Reading: checking on fluency

Your thoughts are beginning to soften on room readiness and your focus is sharpening on how you will lead your students this year. No doubt reading is looming large on your horizon.

We want to know all about our new students. We check their sight words, their reading levels and their decoding abilities. We often let one thing slide by, even though it can be an incredible indicator: fluency.

There are lots of assessments out there, but most of them have flimsy fluency checks built in if they have them at all. This was the problem I ran into a few years ago. I chose to let fluency assessment sneak by unnoticed until I began my grad research. Then fluency reared up and demanded to be noticed, but I didn't have the right tools. I took my research and mixed it with practicality, and then sorted through the bits to come up with my Fluency Assessment Pack.

Fluency is important for several reasons, as well as being a killer indicator.

• Fluent reading boosts comprehension, because cognitive brain space isn't being used to decode
• Fluent reading boosts comprehension because recognition of syntax and structure, as well as awareness of language
• Slow laborious reading is an indicator of breakdown in the skills of decoding, sight word recognition, and language structure

Fluency can be tracked and improved. A quick assessment done twice with the same reading can show information you can use to differentiate instruction for your readers.

My Fluency Assessment Pack is available at both my Teacher's Notebook shop and my Teachers Pay Teachers store. You can enter to win it FREE at Teacher's Notebook, all you need to do is stop by and enter (check it out here). 

Fluency Assessment Pack at Teachers Pay Teachers

Fluency Assessment Pack at Teacher's Notebook

Teachers Pay Teachers is an excellent avenue for sharing the items we all create. I love that I have a website store that was so simple to set up, and is straightforward and easy to post items.  Interested in sharing or selling your own items on Teachers Pay Teachers? I'd love to see you there! Please use my referral code if you decide to check it out! I'd be happy  to get your started!
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Signup/referral:bhmathews