Reading Development Program for Entering 2nd Graders
FLUENCY
A fluent reader recognizes most words by sight and is able to read with the ease, smoothness, and rhythm of natural speech. A child who has achieved fluency no longer needs to focus on the mechanics of decoding and is able to turn his full attention to meaning. Children entering second grade are working toward fluency in Easy Reader books; once achieved, this leads to fluency in longer, more challenging books.
The phonics and word-attack skills that children learn in this program help students develop fluency. Students also do a lot of reading in books at the right level of difficulty, which contributes directly to fluency. In addition, students participate in oral fluency training both in class and at home.
In class:
During fluency training in class, the teacher reads aloud a passage from the book to model fluent reading. Students then practice reading the same passage aloud, first sentence by sentence, and then as a whole, using the teacher’s pacing and expression as a model.
At home:
Students also do fluency training at home, using the interactive Video Companion DVD that accompanies the book they read during home practice. The Video Companion fluency training segments feature a reading superhero named Bookman who models fluent reading and then guides students through fluent reading practice, just like the teacher does in class.
Click here to watch a Fluent Reading with Bookman segment.
This combination of auditory modeling and repeated reading allows even weaker readers to understand what fluency is and what it feels like to read fluently. The progress made during oral fluency training transfers to students’ independent reading.