Repeated Reading Worth Repeating

Fluency has always been an important part of a total reading instructional program.  If a student is not a fluent reader, comprehension is affected.  Self-esteem is also affected, as a student will take longer to complete reading assignments and will avoid offering to share his/her work.

Repeated reading is a researched based strategy to improve fluency.  It involves reading the same passage numerous times until the speed and accuracy is at expected levels.  The student becomes more familiar with high frequency words, leading to increased speed and accuracy with new passages.  Automaticity develops as well as confidence.

There are many oral reading fluency programs available, including AIMSweb and Diebels but they are crazy expensive and the stories are long and boring!!, The practice passages are often not motivating to upper elementary aged students and rarely is on a topic of instruction. 

it is not difficult to make your own passages.  You can make passages that are shorter, more interesting to the students and related to the topics you are working on in science, social studies or even math.  This gives the students extra practice with the academic vocabulary as well as the content.  You can also take a section from an instructional novel or read aloud.  Simply type a 100-150 word passage into Microsoft Word.  Copy and paste it into the Reading Fluency Passage Generator on www.interventioncentral.org to make sure it is at the level you are working towards. 

I've put together a packet of ten 4th grade passages and a packet with ten 5th grade passages (2nd and 3rd coming soon coming soon!), instructions, charts and everything else you will need for a repeated reading program.  It is available at my Teachers-Pay-Teachers store.

A quick word on timing – it can be very stressful for a student.  I use the “stopwatch” on my cell phone.  I start timing when the student begins and then jot down the time when they finish reading.  Mark errors as they read and address these errors in practice.  I do not say “Go” or “Start” as it leads to anxiety and rushing.  I use a simple ratio to find the correct words per minute:  the number of words read correctly multiplied by 60, then divided by the number of seconds it took to read the words.  Please remember that fluency can be affected by background knowledge as well as expressive language challenges.  Overall improvement, with some ups and downs, is what we strive for – as well as a more confident student.

For more information on fluency instruction, I encourage you to visit Tim Rasinski’s website at http://www.timrasinski.com/.  He is an expert in the field.

Good luck in your endeavor!  You will be helping your students learn the skills to become lifelong readers.