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reading fluency | the gateway to comprehension

By: Keara Holmes | Revised 2/19/2026

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Welcome back to our series on the essential components of reading! If you’ve been following along, we’ve laid the groundwork with Phonological Awareness (hearing sounds) and built the structure with Phonics (connecting sounds to letters).

Now, we have to unlock the meaning. That key is Reading Fluency.

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what is fluency?

Fluency is often misunderstood as simply "reading fast." However, the National Reading Panel defines fluency as the ability to read text with:

Accuracy: Reading the words correctly.
Automaticity: Reading the words effortlessly (at an appropriate speed).
Prosody: Reading with expression, proper phrasing, and intonation.

Fluency is the critical link between decoding and comprehension. Here is the science behind it: Our brains have a limited amount of "working memory." If a student has to use all their mental energy to sound out every single word (decode), they have no brain power left to understand what the sentence actually means.

When a student becomes fluent, decoding becomes automatic, freeing up their brain to focus on the meaning of the story.

THE FLUENCY ASSESSMENT: WHERE DO WE START?

Most instructors, myself included, use a fluency assessment to collect baseline data. This helps determine exactly where a student is struggling.

When I assess a student, I look for two distinct profiles:

Profile 1: The "Accuracy" Struggle If a student is reading slowly because they are making frequent errors or guessing at words, stop. Do not focus on fluency speed drills.

The Issue: This is a phonics gap. You cannot read fluently if you do not know the code.
The Fix: Go back to the [Second Component of Reading: Phonics] Focus on sound-symbol correspondence and blending.

Profile 2: The "Automaticity" Struggle If a student reads words correctly (high accuracy) but reads very slowly, laboriously, or robotically.

The Issue: They know the code, but they haven't "orthographically mapped" the words yet—meaning the words aren't instantly recognized by sight. This could also be related to processing speed issues or characteristics of Dyslexia.
The Fix: This student is ready for fluency practice. We need to move them from "sounding out" to "instant recognition."

(Note: For complex cases involving processing speed or language barriers, consulting with a Special Education Teacher or Speech-Language Pathologist is always a great resource.)

THE TOOL OF CHOICE: DECODABLE TEXTS

There is a misconception that once you start fluency, you should jump straight into "leveled readers" (books labeled A-Z based on difficulty).

However, the Science of Reading suggests a different approach. To build fluency, especially for emerging readers, we should use Decodable Texts. These are books specifically written to contain only the phonics patterns the student has already learned.

Why? Because practice makes permanent. If we give a struggling reader a book filled with patterns they haven't learned, they will revert to guessing. But, if we give them a decodable book where they have the skills to crack every word, they build confidence and speed.

My favorite decodable readers for building fluency are the Bob Books series. You can grab a set here.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: FINDING THE "SWEET SPOT"

As you know from my previous posts, I love using characters to make reading concepts stick.

Decoding Mode: In our phonics stage, we channeled Dory speaking "Whale." We learned to stretch sounds out (/mmmmm-aaaaa-t/) without stopping.
Fluency Mode: Now, we want to do the opposite. We want to read like we talk.

I tell my students: "We don't... talk... like... robots." We want our reading to sound like a natural conversation.

Action Tip: Use the "Read and Re-read" strategy. Have the student read a decodable passage once to decode the words (The "Dory" phase). Then, ask them to read it a second or third time, focusing on smoothing it out (The "Natural Voice" phase).

A NOTE ON SPEED AND TIMED TESTS

Fluency assessments are usually timed (Words Per Minute, or WPM). I know, I know—timed tests can be stressful. I don't love the pressure it puts on students, either. However, timing is a necessary tool to measure automaticity.

Think of it like a thermometer. A thermometer doesn't fix the fever, but it tells you how high the temperature is. A timed reading tells us how automatic the decoding has become.

According to the extensive research by Hasbrouck & Tindal (2017), here are some general benchmarks for the 50th percentile (average) regarding how many words a student should read correctly per minute (WCPM) by the Spring of each grade level:

Grade 1: ~60 WCPM
Grade 2: ~100 WCPM
Grade 3: ~112 WCPM
Grade 4: ~133 WCPM
Grade 5: ~146 WCPM
Grade 6: ~146 WCPM

Note: Use your judgment. Comprehension is always the end goal. If a student reads slightly slower but understands everything and reads with expression, that is a win!

THE BOTTOM LINE

Fluency is what makes reading feel like magic. It turns a struggle into a story. But remember: Don't rush to fluency if the phonics foundation has cracks. It is always better to pause and repair the foundation than to push a student to read fast and wrong.

Need a grab-and-go program rooted in the Science of Reading? All About Reading is one I highly recommend. This program is screen-free, multi-sensory, and has decodable readers included, which helps build confidence and reading fluency. I also recommend decodable books, such as Bob Books, to build fluency. These books are reasonably priced and with practice, can help build reading fluency.

When I attended Auburn University, one my professors gave us copies of CBM's she told us to hold on to for future assessment purposes. I am so glad I did because I use these fluency assessments to assess my students who attend tutoring sessions.

👉🏽Grab a copy of Primer level CBMs here.

👉🏽Grab a copy of First Grade CBMs here.

👉🏽Grab a copy of a Fluency Assessment Calculator here.

👉🏽Grab a copy of Running Records here.

I hope this blog post helped you understand reading fluency and has given you resources to help your students build fluency skills. Stay tuned for our next post, where we tackle the ultimate goal of reading: Comprehension.

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