Fluency Strategies for Struggling Readers : Classroom-Tested Oral Reading Strategies That Help Build Comprehension

Justin, a second grader who reads well below his grade level, struggles to sound out phonetically regular words and sometimes gets stuck on basic sight words like there and why. Even when Justin reads simple, predictable books, he stumbles over the words and delivers the passage in a labored monotone. Although Angie has mastered many words on the first-grade sight-word list, she rushes to get to the end of a page when she reads and pays little attention to whether the words she calls out make sense in the context of the story. Sammy is embarrassed when it's his turn to read aloud in class. Unlike his fluent third-grade peers, he ignores punctuation and reads with choppy phrasing and little expression. Disfluent readers like Justin, Angie, and Sammy may exhibit different symptoms-from difficulty decoding to grouping words in awkward phrases. However, disfluency impacts all struggling readers in the same way: It interferes with their reading comprehension. In Fluency Strategies for Struggling Readers, reading specialist Marcia Delany clearly defines and helps you identify disfluency symptoms that prevent your primary-grade readers from achieving in reading. Then she shares her best tips and strategies for helping these readers gain the fluency skills they need to become confident readers who understand-and enjoy-what they read. You'll also find quick and easy assessments that help you target the specific fluency needs of your struggling readers-and help both you and your students chart their improvement. Book jacket.