Fluency Development Lesson (FDL)

 

Who?

• Fluency Development Lessons (FDL's) can be utilized at all grade levels.

• However, READ: Seventy Strategies to Support Reading Success suggested using the strategy in PreK-8. 

• This chart can be utilized with small groups or with whole group.

What?

• An FDL integrates several of the principles of effective fluency instruction within one lesson:

  • ​Modeling fluent reading

  • Giving oral support to students as they read

  • Practicing repeated readings of a text

  • Focusing on spevific prosodic elements while reading

• FDL's are daily 10-15 minute lessons designed to help students read smoothly with appropriate intonation.

• The text chosen should be short and can be in any format (e.g., poetry, charts, short stories). All students should have a copy of the text or at least be able to clearly see the text during all aspects of the lesson.

Why?

• The purpose of an FDL is to target the essential elements of fluency: speed, accuracy, and prosody.

• These minilessons involve a systematic process of modeled and practiced reading with a focus on a specific fluency element. 

When?

• FDL's should be utilized during reading.

How?

The teacher chooses a selection to be shared in the lesson. While the teacher reads, the students listen carefully and follow along silently. After the reading, the teacher and the students have a short discussion regarding elements of the reading: changes in the reader's tone, volume, pace, and so on. For example, in the poem "The Puffin" the students notice that the teacher slowed down and emphasized the words bright, blue, sea. They also notice that a change in his voice occured when the puffin "cried for awhile." Next, the students read the poem choarally as a group, paying attention to the previously discussed prosodic elements. Students then engage in repeated readings with partners, providing support and encouragment to each other. (See step-by-step instructions below)

• Conduct short, daily FDL's (five to ten minutes) rather than one longer lesson per week.

• Select a brief passage (50-200 words) to be read.

• Make individual copies of the passage for students, or make a large copy that all students can easily see and read.

• Read the passage fluently while students listen.

• Briefly discuss the passage, and point out, with the help of the students, places in the text which you read differently (e.g., louder or slower).

• Reread the passage with students paying attention to the identified "fluency points."

• Have students read the text with you, trying to mimic your reading. The reading can be done in a variety of forms (e.g. choral, antiphonal, echo).

• Have students work with a partner to practice reading, providing appropriate support, encouragement, and feedback to one another.