Reading fluency reception- advice please

[Onceuponatimethen]

As term is finishing I’m wondering what to do with reading for dd over the summer.

She’s 5 and while no teacher has heard her read since March she’s been progressing with advice on here and I’ve moved her steadily through the school reading scheme she was on when she last had a school reading book in March.

Her decoding is easily at orange level and I can see her comprehension is very good (older dd was more fluent but struggled with comprehension).

Where my reception dd still seems to struggle is fluency - I’ve posted a few times about this and she definitely is getting much better. At one stage there were huge gaps between words as she was decoding. Now she decodes almost completely in her head and the gaps between words are shorter.

If I ask her to go back and read in her story telling voice (as recommended on here) she can do it to an ok level eg if a character is sad she will do a sad voice or if there’s an exclamation mark she will do ‘excited’. She can make the sentences sound coherent then.

But she never seems to be able to read a sentence that fluently first off! Am I missing a trick here? How can I help her become more fluent?

I’m assuming best to stay on orange while her fluency is improving?

Or have I moved her on too fast and should drop her back a band to help her with fluency?

I don't know what orange band is - do you know if it's the old book bands or a newer phonics scheme? But try not to worry. Providing she is able to decode accurately and she isn't guessing words, the fluency will come. I would keep her at the current level for the moment and just do lots of enjoying books together and reading different texts. You can write messages for her using the phonics that she knows, or ask friends and family to write notes or letters.

At this age, there is a wide range in children's decoding, but most children tend to become fairly fluent by the end of Y1. You will probably find that it 'clicks' at some point in the next few months.

Hmm, I would say Orange band is too high for someone who isn’t fluent. How is her comprehension? Does she understand everything she reads?

I taught in Y1 last year and we always encouraged them to read the book at least twice before moving on to the next one - the first time for decoding and the second for fluency.

Echo reading can also really help - you read a sentence / paragraph first modelling where to pause and the expression you use. She then reads the same sentence after you.

I would stay on Orange but reread for fluency.

She shouldn't be on orange if she isn't fluent. I'd go back to green or blue.

My ds2 did not read 'fluently' until year 2. His reading is now 4 years ahead of his chronological age. We borrowed lots of different books for him to have a go at reading, read loads of books to him, and would take it in turns to read parts of books so I could model reading with expression and then chat about the content.

Thanks so much for all this advice - will read all of your replies now and come back and answer in a minute

@MrsKCastle I’m afraid I have no clue about the scheme! But was told it I’d levelled to ORT so I’m guessing would be modern? Not much guessing, decodes really well eg can read “fantastic” and “dolphin” without hesitation but is quite plodding when she reads through each sentence. Would be lovely if it clicks!!

@Useruseruserusee my dm suggested taking her back through the scheme this summer right from yellow As she has loved the books anyway. I think reading twice generally sounds perfect for her

Echo reading we haven’t tried but will try that - sounds like a brilliant idea

@Useruseruserusee weirdly her comprehension is really very good - was commented as exceeding in school report and she follows her big sisters bedtime stories eg narnia very well and can respond to questions and predict what might take place next. That’s why I don’t get the fluency as decoding and comprehension so good. It’s almost as though It’s not possible for her brain to both decode, process the whole sentence and then read it out - she’s sort of stuck at the word by word level. Should I be encouraging her to read the whole sentence to herself in her head before reading it out?

@lorisparkle that is so interesting and reassuring thank you! I have been mixing it up eg reading exciting bedtime stories but it’s a great idea to keep taking turns to read parts of stories

@gower4 this is what I think - I’m wondering whether a good plan might be:

Go back to the start of the books we have from the scheme which is yellow onwards and read them all again for fluency. Then it up by keeping one or two orange level bits of reading per week to keep the challenge there.

Luckily she loves reading so hopefully will be happy to reread and mix in some continued orange books

From your later posts, it sounds as though she has all of the skills but she is not quite ready to put them all together to achieve fluency. I would really not worry too much, let her keep sounding out as much as she needs to and she will get there.

Thank you for that reassuring reply. I’m just slightly stressed about messing it up while i am teacher, but logically I know it is going to come. Looking forward to handing back control in September!!

Yes, from all the later replies it just sounds like she needs some practice, she has all of the skills. Definitely nothing to worry about!

Thank you! I just reread one of the first orange books in the book scheme series with her, which she hasn’t read for 2-3 weeks and her fluency was actually reasonable for about 80% of the book. Where it wasn’t I did a mix of ‘please can you read again in your storytelling voice’ and the echo reading.

I’m going to follow all the great advice here and keep on reading.

You could play a memory matching game with some of the high frequency words that she is less secure on (I was surprised to find out that most of what we read is made up of remarkably few words). You can find a list of words on google. Sounding out can get quite boring so this could help if she does start to get fed up.

Sorry not posting about your question, just musing over inconsistencies in teacher assessments. I'm assuming your dd entered lockdown on yellow which is exactly where my grandson (I parent him) was. He hasn't made as much progress during lockdown as reading is a chore not a joy for him but he's now managing blue band books quite well. Even though he was given 'expected', on his school report expected is broken down into higher and lower and he got lower...but your daughter got exceeding. I've also read of another yellow reader getting exceeding too.

@Oilyvoir yes it’s really interesting! My dd’s teacher did say she was yellow but almost ready for blue at start of lockdown but given the lack of fluency (huge gaps between words at that point) and also that everything was still being laboriously sounded out (very little what I now know is called automaticity( I took a few weeks to move her onto blue.

What made the difference for dd I think even though fluency is definitely not what I would expect for an orange reader (or certainly not like my dd was) is that she got excited by the stories on the reading scheme. This made her really motivated to read.

I’m fascinated by the differences between my two dds - oldest very fluent even though her comprehension was lagging behind. But little dd has great comprehension but yet poorer fluency. She was also much slower to get automatic recognition on the common words like ‘this’ than older dd.

They are all so different aren’t they and I know the readers who learn fast in reception aren’t necessarily better readers by age 8 of 9!

or certainly not like my dd was) I meant or certainly not like my OLDER dd was)

@Qqwweerrtty that’s a great idea about matching games - will try that!

My daughter is older and wants to read books like famous five but isn't really there yet for fluency. I do a couple of things - I ask her to read a much easier book to her sister to practice reading fluently and with expression. I also make her read the speech while I read the descriptions which is fun, helps with expression and makes it less intense.

Give her summer off??

@bombaychef she is desperate to read and her scheme has little stories that continue from book to book. She wants to know what happens next and is begging for me to buy the next set!

@sunrainwind that sounds like a good way of doing it!

We are at exactly the same point, and my DS also doesn't want to reread books but instead read the next adventure in the series. The best way for us to work on fluency is to get him to read a "proper book" from his collection of picture books - one that he is familiar with plot-wise but isn't word perfect on. He is also used to hearing it read out loud with the right voices and expression etc, so automatically tries to do the same.
Another thing is - don't forget silent reading! By this point silent reading should be quite possible, ask your DD to read a double page spread in a reading scheme type fact book now and again and ask her to explain what it says or ask her questions on it. I found that my DS was surprisingly much worse at reading doing this, without all the little prompts of sounds and confirmations of guesses etc, and that is more the "true" reading band as the school will assess it.