Fluency

Question: Want to make fluency training more interesting?

Answer: “We wanted to give our 1^st and 2^nd graders opportunity to practice reading aloud so that they could develop fluency and comprehension, but the usual methods weren’t working too well. Round robin reading, for example, is painfully slow and needlessly stressful. And while repeated readings of the same story are claimed to be effective, when we tried having the children do repeated readings of the basal stories, they showed a distinct lack of motivation.” P. 485.

“Readers’ Theatre whereby a favorite story, like Ira Sleeps Over by Bernard Weber, is turned into a script. Since the children act with just their voices, this seemed a logical way to expand on the excitement of the play format without the hassle of costumes, props and scenery.” P. 485.

“When the children after sufficient practice, presented their Readers’ Theatre to their classmates, they were met with an overwhelming positive response.” P. 485.

Title: “Grades 1 and 2 Love Readers’ Theatre.” S Bennett and K Beatty. Reading Teacher (January 1988), 485.