Improving reading fluency and speed

[KrisM]

DD reads very slowly. She is supposed to be at 110 wpm and is at 66 wpm. She's a good reader and at a level above where she should be (a U vs R). I'm not surprised she reads slowly, as she speaks slowly, moves slowly, etc. But, she's getting a poor grade on it at school and I think she'd enjoy reading more if she were faster.

I've asked her teacher if she could send me information or examples of what they use in school, but I thought I'd ask here, too. What do you do to improve speed?

[Kindra178]

Reading and rereading the same thing over and over again.


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[icunurse]

Reading and rereading the same thing over and over again. k

Yep. My DD sounds exactly like yours (except that she does everything fast...she is on constant motion!). She doesn't get graded on this, but they do a test every trimester and score them and she is almost below average. Her report card is fine, she reads fine (like your DD, a few letters above goal), her comprehension is great. So her teacher is supplementing her to get her to be a faster reader, saying that with the switch to 4th grade and reading to learn vs learning to read, she could fall behind. We do a lot of repetition. A lot. We get a larger passage every week and read it every day and it's impressive to see how much faster she can get through it by Friday. We also do weekly word lists that focus on letter combos and sounds (again repeating the words from the list daily). I also did discover that, of all things, my DD is a leisurely reader and had to be told to go faster, especially when being tested. That right there improved her scores, but repition has helped immensely.

[ArizonaGirl]

I don't know if this helps, but here they have "Reading Fluency" homework every week.

It is a passage that has the words counted and they have to do it a minimum of 4 times during the week.

Every time they do it (at least with DS) it gets faster.

By the end of 1st grade they have to be able to read 47 words per minute with no more than 2 mistakes.

I don't know where they get these passages from and how they decide the difficulty and length.

[inmypjs]

Read Naturally is considered to be a good fluency program. It utilizes repeated reading as others have described. There is an Ipad app for it, I believe.

[Cam&Clay]

Reread familiar text.

[KrisM]

Thanks. We will be working on it. DS1 was at 150wpm in 4th grade. Such a difference between kids!

[doberbrat]

Just curious - how are you guys finding out the wpm for your kids?

[abh5e8]

I'm wondering the same thing. We homeschool, and my older two have great reading accuracy and comprehension, but I've never tested speed. Do you test by having them read out loud?

[khalloc]

Just curious - how are you guys finding out the wpm for your kids?

I've never had a teacher talk about either of my kids in terms of reading speed. I get that its important, but I didnt know they actually did tests to measure that.

[icunurse]

Just curious - how are you guys finding out the wpm for your kids?

Our school does AIMSweb testing every trimester and a weekly oral reading fluency by Harcourt (sorry, can't tell much else from the sheet other than grade and week of study).

[LBW]

Some great info on fluency and free resources from a reading guru here:
http://www.textproject.org/topics/beginning-reading-reading-automaticityfluency-and-core-vocabulary/reading-automaticity-and-fluency/

[Kindra178]

I've never had a teacher talk about either of my kids in terms of reading speed. I get that its important, but I didnt know they actually did tests to measure that.

Our old school didn't do it but this one does. I think it's very important and ds1 would have benefited from this. Ds2, first grade, is at 58 words per minute at the midyear mark but his class average is 82 wpm. The teacher encouraged us to keep practicing. I think he's right near the midyear benchmark. Ds3's teacher doesn't do as frequent measuring so I have no idea where he is.


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[PZMommy]

My son's teacher does an informal fluency test every week so that kids get used to the process, and then they have a formal test every 6 weeks. My DS is in first grade and his fluency is 104 wpm. (End of year benchmark for first grade is 73wpm) The fluency passages are first grade based, but he is reading at a third grade level, so the passages are super easy for him, and he can go pretty fast.

Doberbrat, to test for fluency, you find a reading passage for the grade level they are at, and then time how far they read in 1 minute. Count up all the words they read, and then subtract any words they made mistakes on and then you get their wpm. When testing, the passages should be a cold read, and not something they have read before. For practice it is okay to reread the same ones repeatedly, but the actual tests are cold reads.

[Philly Mom]

My son's teacher does an informal fluency test every week so that kids get used to the process, and then they have a formal test every 6 weeks. My DS is in first grade and his fluency is 104 wpm. (End of year benchmark for first grade is 73wpm) The fluency passages are first grade based, but he is reading at a third grade level, so the passages are super easy for him, and he can go pretty fast.

