This year at Holy Name our teachers have been focusing on helping their students to improve
their reading fluency. You may have heard your child talk about having a learning goal to
improve their fluency when reading aloud or have heard feedback from your child’s teacher
in regards to their current ability with reading fluency.
So what does reading fluency mean? Fluency is reading expressively with accuracy and at a
good pace. It is one of the key components of learning to read. It is the progression from
developing automatic word recognition skills to comprehension.
Fluency is made up of three core components:
* Accuracy is the reading of words correctly.
* Rate is the speed of word identification. It is usually recorded as words read per minute.
* Prosody which is a fancy word for the sound of the reading. This can be explained as the
expression used when reading.
Why is fluency important?
Fluency is the link between reading words quickly and effortlessly, and understanding and
comprehending text. Once reading fluency is developed to an automatic level, students can
focus much less on decoding words and more on the comprehension of text. In order for this
to happen a child needs to have developed the skills of phonological awareness, phonics and
have a good sight word vocabulary to develop into a fluent reader. In the early years,
particularly in Kindergarten and Year One we work hard to develop the student’s
foundational skills in reading such as phonemic awareness and word recognition in order to
set them up for fluent reading in the higher grades. You will see from the photos that Year
One have introduced a Bump it Up Wall in their classroom to encourage the development of
reading fluency.
What can you do at home to help your child improve their reading fluency?
1. Show them your own fluent reading.
Read to your child regularly modeling what fluent reading sounds like. The more often
your child hears fluent reading, the more likely they are to pick it up.
2. Try choral reading together.
Choral reading simply means you read a story out loud and ask your child to read along
with you at the same pace. This helps them understand what fluent reading feels like, and
gives them the chance to practice it themselves at your pace.
3. Recruit a friendly audience.
Just like us adults, kids are more likely to fumble over their words when they feel nervous
or uncomfortable. Set up an inviting stage for them to practice reading stories out loud by
creating an audience out of their favorite stuffed animals or recruiting your family pet to
listen along.
4. Record, discuss, and repeat!
Every so often, when your child is reading out loud, record a passage and then listen to it
together. You might celebrate that they read on pace, then record it a second time while
aiming for more expression.
Happy Reading!

Mrs Suzie Monks
Acting Primary Coordinator