Instructional Fluency for the Struggling
Strategies
Word Reading Fluency
-Sight Word Instruction
Oral Reading Fluency
-Small Group Monitoring
-Paired Reading
-Read Alouds
-Repeated Readings
Silent Reading Fluency
-Sustained Silent Reading
-Teacher-Student Conferences
Reader
Differentiated instruction can be
used to increase fluency
development in struggling
readers. Often times, struggling
readers have issues with fluency
because of their lack of
development in foundational
areas of literacy, such as phonics
(Rasinski, 167). In order to help
students who are struggling, we
need to provide them with text
that is on their independent
and/or instructional level
(Rasinski, 169). A lot of times, this
means that a good place to start is
with rhyming poetry that focus on
knowledge of word families
Fluency
Emily Lancaster
Why is Fluency Important?
Fluency is important because it serves as one of the significant elements in effective
reading instruction (Cooper, 11). According to David Cooper, fluency is the ability for
students to read words and connect text smoothly and correctly with understanding (11).
However, other researchers have defined fluency as the integration of four major
elements including: accurate and automatic word identification, age or grade level
appropriate reading speed, appropriate use of volume, pitch, and stress to show
expression, and correct text phrasing, such as “chunking” (Reutzel & Juth, 28). Based on
these two understandings of fluency, it shows that a student’s ability to have meaningful
reading experiences rely on their understanding of how to be fluent readers.

Types of Fluency
Word Reading Fluency
Word reading fluency is the ability for
students to quickly and accurately read
high frequency words. It is mostly seen in
kindergarten and first grade with explicit
sight word instruction. It is important
because a student’s word reading fluency
has been connected to their ability to be
fluent with reading passages or other types
of text.
Oral Reading Fluency
Oral reading fluency is the ability for
students to read meaningful phrases
speedily, accurately, and with expression.
The emphasis of accuracy and expression is
where the integration of automaticity and
prosody comes into play. Students are
usually assessed on their oral reading
fluency in first, second, and third grade.
Silent Reading Fluency
Silent reading fluency is the ability for
students to accurately read a passage to
themselves and then correctly answer
comprehension questions without referring
back to the passage. Silent reading fluency
can be developed when sustained silent
reading is allowed for an effective amount
of time throughout the instructional class
period.