What Is Fluency?

Accuracy is the most important feature of fluency, because when words are not read correctly, reading comprehension is compromised. The goal for students is to read at least 95% of words correctly.

Automaticity is the ability to recognize words quickly and accurately without conscious effort or the need to decode each individual word. Dr. Linnea Ehri’s stages of reading development (opens in new window) help explain how automaticity grows over time from phonetic decoding to retrieving whole words from memory effortlessly.

Expression, or prosody, is about bringing words to life through phrasing and intonation. Using expression is a signal that students understand what they’re reading. However, because judging students’ prosody is subjective, most assessments focus on the more easily quantifiable components of fluency — rate and accuracy.

Often when people talk about fluency, they’re referring to the ability to read longer texts with accuracy, automaticity, and expression. But fluency occurs at every level of the language system. Students must become fluent with letter names, letter sounds, words, phrases, and sentences before they can reach fluency with longer passages.

The instruction always begins with a focus on accuracy, then on automaticity and expression (as required).

Letter Naming Assessment for Mastery

Use this quick assessment to see how many uppercase and lowercase letters students can name in one minute.

Letter Sound Assessment for Mastery

Use this quick assessment to see how many letter sounds students can say accurately in one minute.

My Fluency Graphs for Reading Sounds and Naming Letters

Use this graph to record a student's progress by week on the letter names or letter sounds assessment.

Letter Sound Fluency Assessment

Watch as reading specialist Alison Ellis monitors a student’s progress in fluency with letter sounds.

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Alison Ellis: This time, instead of naming the letter, I want you to tell me the sound that letter makes. Okay. And I'm going to time you again. You can start when you're ready.

Jax: Ready.

Alison Ellis: Okay.

Jax: /p/ /qw/.

Narrator: Reading interventionist Alison Ellis is giving a quick one-minute assessment to first grader Jax to monitor his progress in reading letter sounds automatically and correctly. This is a skill they've been working on in their intervention block because if Jax is to become a fluent reader, he'll need to be able to look at a letter and instantly recall the sound it makes.

Jax: /K/, /m/, /z/, /q/, /m/, /d/

As Jax reads the letters, Ms. Ellis records how he's doing. When Jax is done, Ms. Ellis will give him immediate positive feedback and share his results.

Alison Ellis: There we go. I'll stop there. Good job. You got 25 sounds today. That is remarkable. That's a lot more than you got last time. The only error you made today was with your "b" and your "d." ... and a 'd' says ...

Jax: /D/

Alison Ellis: Right. Okay. And again, that's some of the confusion that we've been working on and we'll continue to work on. So, now it's time to graph your progress. And the last time we did this for a minute, you had 19.

Narrator: Just like when assessing letter-naming fluency, Ms. Ellis uses a bar graph to record how many letter sounds Jax reads correctly. This helps both of them see his growth and keep track of his progress. This time and conversation are key because Jax is included in developing his own reading skills.

Alison Ellis: Alright, buddy. Good job, good job. And then we're going to keep practicing and we'll check your fluency again next time. Have a good day.

Narrator: Enjoyed this video? Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel @RUTeaching. For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to Prather-Brown Center, Frederick Public Schools, and the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the American Federation of Teachers, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and three anonymous donors. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington, DC, the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.

Alison Ellis: I am Alison Ellis, and this is Reading Universe.

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Teacher Carla Miller: [music] We're just going to say the name of the letter and the sound. Are you ready?

Carla Miller and Students: 'G', /g/. 'Y', /y/. ['Y' sound is garbled.]

Teacher Carla Miller: Okay, let's do that one more time.

Carla Miller and Students: 'Y', /y/. 'E', /ĕ/.

Teacher Carla Miller: Long sound.

Carla Miller and Students: /Ē/.

Teacher Carla Miller: Good.

Carla Miller and Students: 'Q', 'u', /kw/.

Teacher Carla Miller: Rule.

Carla Miller and Students: 'Q' and 'u' are stuck like glue.

Teacher Carla Miller: So good. [music]

Ending Blends Read Sheet with Words, Phrases, and Sentences

For this activity, students practice reading words with ending blends fluently.

Mac the Cat

Use this decodable text to give students practice reading closed-syllable words with short 'a'. 

Pals on the Bus

Use this decodable text to give students practice reading closed-syllable words containing each of the short vowel sounds, such as pal, let, big, hot, and gum.

See our full list of decodable texts by phonics skill.

More to Come!

We'll be adding more content to this skill explainer in the coming days and months. Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates!