Fluency Phrases

A large part of learning to read is fluency. According to Dr. Timothy Rasinski, a pioneer in reading education, fluency includes the following skills:

• Accuracy, or accurate decoding of words in text;
• Automaticity, or decoding words with minimal use of attentional resources; and
• Prosody, or the appropriate use of phrasing and expression to convey meaning.

To build fluency, Dr. Rasinski suggests practicing and learning short fluency phrases that include 50 percent of all the words children encounter in elementary school reading. To help your child practice these at home, download and save this Fluency Phrases Powerpoint. The phrases are short and after some practice, the children should be able to read them independently. You may wish to print a copy of the Powerpoint slides as well. These phrases are good to keep in your car for your child to practice on roadtrips.