Teaching Fluency

AHA! Moment -Goal 4 of The Reading Strategies Book Wow :)  I realized that I do not give my sixth graders enough time to focus on their reading fluency. To me, comprehension has always been the most important component of reading and I thought focusing on the fluency might take away from that. Keep in mind, in my school district fluency is synonymous with timed passages- yuck!

Serravallo shares what reading fluency involves:

• phrasing
• intonation
• emphasis
• automaticity
• pace

Yikes! That's a lot to consider and thus deserves  a strong focus in our reading curriculum. One of my big takeaways are the strategies related to Phrasing.

So- phrasing! These are the phrases that appear often in reading and should be read without pausing
Phrasing can be done as a warm-up activity before reading a text.
Here are a few examples:
at the
two of us
it's about time
but not for me

I think one can take this concept and chart phrasings found in nonfiction text too. Here are some thoughts...
in like manner
the difference between
one may conclude
the best estimate
This will definitely support my ELL's and struggling readers to improve fluency and ultimately comprehension

How have you used phrasing?