Fluency Reading 101 Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. Their reading is smooth and has expression. Children who do not read with fluency sound choppy and awkward. Those students may have difficulty with decoding skills or they may just need more practice with speed and smoothness in reading. Fluency is also important for motivation; children who find reading laborious tend not to want read! As readers head into upper elementary grades, fluency becomes increasingly important. The volume of reading required in the upper elementary years escalates dramatically. Students whose reading is slow or labored will have trouble meeting the reading demands of their grade level. A kid's perspective: What this feels like to me Children will usually express their frustration and difficulties in a general way, with statements like "I hate reading!". But if they could, this is how kids might describe how fluency difficulties in particular affect their reading: I just seem to get stuck when I try to read a lot of the words in this chapter. It takes me so long to read something. Reading through this book takes so much of my energy, I can't even think about what it means. A parent's perspective: What I see at home Here are some clues for parents that a child may have problems with fluency: He knows how to read words but seems to take a long time to read a short book or passage silently. She reads a book with no expression. He stumbles a lot and loses his place when reading something aloud. She reads aloud very slowly. She moves her mouth when reading silently (subvocalizing). (Excerpt taken from http://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/fluency/)   We have been focussing on improving fluency in class.  Please do not be alarmed if your child has been reading "easy" books at home as this is an important step in improving a child's reading fluency:)