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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Ocean Mini Book
Learn about ocean life with a printable book for preschoolers, kindergartners, and first-graders.
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Google Interactive Sight Word Study-Kindergarten Dolch Words
Read, write, identify, and build all 52 Dolch kindergarten sight words in an interactive Google Slides presentation.
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Google Interactive Sight Words - 2nd Grade Dolch
Read, type, build, and identify words from the Dolch Grade 2 Sight Words List in an interactive format.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – /oy/ Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the /oy/ sound.
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Wee Willie Winkie Nursery Rhyme - Poster and Cut-Out Pages
A poetry activity using the nursery rhyme "Wee Willie Winkie".
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What Can Swim? - Concept Book
Use this fill-in-the-blank concept book to help students recognize animals that can swim and become authors and illustrators of their own little books.
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Row, Row, Row Your Boat Nursery Rhyme - Rhyme Page and Sorting Activity
Row, Row, Row Your Boat – Printable shared poetry, sentence, and word rebuilding activities.
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Color by Sight Words - 5 Words - Bee
A fun coloring activity to use when working with sight words.
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Sight Word Practice Mats - Fry Word List 1-100
Familiarize students with reading and writing the first 100 words on the Fry Sight Words Lists using this set of practice mats.
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Sweet Sight Words - First Grade Dolch Sight Words Board Game
Practice reading high-frequency words with this board game of 41 First Grade Dolch sight word cards.
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1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I Caught A Fish Alive - Poster and Cut-Out Pages
A poetry activity using the popular children’s poem ‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive’.
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Sight Word BINGO (Fry Word List 201-300)
Practice learning sight words 201-300 on the Fry Sight Word List with our set of 22 Sight Words Bingo cards.
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Hey Diddle Diddle Nursery Rhyme – Poster and Cut-Out Pages
A poetry activity using the popular children’s poem “Hey Diddle Diddle".
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We Grow and Change - Concept Book
A printable concept book for children to see the stages of their own growth and change and become authors and illustrators of their own little books.
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Decodable Text Worksheets – Set 1
A set of 10 decodable text worksheets for early readers.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – Long 'u' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the long 'u' sound.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – Long 'o' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the long 'o' sound.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – Long 'i' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the long 'i' sound.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – Long 'e' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the long 'e' sound.
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I Think Mice Are Rather Nice Rhyme - Poster and Cut-Out Pages
A poetry activity using the popular children’s poem “I Think Mice are Nice”.
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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 - AN
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “an” from the First Grade Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - MAY
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “may” from the First Grade Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - KNOW
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “know” from the First Grade Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - COME
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “come” from the Pre-Primer Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - IS
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “is” from the Pre-Primer Dolch sight words list.
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Little Miss Muffet Nursery Rhyme - Poster and Cut-Out Pages
A poster and cut-out pages for the nursery rhyme Little Miss Muffet.
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Jack and Jill Nursery Rhyme - Poster and Cut-Out Pages
A poster and cut-out pages for the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill.
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Readers' Theater Script - Why Bears Have Stumpy Tails
A readers’ theater script that can be used for reading fluency and expressive reading.
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Readers' Theater Script - Treasure Map
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 - 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 - 45th Annual Acting Awards
A script which can be used during readers' theater or Drama sessions, aimed at students 10 years and over.
- 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