Timed Repeated Reading

Building Fluency by Rereading Text

Stage of Literacy Development:

Stage 2: Consolidation / Fluency

Ages:

6-9

Grade Range:

1st 2nd 3rd

Food Groups:

Primary:
Reading Fluency & Expression

Secondary:
Motivation for Literacy

Transcript

Teacher: Let's go to the end, that we haven't read as many times. 

Student: Because then you can do really fast on these two parts. 

Teacher: Yeah, you can do fast on these two parts. How come you're so fast? 

Student: Because I read them more than once?

Teacher: Yeah, you read them a lot of times to get more fluency. Okay, so just read this and just read it like a normal speed. Okay, ready?

Student: "Meanwhile, a kid dino bite reached the breaking cable. He held two parts together with his teeth. A man below started the cars again. Slowly the cars on kid's right moved toward the right end of the cable." 

Teacher: Okay, so it was 41.7 seconds. So this time I just want you to read it nice and smooth with good expression and we'll just see if it gets faster. Okay? Why would it get faster?

Student: Because I read it more times?

Teacher: Yeah, and your brain gets more used to the words. Okay, ready? But don't rush, just go normal. Ready? Go. 

Student: "Meanwhile, a kid dino bite reached the breaking cable. He held two parts together with his teeth. A man below started the cable cars again. Slowly the cars on kid's right moved toward the right end of the cable."  39.4.

Teacher: 39.4 and you know I think this is actually even a smaller amount faster than you usually get because you've already read this before. You're getting faster every time you read it so it's cool to read it again.

Related References

Pikulski, J. J. & Chard, D. J.  (2005).  Fluency: Bridge between Decoding and reading 
comprehension.  The Reading Teacher, 58 (6), 510-519.

Samuels, S. J. (1997).  The method of repeated reading.  The Reading Teacher, 50, 
376-381.

Activity Objective

The goal of Timed Repeated Reading: Building Fluency by Rereading Text is to help improve students' fluency through repeated timed readings. Working with students individually, the teacher asks the student to read a familiar passage and times them while they read. The teacher graphs the time each reading takes to show them how their fluency improves with successive readings.

Quick Tips

Additional Comments:

- You can ask your students to work in pairs; one student can read while the other times them.
- As your students become more fluent readers, ask them to focus on reading with expression to engage the audience.