Building Reading Skills

Shared reading strategies increase fluency

Shared reading strategies take a great concept—reading aloud—and allow students to build fluency by actually experiencing and participating in the reading along with you.

Try these ideas:

• Echo reading. Read a short, interesting passage to students, using expression. (Dialogue works well.) Then ask the students to read it back to you, mirroring your reading as closely as possible. Start with easy text and work up.
• Choral reading. Read a passage to students, encouraging them to follow along. Then reread the passage all together. Try poetry for this one.
• Antiphonal reading. Choose material meant to be read by two or more people. (Library staff may be able to help with this.)

Choose a student who reads well to be your partner.

Read the first part and have the student read the second part, and so on, until you have finished the selection.

Now divide your class into two groups and have group one read the first part, as you did, and group two read the second part, as your partner did.

Reprinted with permission from the March 2007 issue of Better Teaching® (Elementary Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2007 The Teacher Institute®, a division of NIS, Inc. Source: Jerry L. Johns, Roberta L. Berglund, Fluency: Strategies & Assessments, ISBN: 0-7575-2899-6 (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1-800-228-0810, www.kendallhunt.com).