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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Phoneme Spotter Story – Long 'a' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the long 'a' sound.
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Sight Word Cards - Dolch Grade 3
Dolch Grade 3 sight words on flash cards.
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Sight Word Cards - Dolch Pre-Primer
Dolch pre-primer sight words on flash cards.
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Sight Word Cards - Dolch Grade 1
Dolch Grade 1 sight words on flash cards.
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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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Dolch Sight Word List – Complete Set
Practice word recognition with our set of 8 Dolch Sight Word Lists.
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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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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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Reading Challenge - 10-100 Book Challenge Reading Logs
Start the 100-Book Challenge With a Fun Reading Log!
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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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Dolch Sight Word Flash Cards
Practice the first 100 Dolch Sight Words with a deck of sight word flash cards.
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Sight Word BINGO (Fry Word List 101-200)
Practice learning sight words 101-200 on the Fry Sight Word List with our set of 22 Sight Words Bingo cards.
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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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Dolch Sight Word Tracker - Google Sheets
Track mastery of Dolch Sight Words using a digital Google Sheets Sight Word tracking spreadsheet
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Sight Word BINGO (Fry Word List 1-100 )
A set of 25 BINGO cards to practice reading the first 100 words on the Fry Sight Word List.
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Dolch Sight Word Bingo - Third Grade
Sixteen different bingo cards using the Grade 3 Dolch Sight Words.
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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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3rd Grade Reading Fluency Passages
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for 3rd grade.
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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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All About Clouds - Cloze Worksheet
Strengthen student understanding of different cloud types with this cloze reading worksheet.
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Daily Dolch Drills — Pre-Primer Weekly Homework
Practice weekly sight words to strengthen letter-sound recognition, spelling, and reading fluency with six weeks of sight word homework worksheets.
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Google Interactive Sight Words - 1st Grade Dolch
Read, write, identify, and build all 41 Dolch first-grade sight words in an interactive Google Slides presentation.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – /er/ Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the /er/ sound.
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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 Grade 1 Sight Words
Practice and review the Dolch Grade 1 List of high-frequency words with 41 short phrase cards for emergent readers.
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Pyramid Reading Cards - Dolch Pre-Primer Sight Words
Practice and review the Dolch Pre-Primer List of high-frequency words with 40 short phrase cards for emergent readers.
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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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Decodable Text Worksheets – Set 2
A set of 10 decodable text worksheets for early readers.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - AFTER
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “after” from the First Grade 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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Roll it! Read it! Write it! Dolch 1st Grade Sight Words
Practice reading and writing Dolch’s first grade high-frequency words with this board game for multiple players.
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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.