Repeated Readings

I you have a child who struggles with fluency it can really impact on their ability to read for understanding. Fluency and word recognition allows the child to focus on what they are reading, rather than on deciphering one word at a time.

Repeated readings is a great intervention strategy to allow a child to build fluency. Research shows that this fluency leads to better understanding, more confidence and faster progression. How does it work? let me explain more.

During repeated reading, a student sits in a quiet location with a teacher and reads a passage aloud at least three times. Typically, the teacher selects a passage of about 50 to 200 words in length. Whist the child is reading the teacher has a copy of the passage and marks all mistakes on the paper and times the reading. The aim is to be able to read the passage without errors at a steady pace where the child is pausing in the right place so the text has meanings.

After the first reading the teacher should go through the text correcting all the errors with the student during the read through so when the read again they can make improvements in their fluency. By reading repeatedly students can build confidence, word recognition and get success. Research suggests 3 readings is enough to gain some fluency but the text has to be at a level where the child is only making 10 mistakes per 100 words or this method will not work.

I would recommend reading https://www.readingrockets.org for more information on repeated readings and how to implement it at home, in your classroom or as an intervention. I guarantee this will build fluency and comprehension in struggling readers and dyslexic students over a short period of time.

Good Luck! I would love to hear feedback on how this technique worked for you.

Katie x