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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Paired Passage Worksheets-Mammals vs. Reptiles
Compare mammals vs. reptiles and add to your reading instruction with leveled nonfiction, compare and contrast passages, and worksheets.
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Readers' Theater Script - Creepy Cat Club
A script which can be used during readers' theater or Drama sessions, aimed at students in 4th grade or higher.
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Readers' Theater Script - The Lion and the Mouse
A readers’ theater script that can be used for reading fluency and expressive reading.
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Readers' Theater Script - That's Not My Pet
A readers’ theater script that can be used for reading fluency and expressive reading.
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3rd Grade Reading Fluency Passages
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for 3rd grade.
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Dolch Sight Word Flash Cards
Practice the first 100 Dolch Sight Words with a deck of sight word flash cards.
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Roll and Read – Sight Word Game Pack
Practice reading sight words with this set of 5 Roll to Read Sight Word Game boards.
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Reading Challenge - 10-100 Book Challenge Reading Logs
Start the 100-Book Challenge With a Fun Reading Log!
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Features of Insects Mini-Book
Learn about creepy crawly insects with a printable decodable book for first and second-grade readers.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - THAT
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “that” from the Kindergarten-level Dolch sight words list.
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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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Fluency Reading Passages - 5th Grade
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for 5th grade.
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Dolch Sight Word List – Complete Set
Practice word recognition with our set of 8 Dolch Sight Word Lists.
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Silent Letter Words - Reading Fluency Worksheets
Practice identifying the silent letters in words with this comprehensive collection of reading fluency passages.
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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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Pyramid Reading Cards - Dolch Primer Sight Words
Practice and review the Dolch Primer List of high-frequency words with 52 short phrase cards for emergent 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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Color by Sight Words - 4 Words - Ladybug
A fun coloring activity to use when working with sight words.
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Sight Word Lists – Teacher Resource Binder
Use this collection of checklists, student pages and quick-check assessments when reviewing Dolch sight words spanning from pre-primer to 3rd grade.
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In the Arctic - Free Decodable Book
Engage your students and inspire them to read and learn about life in the Arctic with a printable book for 2nd grade.
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Find It! - Sight Word Worksheets
Make your sight word instruction fun with this word search puzzle.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - ALL
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “all” from the Kindergarten-level Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - What
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “what” from the Kindergarten-level Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - WERE
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “were” from the First Grade Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - I
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “I” from the Pre-Primer Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - YOU
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “you” from the Pre-Primer Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - GO
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “go” from the Pre-Primer Dolch sight words list.
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4th Grade Reading Fluency Passages
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for 4th grade.
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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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Caring for Others – Printable Empathy Book
Unlock the magic of empathy by giving your students a mini-book about how to connect, understand and make a difference through the simple act of caring.
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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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Reduce Reuse Recycle! - Printable Earth Day Read-Alouds
Teach your students to reduce, reuse, and recycle with a printable 3 Rs Mini-Book.
- 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