Reading Fluency Teaching Resources
Explore reading fluency teaching resources created by teachers for teachers! This collection of printable worksheets, digital reading center activities, Google Slides templates and more has been designed to help build students' foundational language skills — from understanding what to do with silent letters to recognizing sight words.
Packed with curriculum-aligned and differentiated resources, this collection of resources has been carefully curated by the expert ELA teachers at Teach Starter to ensure each one is classroom-ready to save you ample time on lesson planning.
New to this part of the ELA curriculum, or just looking for fresh ideas to engage your students? Read on for a guide on what reading fluency is, how to teach it and how to improve it!
What Is Reading Fluency?
We'll start at the very beginning — defining the topic at hand.
Reading fluency refers to a reader's ability to read words accurately, quickly, and with appropriate expression. It involves not just being able to recognize individual words but also being able to read entire sentences and paragraphs with ease and comprehension.
Developing fluency skills early on in elementary school is crucial as they will directly affect a child's reading comprehension and overall academic performance. If a student struggles with reading fluency, they may have difficulty understanding the meaning of what they are reading, which can make learning and retaining new information more challenging.
How to Teach Reading Fluency — Tips From Our Teacher Team
Teaching students to read fluently isn't something that happens overnight, of course. It involves different strategies that build on one another in the course of early literacy instruction.
Here are a few of the methods that are used in combination with one another to help kids grow their fluency skills:
Phonics Instruction
During the primary grades, students are beginning their journey with reading fluency by learning the basic sounds of letters and how to blend them together to form words. Phonics worksheets, games and other activities all come together here to help students practice their phonics skills.
Guided Reading
Working with small groups of students who are at a similar reading level is a common strategy starting around first grade, and guided reading may continue into third or fourth grade — depending on your teaching style and your students' needs. During guided reading, teachers choose books that are appropriate for each group and provide support and feedback as students read aloud.
Repeated Reading
Teaching second or third grade? You may may ask students to read the same passage multiple times to build fluency. This can involve choral reading (where the whole class reads together) or individual reading.
Reader's Theater
This popular strategy involves students acting out a story or play they have read. This helps them to build fluency and develop a better understanding of the text.
Partner Reading
You may want to pair students together to read a passage out loud to each other. This allows kids to practice reading fluently while also getting feedback and support from a peer.
Independent Reading
Encouraging students to read on their own at their own pace is one of the best ways to get kids hooked on reading and of course to build fluency. This can involve letting students choose their own books or assigning specific books to read. Encouraging students to read regularly, providing them with a variety of reading materials at their appropriate reading level and giving them feedback and positive reinforcement can all contribute to developing strong reading fluency skills.
No matter the grade you're teaching or the strategies you're using, teaching reading fluency will require you to observe how well your students can read aloud and how smoothly they can read silently.
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Time for School! Mini Booklet
Introduce your primary students to the routines involved with getting ready for school with this mini booklet.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - WRITE
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “write” from the Second Grade Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - AGAIN
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “again” from the First Grade Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - THEN
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “then” from the First Grade Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - HER
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “her” from the First Grade Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - SOME
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “some” from the First Grade Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - IN
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “in” from the Pre-Primer Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - UP
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “up” from the Pre-Primer Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - CAN
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “can” from the Pre-Primer Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - SEE
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “see” from the Pre-Primer Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - SAID
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “said” from the Pre-Primer Dolch sight words list.
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Dolch Words Card Game – Classroom Game
A card game for dolch sight words.
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Readers' Theater Script - Three Billy Goats Gruff
A readers' theater script that can be used for reading fluency and expressive reading.
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Readers' Theater Script - Grandpa's Birthday Surprise
A readers’ theater script that can be used for reading fluency and expressive reading.
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Readers' Theater Script - The Three Little Pigs
A readers’ theater script that can be used for reading fluency and expressive reading.
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Dolch Sight Word Flashcards - Nouns
Build reading fluency and practice Dolch nouns with a deck of Dolch sight word flash cards.
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Dolch Sight Word Flash Cards for Third Grade
Practice the Dolch 3rd grade sight word list in the classroom with these fun printable flash cards. We've also included teacher tips for getting the most out of these cards!
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Readers' Theater Script - Radio Talk
A script which can be used during readers' theater or Drama sessions, aimed at students 8 years and over.
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Readers' Theater Script - Muddy Footprint Mystery
A script which can be used during readers' theater or Drama sessions, aimed at students 10 years and over.
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Readers' Theater Script - Game, Set, Match!
A script which can be used during readers' theater or Drama sessions, aimed at students 10 years and over.
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Readers' Theater Script - Dog Park Days
A script which can be used during readers' theater or Drama sessions, aimed at students 10 years and over.
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Sight Word Cards - Dolch Pre-Primer
Dolch pre-primer sight words on flash cards.
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2nd Grade Fluency Reading Passages
Download a printable pack of 2nd grade reading fluency passages with a printable ORF assessment pack.
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Fluency Reading Passage Pack - Grade 1
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for 1st grade.
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6th Grade Reading Fluency Passages
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for Grade 6.
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Days of the Week Mini Book
Create a Days of the Week Booklet to help your students identify, sequence and spell the days of the week.
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Kindergarten Sight Word Worksheet - Color By Sight Word Snake
Build fluency with high-frequency words and give your students a fun way to practice with an editable kindergarten color-by-sight word worksheet.
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I Know About Fire Safety Book
Read and learn about fire prevention and safety with a differentiated Fire Prevention book for kids.
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Four Seasons Mini Book
Make learning about the four seasons fun with this marvellous minibook for your Kindergarten students!
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Sight Word Assessments and Data Tracking Sheets
Track Dolch sight word mastery with this set of printable assessments and data sheets.
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Parts of a Plant Mini Books K-2
Read and learn about the parts of a plant with a set of differentiated printable readers.
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All About Clouds - Cloze Worksheet
Strengthen student understanding of different cloud types with this cloze reading worksheet.
- Reading Fluency Worksheets
- Reading Fluency Games
- Reading Fluency Templates
- Reading Fluency for Pre-K
- Reading Fluency for Kindergarten
- Reading Fluency for 1st Grade
- Reading Fluency for 2nd Grade
- Reading Fluency for 3rd Grade
- Reading Fluency for 4th Grade
- Reading Fluency for 5th Grade
- Reading Fluency for 6th Grade