Fluency is an integral skill for strong readers to be able to spend less mental capacity decoding words and more energy comprehending. Struggling readers often read disjointedly, lacking fluency and hindering their comprehension. Fluency is the bridge that connects phonics skills with a strong comprehension of text. In this course, participants will define one of the five pillars of early literacy skills, fluency, and explain how it impacts student reading success and comprehension. Participants will learn how to assess and monitor progress in reading fluency through suggested tools and rubrics. Then, participants will asynchronously develop actionable, evidence-based instructional strategies to incorporate into any literacy curriculum to build students’ reading fluency. In the culminating task, participants will assess and progress monitor students’ fluency over five weeks and write a 500-750 word reflection.

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• Identify the importance of an explicit focus on improving students' reading fluency.
• Use a variety of assessment tools to support student learning.
• Implement research-based classroom strategies to improve reading fluency and connect learning to classroom instruction.
• Develop school-home connections regarding supporting students with fluency.