Reading fluency and comprehension

• Reading is slow and effortful despite opportunities for re-reading.
• Isn’t reading with appropriate prosody: they don’t ‘sound like a storyteller’ when they read (see the fluency rubric for further guidance)
• Can’t recognise when they haven’t understood what they have read – they don’t reread or ask for help to clarify their understanding.
• Isn’t able to answer questions about what they have read.

Based on need, some of this provision will be effective.

• Frequent, regular reading practice is essential for children and young people who are finding it hard to make the transition from ‘sounding out and blending’ to reading fluently. Within individual or small group reading sessions:
  • provide ‘expert modelling’ of fluent reading.
  • model and practise text marking to support prosody.
  • incorporate choral reading and echo reading to provide opportunities for children and young people to hear themselves reading fluently. Video clips to support staff in teaching fluency can be found on the Research Schools Network website.
• Use evidence-based interventions to develop both fluency and comprehension, for example The Reading Fluency Project is an evidence-based, teacher-led, eight-week group intervention (years 2 to 8), with impact achieved in both fluency and comprehension.
• Teach strategies that support comprehension as part of a small group – for example, through inference training. Most effective when the child or young person is reading fluently (accurately, automatically, and with good prosody), but there are persistent concerns about their understanding of what they have read.
• Provide small group pre-teaching of the vocabulary and background knowledge needed to understand the texts used in class. A wealth of resources to support the teaching of vocabulary is available on the NAPLIC website. Video clips of teaching vocabulary in a secondary school can be found on the Research Schools network website.
• Provide a reading ruler, if the child or young person feels that this makes reading easier. The SpLD team advises that yellow and blue are the best colours to try first.

Support services

• The Devon English Team
• Devon’s Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) Team
• Devon’s Educational Psychology Service

Further reading and information

• Understanding and assessing fluency | Reading Rockets
• The fluency rubric
• NAPLIC resources for Pre-Teaching Vocabulary (PTV)
• Devon’s guidance on understanding children and young people with literacy difficulties
• What Works for Literacy Difficulties? – a database of interventions
• The reading framework
• Resources to develop fluency | EEF
• The Reading House – EEF
• NASEN webinar – Whole class reading
• Devon School Library Service’s recommended book lists
• Apps to support children and young people with literacy difficulties

Ideas and resources to share with parents

• Reading at home (tips from the SpLD team)
• Share books with your child or young person every day. Read to them, following the text with your finger as you do. Tips for reading with your child |BookTrust
• Help your child to read their school reading book as often as possible – ideally every day.
• Encourage your child to think about what they are reading: 7 tips to help kids understand what they read
• Devon library service
• Getting children reading | BookTrust
• Reading Tips From Kids | Reading Rockets