Reading fluency tutoring, NYC – Reading fluency, which is one of the five pillars of reading, is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. It greatly influences reading comprehension. Students must be able to read fluently in order to comprehend what they read, whether they are reading aloud or silently. Fluent readers read in phrases and add appropriate intonation when they read aloud (whether by themselves or in front of the entire class), without needing to pause to decode words or look up definitions.
Fluency plays a key role in comprehension and is essential in keeping young students motivated. When students are reading fluently, it frees up mental resources to allow them to improve their comprehension of what they are reading.
Read about 2021 Reading Model for Fluency, Comprehension, Self-Regulation, and Vocabulary.
Research has shown that students need frequent opportunities for substantial practice at their instructional level and reading age in order to achieve an appropriate level of fluency. Silent reading does not accomplish this goal. Frequent oral reading opportunities, together with monitoring progress over time by a teacher, fluency tutor, family member, or even peer, are needed to guide struggling readers. Learn how early literacy benefits from both print-to-speech and speech-to-print instruction, creating connections in the brain that link new knowledge about the alphabet to what children already know and are continuously learning about words.
It is also just as important to allow students to tackle assigned reading passages whenever trying to improve fluency. Slower fluency rates are often the result of spending too much time decoding individual words. This can lead to not having enough time to understand a passage or text as a whole. Hence, it’s important to choose materials that are within the student’s independent reading level. This means picking out books or passages based on content that students can decode with ease.
Once appropriate reading materials are chosen, a fluency tutor tutor will:
Our fluency tutor determines fluency by examining both reading speed and expression of the text. Very fluent readers are able to read text automatically and without effortful decoding of letters to sounds. Students must build a strong decoding base as well as a foundation of sight words that are recognized automatically in order to increase their fluency rates.
Slower reading rates can lead to difficulties in school, as they are often the result of spending too much time decoding individual words. This can lead to not having enough time to understand a passage or text as a whole. A fluency tutor may work on phrasing, intonation, and echoed and repeated readings.
At Staten Island Letters, the goal of our fluency tutor is to improve your child’s fluency and make reading more personal and enjoyable with individualized lessons geared at boosting decoding skills. With the help of a fluency tutor, struggling readers are guided into developing better fluency at their own pace.
With reading fluency tutoring, we can help students in:
- improving accuracy when reading age- or grade-level texts
- developing a natural pace when reading age- or grade-level texts aloud
- understanding how punctuation affects fluency
Our fluency tutors make it a point to connect with each child on a level that teachers and students are often unable to do inside the classroom. This specialized focus and attention, together with a customized learning plan, is key in improving your child’s skills and building up their confidence.
Our fluency tutor provides Orton-Gillingham and Wilson tutoring services to help students become skilled readers. We offer doorstep or at-home and online tutoring.
 (Click here to get to know our literacy specialists and find out more about reading tutoring services.)
