Reading Fluency Help

[mellie]

I'm trying to help my 9 year old dd develop more fluency in reading. We have worked on decoding skills extensively. She reads about 100 wpm on 3/4 grade level books, but she still sounds choppy, and at times breezes through periods. She misses off word endings and then changes the tense of the next word to fit. I just bought Quick Reads, but I'm not convinced just repeated reading is the answer. Any suggestions? 

[mmasc]

I don’t have tons of advice to offer, but a couple of things might help: repeated readings, but you read a passage or paragraph first, showing her how it sounds. Then she reads it.

also, reading materials *below* her reading level. This can help develop the right rhythm, intonation, etc. If the text is easy for her, she will be more likely to focus on the other stuff. 

[Melissa in Australia]

have you tried a toobaloo? https://www.learning-loft.com/products/toobaloo they are available form lots of different suppliers 

 I only just discovered them and wish so much I had found out about them for my older children. I am using it with the twins. I have bought the head band attachment so they don't need to hold it. the whole purpose is so the child can hear themselves read. 

[Jess4879]

Some things that helped - I read the passage first, then DD highlighted the punctuation, then we took turns reading, then she read it again.  Taking turns seemed to really help her, as she would automatically try to match my tone and pace.

[EKS]

You can do repeated readings if you want, but you are right in thinking that they are only a piece of the puzzle.

What worked for us was having the student read aloud from real books for 20-30 minutes every day.  Start with books that are well below your daughter's reading level, meaning books that she can read fluently aloud without sounding choppy.  It's ok if you need to use things a few years below her "true" reading level.  If at first she tires before 20 minutes are up, that's also ok, just gradually increase the time spent over a few or several weeks.  Then gradually increase the reading level of the books until she is reading well for 20-30 minutes at a stretch at a level that is in line with with her cognitive ability.

One thing I did with my kids was to run a pencil under the words they were reading and when they missed a word, I'd just point to the relevant part with the pencil, or if they missed a period or whatever I'd do the same.  This made it so I wasn't interrupting verbally and it also highlighted the visual cues they needed to be paying attention to only when they had missed them.  If that makes sense.

I should also mention that I did this sort of fluency reading exercise for a few years with both my dyslexic student and my gifted reader.

[ElizabethB]

Nonsense words, get her grade level up even higher with my syllable program, that will make reading the more difficult words easier, the nonsense words in the program help stop the guessing at word endings.

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On Reading/syllablesspellsu.html

I would have her slow down, actually, and like @EKS said, start below grade level. I like the McGuffey readers because they have harder words set apart so you read them first before seeming them in sentences.  Reading slowly and accurately will build up to more fluent faster reading, but first focus on accuracy.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14668/14668-pdf.pdf?session_id=c5ccf1b2b125e8c8580a165c5ee6fe82fce65a31

 

Edited August 13, 2019 by ElizabethB