Fluency

Fluency is correctly reading the words to a story smoothly and with expression. When you read a story, it is important to think about your speed or flow. If you read a story too quickly, you may skip words and not understand the meaning. If you are reading aloud, others might not be able to understand you. Reading too slowly can also cause difficulty understanding the story. Your time is spent focusing on saying the words. Reading the words should be automatic. This is not something that just happens overnight. We learn patterns and strategies, and we memorize words to help build our fluency.

Who do you enjoy hearing a story read by? What makes him or her fun to listen to? It is not enough to just read stories aloud at a good speed. You need expression as well. Expression is how you say a line. If the sentence is an exclamation, you would say it as if you are excited. Think about how the character feels and what is happening in a story. If a character is whispering in a library, you would not yell the lines. If there is a comma or period, pause for a second before continuing.

1. Record yourself reading the text below.
2. In the recording, practice reading using the punctuation.
3. Read using appropriate expression.

Now it's your turn! Practice reading the story aloud. Using the audio recording software of your choice, record yourself reading the passage on your own. Then, submit it to your teacher for a grade.