefully scaffolded to support readers as they develop further skills.  This means the sentence structure and conventions application in these texts will be very supportive of kids’ developmental stage, and nudge them to the next one.  This is particularly fantastic for helping your English-language learners.  

I’d love to hear how this homework goes for you!  What did you find when you took a careful look at fluency?  Send me a DM on Instagram or in the FB group or send me an email!

And if you could use a thinking partner to help you figure out how to teach fluency in a targeted way based on what your data shows you, contact me!  I’m here to help, every step of the way.  We can set up a virtual coaching call so that no matter where you live, you can access the support you need, any day of the week.  Let’s work together to improve your students’ fluency, boost their comprehension–AND their confidence!

More fluency resources

I can’t let you go without sharing some of my most favorite resources for fluency instruction ideas, both for whole group and small group.  

Jennifer Serravallo’s Reading Strategies 2.0 and Rasinski’s Megabook of Fluency are excellent resources that give a plethora of ideas for targeting the various aspects of fluency, and I cannot recommend them enough.  And a great free resource comes from the Florida Center for Reading Research under the Student Center Activities tab.  They have many print-and-go activities for targeted small group fluency practice.  Keep in mind that many of these activities are more isolated, not in the context of an authentic text.  But they are, nonetheless, excellent practice activities for very targeted instruction.

The importance of fluency truly cannot be overstated. 

If your goal is to improve your students’ reading comprehension, fluency is worth paying close attention to.  Nell Duke and Kelly Cartwright of the Active View of Reading remind us, the importance of fluency is crucial–and something the Simple View of Reading doesn’t help us get to.   

“Effective approaches to developing reading fluency often draw on and foster both language comprehension and word recognition (e.g., Kuhn et al., 2006; Stevens, Walker, & Vaughn, 2017), so it is important that practitioners are presented with a model more consistent with the science of reading that names fluency and reflects its shared variance with both of these constructs in contributing to reading.”

Nell Duke & Kelly Cartwright, RRQ, 2021

Wait!  One more thing before you go!

Focusing on fluency is just one way to improve reading instruction Shifting the Balance 3-5 goes into.  If you’re interested in learning more from this book, consider joining my Facebook group!  Each week during the month of October, I’ll be conducting a book study to dig into all that we can glean from this sure-to-be amazing resource! Join us for the discussion!

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