Why Deal with Fluency Instruction in the Middle and High School (Or Ever)?

Tim Shanahan

Teacher question:

I just read your piece on how you would schedule reading instruction, and while it was helpful, I'd love to hear more about what that looks like at the middle school level.  Specifically, how much do you think it is the middle school English teacher’s responsibility to cover fluency? I recently attended a Science of Comprehension Symposium, and Doug Lemov shared fantastic, practical videos of secondary teachers doing wonderful whole-group fluency work. How much time should be devoted to fluency (we have an 80-minute ELA block)? 

Shanahan's response:

Great question. I’m pleased to have secondary school teachers asking, “What do we do with fluency?” instead of the traditional rejection of the idea at those grade levels. Secondary grade teachers have rarely embraced the idea of teaching fluency.

There are many reasons for this rejection. First, it seems so elementary and fundamental. Secondary teachers want to focus on using reading to explore literature, social studies, and science, not on developing basic reading skills.

Second, many have experienced fluency pushback from their students. I’m often told that teens and tweens balk at public oral reading. “They just won’t do it,” they tell me, and I believe them. Often, these teachers sympathize with the kids due to their own bad memories of such reading.

Third, the idea that oral reading practice somehow improves silent reading ability seems dubious to many teachers, despite direct evidence that it does just that (Dickens & Meisinger, 2016).

Fourth, many of these teachers have no idea of how to teach fluency. Most view it as some form of round robin reading, which they have usually been criticized for in the past. You can’t please everyone.

There are many excuses for not teaching fluency.

Consequently, this topic will be dealt with in two parts. The first will explain why fluency instruction is essential in middle school and high school. The follow-up piece will explore what fluency instruction should look like and where it fits in a secondary school curriculum.

So, the first issue to address is whether fluency instruction even makes sense in middle and high school.

Oral reading fluency and reading comprehension are closely correlated, and kids make gains in fluency each school year. But let’s drill down a bit into those statistics.

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