Reading FluencyBy

Dr. Jan HasbrouckGibson Hasbrouck & Associates

Wellesley, MA

Reading FluencyTeachers have long known that having their students learn to read written text fl uently—with appropriate rate, accuracy, and expression—is important in the overall development of profi cient reading. However, the essential link between reading fl uency and comprehension may have been “new news” to some teachers. This lack of awareness about fl uency likely contributed to the National Reading Panel’s conclusion (NICHD, 2000) that teaching fl uency is “often neglected” (p. 3-1). Today, teachers have heard the message about the importance of including fl uency instruction for students, and many teachers are also using fl uency assessments to fi nd students who may need some additional reading intervention (benchmark screening) and to assess the progress of their reading skill development (progress monitoring) (Hasbrouck, 2006).Developing Reading FluencyThe ability to process text accurately and effortlessly develops over time as students initially master the fundamental skills involved in accurate text decoding. Teachers in kindergarten and early fi rst grade should focus on developing

students’ phonemic awareness and decoding skills, along with appropriate vocabulary development and beginning text comprehension skills. This will lay a foundation of accurate reading, a fundamental component of fl uency. Because text contains a large proportion of irregular, nondecodable words (such as have, one, was, to), another key aspect of becoming a fl uent reader is to develop an instantaneous recognition

of these “high-frequency words.” This skill is often referred to as automaticity. As students gain confi dence with reading text, teachers can begin to encourage students to read text with increasing rate while maintaining their accuracy. Teachers should also promote the use of appropriate rhythm, phrasing, and expression, so that reading begins to sound like natural speech (Stahl & Kuhn 2002).

To help develop students’ fl uency skills, teachers can use a variety of techniques, including modeling fl uent reading by reading aloud to students, and at times by having students read aloud with them. This technique is sometimes referred to as choral reading. Students also

of these “high-frequency words.” This skill is

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benefi t from opportunities to read aloud to their peers, especially when partners have been trained to correct and encourage each other.

Perhaps the most powerful technique for improving students’ reading fl uency is to provide opportunities for repeated reading of text. Repeated reading is strongly supported by research as an effective strategy to develop fl uency. Repeated reading can be encouraged by having students keep track of one-minute samples of reading on a graph, perhaps recording their fi rst, unpracticed “cold reading” in one color and their fi nal score in another color, after reading the same piece of text three to fi ve times (Hasbrouck, Ihnot, & Rogers 1999). These individual graphs offer immediate, concrete, and positive feedback that can powerfully motivate students to keep practicing.

Readers’ theater is another way teachers can promote repeated reading of text. Here, students rehearse a short drama or play, repeatedly reading rather than memorizing their individual parts. There is little compelling evidence, however, that readers’ theater has suffi cient intensity to serve as an intervention for students who struggle with fl uency.

Assessing Reading FluencyTeachers need to know how fl uent their students should be and how to measure fl uency development in individual students. Listening to a student read aloud for one minute from an unpracticed piece of grade-level text can provide teachers with a great deal of valuable information.

• Assessing ExpressionStudents’ expression can be assessed using the oral reading fl uency scale from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The NAEP scale has four levels of profi ciency that provide a guide to assessing how well students read: 1) group or phrase words and

use intonation, stress, and pauses; 2) adhere to the author’s syntax; and 3) use expression by interjecting a sense of feeling, anticipation, or characterization (National Center for Education Statistics, 1995).

• Assessing Rate and AccuracyTo determine the accuracy and rate of a student’s reading, a teacher can assess the number of words correct per minute (wcpm). While the student reads aloud from the unpracticed sample of grade-level text, the teacher notes any errors (mispronunciations, substitutions, omissions, words read out of order, or words supplied for the student after a 3–5 second pause). At the end of one minute, the teacher directs the student to stop reading and subtracts the total number of errors from the number of words attempted.

Interpreting Fluency ScoresStudents’ wcpm scores can be compared to benchmark norms for oral reading fl uency (Hasbrouck & Tindal, 2006). If a student’s score is within plus or minus 10 wcpm of the 50th percentile on the oral reading fl uency norms, or is more than 10 wcpm above the 50th percentile, the student can be considered to be making adequate progress in fl uency, unless other indicators raise concern. However, students

whose fl uency scores are 5-10 words below the 50th percentile should be monitored closely by their teachers to make sure that their skills are developing adequately (Hasbrouck, 2006).

