Prompting for Fluency

Although, I encourage students to reread guided reading books beginning with level A, I don’t usually prompt for fluency until level C. I want emergent readers to attend to the print, build automaticity with sight words, and take action to problem-solve at difficulty. When students reread the book on Day 2, I still ask them to point to each word. Why? I want to make sure they aren’t just memorizing the book. I once had a Reading Recovery®student tell me, “I can read this with my eyes closed.” I had to explain that it isn’t reading unless your eyes are looking at the words. Once I am certain students are attending to print and monitoring with one to one matching, I discourage pointing and say, “Read it with your eyes. You don’t need to point anymore.” I prompt them to read in phrases and to use more voice inflection.  Now that their eyes are ready to take in two or three words at a time, they are ready to read with more fluency.