Doberbrat, to test for fluency, you find a reading passage for the grade level they are at, and then time how far they read in 1 minute. Count up all the words they read, and then subtract any words they made mistakes on and then you get their wpm. When testing, the passages should be a cold read, and not something they have read before. For practice it is okay to reread the same ones repeatedly, but the actual tests are cold reads.

And is this oral? I read quickly but I have always had speech issues so need to really slow up when I speak. Just curious because I think I would be much slower if I had to read aloud despite being a quick reader.


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[PZMommy]

And is this oral? I read quickly but I have always had speech issues so need to really slow up when I speak. Just curious because I think I would be much slower if I had to read aloud despite being a quick reader.


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Yes, they have to read out loud. When we do the testing at school, the student has a copy of the passage, as does the teacher. The teacher follows along as the student reads, and makes a slash through any words the student gets incorrect. If they self correct, we write sc above it, and then it counts as correct. If they spend more than 3 seconds trying to read a word, we tell them the word, but then mark it incorrect on the sheet. I'm sure if there are speech issues involved, that could be written in an IEP or 504.

I think the main reason we test fluency, is because in the upper grades they need to be able to read fluently in order to understand what they are reading. If they are struggling to sound out every word they have to read, then they will have difficulty comprehending.

[KrisM]

My son's teacher does an informal fluency test every week so that kids get used to the process, and then they have a formal test every 6 weeks. My DS is in first grade and his fluency is 104 wpm. (End of year benchmark for first grade is 73wpm) The fluency passages are first grade based, but he is reading at a third grade level, so the passages are super easy for him, and he can go pretty fast.

Doberbrat, to test for fluency, you find a reading passage for the grade level they are at, and then time how far they read in 1 minute. Count up all the words they read, and then subtract any words they made mistakes on and then you get their wpm. When testing, the passages should be a cold read, and not something they have read before. For practice it is okay to reread the same ones repeatedly, but the actual tests are cold reads.


So, for right now grade level reading level is an R. DD is a level U, so 3 past. The report card says "Reads grade level text with fluency and expression". She tested at 66 wpm on level U text. Shouldn't she be expected to be reading fluently at level R? I think if she read that level, she would be fine. I asked her 3rd grade teacher and in June she read level S at 104 wpm. I'm thinking that her vocabulary and comprehension has increased and her speed has slowed for now, but as she is more familiar with the harder texts, her speed will increase again.

I understand if she were reading at level P, which is below the expected level, that she not be tested at level R, but then I would understand a lower grade as a result. If she were reading at a level P, but at 110 wpm, would she then have a grade saying she's meeting expectations just because the wpm is on?

I'm so confused on this! I know fluency is important, but I don't want her to stress out because we are working on it more here.

[PZMommy]

So, for right now grade level reading level is an R. DD is a level U, so 3 past. The report card says "Reads grade level text with fluency and expression". She tested at 66 wpm on level U text. Shouldn't she be expected to be reading fluently at level R? I think if she read that level, she would be fine. I asked her 3rd grade teacher and in June she read level S at 104 wpm. I'm thinking that her vocabulary and comprehension has increased and her speed has slowed for now, but as she is more familiar with the harder texts, her speed will increase again.

I understand if she were reading at level P, which is below the expected level, that she not be tested at level R, but then I would understand a lower grade as a result. If she were reading at a level P, but at 110 wpm, would she then have a grade saying she's meeting expectations just because the wpm is on?

I'm so confused on this! I know fluency is important, but I don't want her to stress out because we are working on it more here.

It sounds to me like she is just fine. Her words per minute should be based on what the grade level expectation is, so on a level R if that is what the level is. As the text gets harder, fluency will slow down. You just don't want it to slow down too much, to the point that she is struggling to sound out words. It doesn't sound like that is the case though. Her overall grades should be based on what the grade level expectation is. By the end of third grade and into 4th grade the focus really shifts to comprehension.

[BunnyBee]

It could be a processing speed issue versus a reading issue per se. Random Google article, but it's from a good site. Bright (and "gifted") kids can have processing speed issues that have nothing to do with intelligence. http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10782.aspx

[August Mom]

My daughter uses the Read Live program (via Read Naturally) through her school and it really does help track and improve fluency. It also focuses on comprehension. It is an excellent program. http://www.readnaturally.com/