Timed fluency passages are such a great way to get students to practice and build their fluent reading skills. The best way to use timed fluency passages with your students is through frequent repeated reading practice. It is the key to building fluency skills because of the constant repetitive practice. If you have students who are struggling to read fluently, repeated reading practice can easily be added into your daily schedule using reading fluency passages. If you’re looking for a simple solution to help your readers build fluency skills, timed fluency passages are the way to go!
Reading Fluency Passages Timed Practice
You most likely use benchmark assessments in the fall, winter, and spring that assess the oral reading fluency of your students. While ORF is just one aspect of fluency, it is a very important one. Students should not be racing through their texts as they read. They should also not be moving at a snail’s pace. Both of these types of reading lead to poor comprehension because their brains can’t compute the information. Reading too fast typically results in a lack of understanding because the brain can’t keep up with the information read. On the other hand, when reading too slowly, the brain is working too hard on reading the words accurately, so there is no space to pay attention to the actual content of the text.
You want your readers to read at a pace that sounds natural, like they’re talking, and isn’t too fast or too slow. Timed fluency passages allow students to practice this skill. With just a few minutes a day (or multiple times a week) spent on repeated reading with reading fluency passages, students ORF will improve.
Timed fluency passages are super easy to use as you just need to print and make copies of the passages. Then find a time in your day (ideas below) that will allow your students to focus solely on fluency for a few minutes. You’ll notice improved fluency and just how much students actually enjoy working on fluency when you make it part of your daily or weekly activities.
Repeated Reading with Timed Fluency Passages
Repeated reading is simply the act of reading a text more than one time. I find that three times is a great number that doesn’t overwhelm the reader, while also actually making their fluency skills improve. The reason repeated reading works is because as with anything, when you repeatedly practice it, you tend to get better. Reading fluency is the same as anything else that is focused on and practiced. It can majorly be improved when regularly focusing on it. The good news is that repeated reading doesn’t require a lot of time during the school day and it also doesn’t require a lot of materials.
Simply set your students up with fluency passages and get them to independently read for a few minutes each day! Often the district provided fluency passages aren’t super interesting to readers. Instead, add in engaging timed fluency passages to make it much more enjoyable for your students!
You can use the timed fluency passages for repeated reading practice:
- In a fluency center
- During morning work
- During Independent practice time
- In small groups
- Send home for extra practice
Teachers have seen great success in all of these settings because they’re making fluency a priority on a regular basis for their students.
The Benefits of Timed Fluency Passages
Another benefit of continual practice of fluency skill building is that students will not only improve their accuracy and pace, but their comprehension will also get better! This is because their brains have freed up space to focus on the content within the words, versus just focusing on figuring out the words themselves.
So, if you need your readers to start showing improvement in fluency and comprehension, you can grab my timed fluency passages to test this out with your readers. These fluency passages will quickly become a favorite of your students’ daily activities!
I have mini sets which include five timed fluency passages for each grade level, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, and 4th Grade. I also have a bundle of these mini sets for 1st-4th Grade.
If you’re looking for more timed fluency passages, I have a whole lot more as well, for Kindergarten-5th Grade. My larger reading fluency passages packs include fifteen passages per grade level. You can check all my timed fluency passages out here!
Free Timed Fluency Passages
If you’re curious about seeing if timed fluency passages are a good fit for your students, you can grab my free Kindergarten-2nd Grade timed fluency passages and 3rd-5th Grade timed fluency passages! Print these out and make copies for your students to try out daily repeated reading practice with reading fluency passages. I think you’ll quickly see the benefits of including fluency passages as part of your routine!
You can also read more about using fluency passages in your classroom in the blog posts below!
