Fluency is defined as the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with expression.  Their reading sounds natural, like they are talking.  Readers who are not fluent sound choppy and sound out words slowly.  Fluency is important because it allows the reader to spend less time on decoding words and more time on comprehension.  The best strategy for developing reading fluency is to provide your child with many opportunities to read the same passage orally several times.

A Second Grader is expected to read 90 grade level words a minute by the end of the school year.  There fluency is assessed throughout the year by one minute timings in the classroom as well as the DIBELS. The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills are a set of standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy development. They are designed to be short fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of pre-reading and early reading skills.  The results can be used to evaluate individual student development as well as provide grade-level feedback toward validated instructional objectives.

By the end of second grade, a child...