What is Fluency?
There are three main areas of Fluency:
- speed
- accuracy
- expression
According to Susan McShane's book Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults, "fluent reading sounds like speech." It's also essential to good comprehension! How can you help? According to research, "guided repeated oral reading" is one of the best ways to improve your student's fluency. Choose a text that is a level below an instructional level for your student, so s/he can read it easily. Then use methods such as:
- modeling good reading
- echo reading
- reading in pairs or choral reading
- tape-assisted reading (so the learner can work more independently)
- or combinations of the above.
See McShane's book for more detail!