The Fluency Factor

Book excerpt: Reading fluency has been identified in the Common Core Standards as a foundational competency for reading proficiency. This resource provides teachers with approaches to fluency instruction that are effective, engaging, and easy to implement. The authors begin with a comprehensive definition of reading fluency, a discussion of why fluency has fallen out of favor in recent years, and evidence of its importance to literacy instruction. They follow up with authentic approaches to reading fluency that teachers and literacy interventionists can immediately use to improve students’ overall proficiency in reading. A unique feature of the book are the participation sections “What do you think?” and “What we think,” which challenge the reader to engage in issues related to fluency—from concept, to assessment, to instruction—and then check their views against those of the authors. This important new book updates and adds to Timothy Rasinski’s classic text, The Fluent Reader. Book Features: Vignettes of teachers implementing research-based fluency instruction. Teaching strategies and classroom activities to help struggling readers. Full descriptions of the authors’ original, highly successful approaches to improving fluency. Resources for assessment and instruction of reading fluency. A new concept of reading instruction as an art as well as a science. “How delighted I was to find . . .wonderfully doable assessments and classroom activities that would truly teach children to read fluently and develop expressive reading as the bridge between word identification and comprehension.” —Pat Cunningham, Wake Forest University