Reading Fluency and PassagesWhat is fluency passage practice? Practicing with fluency passages is an important part of helping your child improve with their ability to read smoothly. If your child makes many errors while reading or the reading does not sound like a spoken conversation, he or she needs to practice reading fluency. Early readers spend a great deal of mental energy sounding out (decoding) the words on the page. Their reading often times sound robotic - not fluent. As a child learns the phonetic rules and can apply them with ease along with having automatic recall of all sight words, reading begins to sound more like fluent reading. You will need to print out 2 copies of each passage (one for your child and one for the parent). Set a timer for one minute. Mark through any words read incorrectly or skipped. Place a bracket around the last word read within the one minute time frame. Repeat this procedure each day with the same passage for one week. You should see the progression as your child reads more words each day. The following links can be printed for practice at home. Print 2 copies of each passage. Time your child for one minute. Count the number of words read. Determine how many words your child is able to read in one minute by subtracting any words that are read incorrectly or omitted. Each passage should last for one week. This will give you the fluency rate (words per minute) of your child. Remember that good reading sounds like you are telling a story. Encourage your child to use expression while he or she reads. Quality is more important than quantity. Third Grade Easy Passages Helicopters The Hop The Rainbow The Trees Third Grade Average Passages Dangers in Dogsledding First Plane Trip The Penguins Goldilocks Third Grade Advanced Passages City Park Green Spaces in City Places Volcanoes Waiting to Bloom 3rd Grade Fluency Assessments Given in School If your child is reading above 100 words a minute on the 3rd grade passages, it does not necessarily mean he or she will pass the next fluency assessment. The AIMS fluency assessments are all average third grade level reading. Be sure to continue to move your child to the next level of reading and test your child on the passages. |