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Fluency and Word Recognition

Have you ever timed your child reading a passage and counted how many words he/she has read in one minute?  It may surprise you.  Comprehension of a passage depends on reading at a fast enough pace to remember what has been read.  Good readers are able to accurately and quickly know a word so they can focus on making meaning while they read, instead of spending time sounding out word after word.

 I encourage you to have your child read aloud from their reading textbook or another book that is close to his/her reading level.  Follow along as he/she reads.  The words need to be read accurately. That is, if the word in the book is walk, then your child should read walk (not walked or walking). 

How do I help my child read quickly and accurately?  I suggest starting with the vocabulary list that is at the beginning of each story in our reading textbooks. Choose books that your child is able to read.  You may also look at the Dolch word list at this website: http://www.dolch-words.com/dolch.html. Two more great places to look are the Jan Brett website: Jan Brett Dolch Word List main and the Harcourt the Learning Site (K-8) http://www.harcourtschool.com/index.html.

How many words should my child be reading per minute? The numbers vary by grade level as well as the difficulty of the reading passages.  Here are some guidelines you can follow for the end of each grade level:

First grade:  40 words per minute

Second grade: 90 words per minute

Third grade:  110 words per minute

Fourth - Sixth grade: 110-150 words per minute

I hope this information is helpful to you. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at knuthv@dvsd.org.

Sincerely,

Victoria Knuth

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