Seven steps to more fluent reading

Improve your child’s reading in 10 minutes a day  

Louise Holden: Irish Times Article

Seven steps to more fluent reading

1 In a busy home, finding time and space for quiet reading is perhaps the most difficult challenge, but the results are well worth it. Create a spot where reading sessions always happen – a corner of your child’s room for example. Find a time that works, maybe just after dinner or just before bedtime. Even try getting up 10 minutes earlier in the morning.

2 Choose the right reading material. It has to be interesting but not frustrating. Don’t give a child reading material with content that is too babyish for them. There are books for children whose reading level is behind their interest level. If you can’t get your hands on such material, try compiling material from the internet or newspapers in the form of a project that interests the child.

3 Start with a conversation. What is this book going to be about? What does the title suggest? What do the pictures suggest? These help children to read with purpose.

4 Paired reading is when a teacher or parent reads with a child to help model good reading and to support the child’s own efforts. There are several kinds of paired reading – try them all to see what works.

* Assisted reading

Read a part of the text and let the child take over at an agreed point. You read every second page, for example, or, if the going is very slow, every second paragraph. This can alleviate frustration.

* Chorus reading

Parent and child read together out loud. This way the child gets a sense of your tone and cadences, where you stop and pause and how you add expression. Listen closely to ensure that your child is able to read with you most of the time. If she is dropping out too frequently the material is too advanced.

* Echo reading

This is very effective for children experiencing significant difficulties with fluency. First you read the sentence. Then you and the child read the sentence together. Finally the child reads the sentence alone.

You are modelling the right way to read, scaffolding the child’s attempt, and then giving the child an independent run at it.

Shadow reading uses a similar approach, but you use longer blocks of text.

5 If you look at any reading passage you will find that certain words occur again and again. These are known as high-frequency words (an internet search will find them).

Various studies have compiled lists of these; for example, the Dolch list contains 100 words that can constitute up to half the words in the material we read. If a child can recognise these words fluently it makes the job of reading much easier.

Pay particular attention to these words as they crop up in the text and reinforce them with your child.

6 If a child is reading without expression or apparent comprehension, but getting the words right, try asking them to read the same paragraph a number of times, but with feeling. You can model this for them. This can even be fun if you really exaggerate, use accents and hand gestures.

7 Finish the session with discussion and praise. Even if you have only succeeded in reading a few lines in your session, talk to your child about the meaning of what you have just read. This conversation extends vocabulary, aids comprehension and whets their appetite for the next session.

JF