The extensive research on curriculum-based measurement (CBM) indicates that wcpm scores can also be used as an indicator of overall reading profi ciency (Wayman, et al., 2007). Many schools now conduct these fl uency benchmark or screening assessments at least three times per year, in the fall, winter, and spring to help fi nd students who may need some additional instruction. The wcpm scores should be considered as one indicator of progress along

“Perhaps the most powerful technique for

improving students’ reading fluency is to provide opportunities for repeated reading

of text.”

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with other assessments and observations of each student’s reading, writing, and spelling. When students are receiving intervention for reading, CBM research suggests that teachers should consider assessing students’ fl uency using instructional level materials and graphing the scores to determine the effectiveness of their intervention programs.

BiographyDr. Jan Hasbrouck is an educational consultant, trainer, and researcher. She served as the Executive Consultant to the Washington State Reading Initiative and as an advisor to the Texas Reading Initiative. Dr. Hasbrouck worked as a reading specialist for 15 years before becoming a professor at the University of Oregon and later Texas A&M University. Dr. Hasbrouck has provided educational consulting to individual schools across the United States as well as in Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, and Germany, helping teachers and administrators design and implement effective assessment and instructional programs targeted to help low-performing readers.

Dr. Hasbrouck earned her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Oregon, and completed her Ph.D. at Texas A&M University. Her research in areas of reading fl uency, reading assessment, coaching and consultation, and second language learners has been published in numerous professional books and journals. She is the coauthor of “The Reading Coach: A How-to Manual for Success,” “Differentiated Instruction: Grouping for Success,” and several assessment tools. Dr. Hasbrouck works with the Macmillan/McGraw Hill publishers as an author of their Treasures and Triumphs reading programs.

ReferencesHasbrouck, J., “Drop Everything and Read: But

How?” The American Educator, Summer 2006, pp. 22-31, 46-47.

Hasbrouck, J., and G. Tindal, “ORF Norms: A Valuable Assessment Tool for Reading Teachers,” The Reading Teacher, 59(7), 2006, pp. 636-644.

Hasbrouck, J. E., C. Ihnot, and G. H. Rogers, “Read Naturally: A Strategy to Increase Oral Reading Fluency,” Reading Research & Instruction, 39 (1), 1999, pp. 27-38.

Stahl, S. A. and M. R. Kuhn, “Making it Sound like Language: Developing Fluency,” The Reading Teacher, 55, 2002, pp. 582-584.

Wayman, M. M., T. Wallace, H. I. Wiley, R. Tichá, and C. A. Espin, “Literature Synthesis on Curriculum-Based Measurement in Reading,” The Journal of Special Education, 41 (2), 2007, pp. 85-120.

_____, “Listening to Children Read Aloud,” National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC, 1995.

_____, Report of the National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientifi c Research Literature on Reading and its Implications for Reading Instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769), National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), U. S. Government Printing Offi ce, Washington, DC, 2000.

Related Publications by Jan Hasbrouck, Ph.D.De la Colina, M. G., R. I. Parker, J. E. Hasbrouck,

and R. Alecio, “An Intensive Intervention for At-Risk Bilingual Readers,” Bilingual Research Journal, 2001.

Denton, C. A., J. L. Anthony, R. Parker, and J. E. Hasbrouck, “The Effects of Two Tutoring Programs on the English Reading Development of Spanish-English Bilingual Students,” Elementary School Journal, 104, 2004, pp. 289-305.

Hasbrouck, J., “Using Oral Reading Fluency as a Benchmark Assessment,” Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 33(2), 2007, pp. 19-24.

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Hasbrouck, J. and G. Tindal, “Technical Reports:

Oral Reading Fluency Norms,” 2005, <http://brt.uoregon.edu/>.

Hasbrouck, J. E., T. Woldbeck, C. Ihnot, and R. I. Parker, “One Teacher’s Use of Curriculum-Based Measurement: A Changed Opinion,” Learning Disabilities: Research & Practice, 14 (2), 1999, pp.118-126.

Parker, R., J., Hasbrouck, and G. Tindal, “Greater Validity for Oral Reading Fluency: Can Miscues Help?” Journal of Special Education, 25, 1992, pp. 492-503.

Hasbrouck, J., “Putting Fluency in Perspective,” Balanced Reading Instruction, 13, 2006, pp. 9-22.

Hasbrouck, J.E. and C. Ihnot, “Curriculum-Based Measurement: From Skeptic to Advocate,” Perspectives, 33(2), Spring 2007, pp. 34-42.

Hasbrouck, J. E., & G. Tindal, “Curriculum-Based Oral Reading Fluency Norms for Students in Grades 2–5,” Teaching Exceptional Children, 24 (3), Spring 1992, pp. 41-44.

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