Fluent reading

[whereismagic]

Can somebody explain to me what fluent reading at the end of reception means? Does it mean that a child can potentially pick up a Harry Potter book and read it without understanding some words? Reading long words without stumbling? Be at last stages of ORT levels? DS fluently reads at the blue level of ORT but has some way to go with more complicated words.

I would think of fluent at the end of reception as a child's reading "flow" is being near continuous i.e. they aren't stopping for a break between every word or making it sound like there's a full stop at the end of every word e.g. "the. dog. sat. on. the. mat." Obviously though there will be rase instances of children who are actually totally fluent, and are capable of reading Harry Potter.

I think you can be fluent at a book that's appropriate for your level but that starts long before something as hard as Harry Potter.

For example dd1 was on reading level 5 at the end of reception and something just clicked. She became fluent and read Biff and Kipper books effortlessly. At this stage she started reading rainbow fairy chapter books. She progressed through harder books like wimpy kid, how to train a dragon, Enid blyton, magic unicorn, roald dahl but only read Harry Potter in year 2. I suspect it would have been too difficult for her in reception. It's not just the words but she would have found the plot harder to keep up with.

I think it probably depends who is saying it. To me Ds is fluent at the end of reception - he is on second Harry Potter but his comprehension is assisted by having watched the dvd. He can read virtually all words as well as I can except irregular unkown words. Dd2 isn't yet fluent at the end of yr3 because although she can read many of the same words, she reads more slowly, will guess some words, skip others and doesn't always understand the plot as she is reading it.

They are all at such different stages though but end up at the same end point. It's a bit like learning to walk and talk. Ds was 16 months before he could walk and 18 months before he talked but he can do both fluently now. Dd1 wasn't reading fluently until the end of yr 2, she was only on stage 3 (?yellow) at the beginning of yr1, but at the end of yr5 she is exceeding even under new curriculum.

I'd say it was being able to read something of an appropriate level without having to stop/start sounding out words.

Thank you, everyone, for sharing. I can't imagine DS reading Harry Potter any time soon.

My dd was reading fairly well at end of reception, on gold level books. Been free reading since year one. She is about to enter yr3 and I don't think she could cope with Harry Potter because the sheer length of the book is a little daunting and there is so much made up vocabulary. I find the HP stories tricky to follow myself as the plots can be complex. I have no doubt she could read the words but would she get the most out of the book? No probably not. There is no rush! HP is not written to be read by reception children!

where My DD2 is just attempting HP now at the end of y5.

Well, she reads some pages out loud to me, I am mainly reading her the rest. I don't think it is 'aimed' at infants, despite the fact that 95% of MN children seem to read it then!

She was delighted to watch the first film at last, as I have said the books need to be read before watching the films.

My DS has just finished reception and is a fluent reader in that he can read anything put in front of him with expression and understanding (barring unfamiliar/difficult words that need sounding out, or particularly 'adult' text such as a newspaper article on politics!) and silently reads chapter books to himself, albeit mostly fairly simple ones, e.g. some easier Enid Blytons, Anne Fine, Horrid Henry and Magic Treehouse, and various non-fictions. I have read him Harry Potter (he occasionally read parts to me) but we stopped lots of times to talk about the plot and what certain phrases and figures of speech meant - if he read it himself, he'd have missed all of that. Also the text is very small in Harry Potter, meaning he'd be missing out words as he skipped through the text and I think the plot is far to intricate for him to grasp without us talking it through. For these reasons, I very much doubt he will be picking it up to read himself any time soon. He hasn't seen the films. That's my DS though - I'm certain others can and do cope! There is a big range in ability at this stage and it often evens out in the end. My cousin, for example, didn't start reading fluently until 7, but went on to do fantastically well at school, eventually ending up in Cambridge.

DS sounds similar to miniBobkitten. The only reason that he has seen the film before the books are two HP obsessed older sisters. He shares a room with dd2 who as I said still struggles to read so he hears her reading HP to us and we read it to her. I am not sure that his understanding would be as good without knowing the wider plot. I imagine too that he will come back and re-read it later anyway drawing more from the plot each time. Dd1 has read the first 4 about 4 or 5 times. I really don't think it is a race though as dd1 was still struggling into yr2 but once it clicked she turned into a book worm and reads a wide range of books. She is much quicker than ds. He can read a chapter a night whereas she can read a HP in about 2 days. So I guess that fluency is a continuum and it comes with practice. Ds reads loads of books. In the early days he would want to read 3-5 books a night on the first few stages. In that context his progression isn't as remarkable. He probably has read a similar number of books as dd1 did to get to this stage but in fewer years.

www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/fluency

So, dies it mean that at the end of reception children should be completely fluent? DS's teacher seemed completely unconcerned.

No it doesn't mean that every child will be fluent by the end of reception or Y1 and most won't be. It's also important to realise that "fluency" is subjective one person listening to a child read one book might consider them fluent another person might disagree.

Based on the children I know I would say that ds is very much the exception and when he is tired his expression will start to suffer not as bad as dh who will just fall asleep mid sentence

That link is very useful Mrs I will try some on dd2. She is at the end of yr3 and the school hasn't been particularly bothered. I think children just seem to learn to read at such different rates and it doesn't seem to matter even by the end of primary whether they learnt to read at 4, 5 or 6 they soon catch up.