Reading Fluency Misconceptions

Reading fluency is the ability to read text with a reasonable accuracy, appropriate rate, and suitable expression. When readers are fluent, they can concentrate on understanding the meaning of the text instead of using so much cognitive effort to decode individual words. In this way, fluent reading can contribute to reading comprehension and often reading motivation, both critical pieces of student reading success.

Reading fluency is one of the five pillars of effective reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel, in addition to phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. Incorporating daily reading instruction that emphasizes fluency is supported by the Science of Reading.

Despite being backed by robust reading research, misconceptions about reading fluency still exist. These misconceptions can hinder both effective fluency instruction in the classroom and fluency development in emergent readers.

In this blog series, we’re diving into a variety of misconceptions about the Science of Reading in the critical areas of instruction — phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension — debunking common myths and shedding light on why understanding these components is essential to evidence-based reading instruction.

In this third post of the series, we’ll explore misconceptions about reading fluency.

Misconception #1: Reading Fluency Is Only Based on Rate

Reading fluency is often misunderstood as merely the speed at which a student reads. However, reading fluency is actually made up of three distinct components: rate (speed), accuracy (percentage of words read correctly without hesitation), and prosody (appropriate expression and intonation).

Many educators use one-minute, timed fluency assessments, which measure how many words a student can read correctly in a minute. While these assessments provide useful data, they can inadvertently encourage students to prioritize rate over accuracy or prosody, contributing to an overemphasis on reading speed.

A narrow focus on reading rate can undermine the other critical components of reading fluency, resulting in readers who might read quickly but inaccurately or without understanding of the text. Fluency instruction should provide a stronger emphasis on automaticity and high accuracy, as well as appropriate rate and prosody.

Misconception #2: Independent Reading Improves Fluency for All Students

Correlational reading studies have found that the more children read, the better their reading skills are — specifically fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension — which seems to make sense!

What the studies fail to take into account, however, is that just because reading more is related to reading skill improvement, it doesn’t mean that reading independently more often causes reading skill improvement. It could be that better readers choose to read more often.

Why is this important?

Because it leads to the misconception that if we just encourage all children to read independently more often, that they will become better readers. However, that might not be the case for all readers and it is important to individualize instruction to students’ needs.

According to the National Reading Panel, explicit fluency instruction, such as repeated reading with things like immediate feedback and teacher modeling is an effective way to improve students’ reading fluency skills, which can support reading comprehension.

If a student’s fluency skills are lagging, utilizing explicit fluency instruction can be more effective than assigning independent reading.

Misconception #3: Repeated Reading Is Too Boring to Be Effective

Repeated reading is an instructional strategy in which students reread a piece of text multiple times in order to improve their reading fluency. This strategy can be combined with feedback and/or modeled by a teacher, parent/guardian, or other fluent reader.

A common misconception is that repeated reading is too boring for students to be effective. However, research indicates that repeated reading can significantly improve fluency when implemented correctly.

One way to make the strategy more engaging is to involve students in tracking their own fluency data. By seeing tangible improvements in their reading speed and accuracy, students can become more motivated and invested in their practice. Highly engaging texts and activities, like video recording can also motivate students to participate in repeated reading by making the practice more interactive and fun.

Ultimately, repeated reading helps build automaticity needed for fluent reading, which can make reading more effortless and enjoyable. While it may seem monotonous, repeated reading is a powerful tool in developing reading fluency.

Misconception #4: Fluent Reading Guarantees Reading Comprehension

Fluent reading can contribute to reading comprehension because a student who can decode text with automaticity, accuracy, appropriate rate, and prosody has the ability to allocate more of their mental resources to understanding and interpreting the meaning of the text.

However, fluent reading does not necessarily guarantee reading comprehension.

In addition to fluency, reading comprehension is dependent on factors, such as background knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, inference skills, working memory, executive function, and motivation.

In the classroom, educators can help develop student reading comprehension by addressing these factors and providing targeted instruction and practice in all of these areas, in addition to reading fluency.

Misconception #5: Reading Fluency Instruction Isn’t Appropriate in the Early Grades

While reading fluency instruction will look different in the early grades compared to the older grades, it is a misconception that it is not appropriate for emergent readers.

In kindergarten, reading fluency instruction should focus on developmentally appropriate prerequisite skills, such as letter naming and sound fluency. Studies have found that growth in letter and sound fluency in kindergarten can predict reading fluency outcomes in the early elementary grades.

Read-alouds also provide a great opportunity for teachers to model fluent reading for emergent readers. Teachers can draw attention to aspects of fluent reading such as appropriate rate and expression. With shared reading (both the teacher and the class have the same text in hand), students can learn how to track text with their finger, as well as echo read with the teacher, even before they are decoding words independently.

As emergent readers begin to decode words as part of systematic phonics instruction, word reading fluency instruction and practice can help students move toward automaticity. Fluency grids can be a great way to practice word reading fluency.

Decodable readers can also be used as an instructional tool to help emergent readers become fluent with connected text. Echo, choral (reading in unison), and paired reading are different ways that students can practice with these controlled texts. Pairing decodable readers with repeated reading can be an effective way to increase reading fluency, providing teachers with opportunities to hear students read and give feedback.

Misconception #6: Fluent Reading Is the Same for All Text Types

The definition of reading fluency — accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression — remains constant across different text types. However, what qualifies as appropriate rate and expression can vary from one text to the next.

For example, in a narrative text, such as a children’s picture book, an appropriate rate might be more moderate to allow for dramatic pauses and expression. Expression could include varied intonation to convey the emotions and actions of the characters, such as excitement during an adventurous scene or sadness at the loss of a friend.

In an informational text, such as a textbook, an appropriate rate might be slower to ensure comprehension of complex ideas and vocabulary. The reader’s expression could be more measured and place emphasis on key terms and concepts.

For a genre like poetry, the appropriate rate might vary significantly to match the flow of the poem. Expression would involve paying close attention to the natural breaks in the lines and using expressive intonation to convey the poem’s mood and emotions.

Dispelling Fluency Misconceptions Can Improve Reading Skills

As shown by the Science of Reading, basing our instructional practices on proven techniques is a powerful way to help students achieve the reading skills they will need to be successful in school and in life. By weeding out misconceptions and focusing on best practices, we can help all our students achieve their literacy goals.

If you missed it, check out our last blog in this series, focused on Debunking Phonics Myths. Keep an eye out for the next entry in this blog series, where we'll be debunking misconceptions about vocabulary. To make sure you don't miss out on the latest from Savvas, sign up for our Science of Reading newsletter.