Setting up Fluency Pairs
Welcome back to Term 4!
Last week, I ran a whole-staff session on fluency, and it reminded me how often this critical piece of reading instruction often flies under the radar.
We talk a lot about phonics and comprehension (and rightly so), but fluency is the bridge that connects the two.
When students read fluently, they don’t just read faster, they read with accuracy, expression, and confidence. Their brains aren’t working overtime to decode every single word; they’re free to focus on meaning.
“Fluent reading is not fast reading.” – Jan Hasbrouck
Why we need to practise fluency, daily
Like everything we teach, fluency doesn’t develop by accident. The research (Hasbrouck, 2024; NRP, 2000, Rose Report, 2006, Rowe Report, 2005) tells us fluency instruction needs to be explicit, modelled, and frequent.
Those short bursts of partnered reading, choral reading, or echo reading create repetition, feedback, and retrieval (aka exactly what Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve tells us learners need…)
How I set up fluency pairs
Here’s the system I model in classrooms:
Pair students low-low, mid-low, mid-mid, high-mid, high-high - students should never be the replacement teacher so please avoid placing high with low.
Explicitly teach the why of fluency, and the four fluency focuses: expression, rate, accuracy, punctuation (I have a slide deck for this which will be available for purchase, soon).
Keep pairings and seating consistent (reduces decision load 👏)
Rove constantly and offer quick feedback
Parter A reads (1 min), Parter B reads (1 min), Partner A reads (1 min), Partner B provides feedback, Partner B reads (1 min), Partner A provides feedback. Older grades might do 2 -3 mins, depending on text and student data.
No more than 10 minutes — short, sharp, daily
It’s not about speed. It’s about sound. Fluent reading should mirror spoken language.
Choosing the right text
Prep–2: Decodable texts or UFLI passages
Years 3–6: Short passages linked to your current novel or unit. You can differentiate these as needed, but keep the content the same.
Slightly above students’ independent level (stretch, don’t stress)
If you’re short on materials, you can ask ChatGPT to generate fluency passages, create a free account with ProjectReadAI (an incredible resource), or use free ones from or UFLI.
What to avoid
The Rowe Report (2005) flagged a few classic fluency traps:
Silent reading for beginners
Some students using decodable texts and others using paper passages. Students know if they aren’t strong readers, no need to make them feel worse, so keep everyone using the same type of fluency resource.
“Speed reading” competitions
Long, unstructured partner reading without feedback
No teacher modelling