4th Grade Reading Fluency Homework

Reading Fluency Homework

Fourth grade students will begin weekly fluency homework in December. (This assignment is in addition to the 20 minutes of nightly independent reading that has been assigned since the beginning of the school year.) A fluent reader reads orally with accuracy and expression, at a speech like pace. Reading researchers have demonstrated the importance of reading “automaticity” or reading automatically. If a reader devotes most of his or her attention to pronouncing words, comprehension and meaning become lost. On the other hand, students who read fluently can devote more attention to meaning and thus increase their comprehension. This is why oral reading fluency is an important goal of reading instruction and must be practiced daily in school and at home.

The weekly passages will increase in difficulty as the year progresses. All of the passages are original so that the students are not familiar with them. Assessing reading fluency can be done quickly. We are listening for the number of words read correctly in one minute. Repeated words, self-corrected words and mispronunciation of unusual pronouns are not counted as errors. In fall, we look for a target 105 words read correctly in one minute, 119 by winter, and 133 in spring.

Daily practice of reading fluency by reading at home will become a weekly assignment beginning in December. Students are to take home their assigned passage and reread the passage daily to a family member or other willing listener. The listener should follow along with the reader and listen for accuracy, good expression (appropriate pauses at punctuation) and reading at a speech like pace. The listener must sign the Reading Fluency Homework slip after the student has read the passage aloud. Weekly slips are due each Friday.

Optional:
Listeners may also want to time the reader to monitor progress throughout the week. Students are encouraged to keep track of their progress so that they can track their growth by writing in their times on the slip.

Please look for this new homework to begin on December 1st. Thank you for your continued support!

Happy Reading
The Fourth Grade Team