Reading Fluency: Part One
By: N. Mather and Sam Goldstein (2001)
Reading fluency encompasses the speed or rate of reading, as well as the ability to read materials with expression. Meyer and Felton defined fluency as "'the ability to read connected text rapidly, smoothly, effortlessly, and automatically with little conscious attention to the mechanics of reading, such as decoding" (1999, p. 284). Children are successful with decoding when the process used to identify words is fast and nearly effortless or automatic. As noted, the concept of automaticity refers to a student's ability to recognize words rapidly with little attention required to the word's appearance. The ability to read words by sight automatically is the key to skilled reading (Ehri, 199.
Some children have developed accurate word pronunciation skills but read slowly. For these children, decoding is not automatic or fluent, and their limited fluency may affect performance in the following ways: 1) they read less text than peers and have less time to remember, review, or comprehend the text; 2) they expend more cognitive energy than peers trying to identify individual words; and 3) they may be less able to retain text in their memories and less likely to integrate those segments with other parts of the text (Mastropieri, Leinart, & Scruggs, 1999).
Figure 8.7 Sample spelling self-monitoring form
Name ___ Spelling self-analysis score ____ Pretest score ___ Postest score ___

List word Attempted spelling Missing letters Extra letters Letters in wrong order Cover list word and rewrite correct spelling







When Maria was in sixth grade, she still read very slowly. Although she pronounced most words correctly, she read with little expression. She complained that because she read so slowly, she could not understand what she was reading. She usually had to read materials several times in order to comprehend them. Students like Maria, Ryan, and Ben require more exposures and more practice to recognize individual words easily and automatically. Even into middle school, these students often devote an inordinate amount of energy to word identification.
Determining a student's reading rate
A student's reading rate may be calculated by dividing the number of words read correctly by the total amount of reading time. You may count out 100 words in a passage and then time the student as he or she reads the passage. Maria was given a passage to read with 100 words. She read 92 words correctly in 1.5 minutes, or 61 words per minute (wpm). Table 8. 1, adapted from information presented in Carver (1990), presents approximate reading rates for students in Grades 2-12. Analysis of this table reveals that Maria is reading at a slower rate than many of her peers.
Adjusting reading rate
Most people have a constant rate when reading. This rate is the fastest pace at which a person can understand complete thoughts in successive sentences of relatively easy material. As long as the material is relatively easy to read, a person's rate stays constant. For different types of tasks, however, readers often alter their rate. Students with slow reading rates are often not aware that good readers adjust their rate depending on the purpose of reading. Making these types of adjustments is particularly important for studying or completing assigned readings because a student with poor reading skills otherwise struggles to complete lengthy reading assignments.
Table 8.1. Average rates for reading with understanding for students in Grades 2-12
Grade equivalent Standard words per minute
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10.5
11.5
12.5 121
135
149
163
177
191
205
219
233
247
261
Source: Carver (1990). A standard word is six letter spaces including punctuation and spacing.
Carver (1990) used the analogy of adjusting reading speed to the shifting of gears in a car. First and second gears are the slowest, most powerful gears. First gear is used to memorize materials. Second gear is used to learn material. Third gear is the typical reading rate. The fourth gear, skimming, and the fifth gear, scanning, are the fastest but least powerful gears. These gears are useful when you are trying to locate a specific piece of information or trying to get the general sense of a passage without reading every word.
As an adult reader, consider the ways that you monitor your reading pace and shift gears depending on your goals. If you are trying to memorize material for a test, your pace is slow and reflective, characterized by stopping and reviewing as you progress. If you are reading a novel for pleasure, your pace is steady and fluent. If you are searching for information in a catalog, your pace is rapid. As a skilled reader, you know how to adjust the gears of your reading on the basis of your purpose.
Some children have not learned how to adjust their reading rates. They attempt to read information in an encyclopedia at the same pace that they read a novel. To help develop increased reading speed, encourage students to adjust their rate depending on the purpose of reading. Provide practice in skimming through a chapter to get a sense of the information and then how to study that chapter for the weekly test. Demonstrate to students how you change your rate for different types of reading materials.