Objective: Students with reading disabilities or who struggle with reading comprehension will benefit from continued oral reading practice through high school to ensure they are continuing to develop both comprehension and fluency skills.

Teacher Takeaways: a) Fluency, or the ability to read with speed, accuracy and proper expression is a distinct skill but it is directly tied to reading comprehension performance. In other words, students need to learn to read fluently or it will affect their reading comprehension skills over time. b) While peer-to-peer reading can be helpful, it is not always the best approach for students with learning difficulties so teachers will want to monitor these interactions.

Model and Practice: Just as you regularly assess vocabulary and comprehension, oral fluency accuracy, rate and comprehension should be regularly assessed so you can address any lags. The Gray Oral Reading Test is one good option for testing fluency. b) The best way to develop reading fluency in struggling readers is guided oral reading with prompt feedback. This enables students to immediately hear their mistakes so they do not continue to repeat the same mistakes thinking they are correct. c) One of the most effective oral reading practices is to have students re-read the same text multiple times so the instructor can identify problems the first time through but students learn through repetition and also experience progress as they improve with each subsequent reading. This also can be done by reading aloud with an audio book. d) Some students with reading disabilities have difficulty with perceptual span, or the ability to take in groups of words rather than reading each word individually. This is a skill that can improve with practice with the proper instruction. e) Other options for oral reading include older children reading to younger children or pets, though these options will not provide feedback which is essential for improvement. f) Oral reading should last approximately 15 minutes per session, but the amount of time should always depend on the student's age, stamina and tolerance.

OER Resource: Rereading (Digital Promise Learner Variability Project)