Improving Reading Fluency with Precision Teaching

Are you bothered by the repetitions, hesitations, word miscalls, laborious attempts to decode words, and the painfully slow reading rate of many of your students? Not surprisingly, most remedial reading instructors and teachers of students with mild handicaps answer yes and report that the same students who have reading fluency problems also have problems comprehending what they struggle to read. But where should teachers begin? Should they attempt to improve students' ability to read fluently (i.e., to decode words rapidly), or should the focus be on improving their ability to understand what is being read? Where is precious instructional time best spent, and how can teachers be sure their instructional strategies and materials are having an impact on students' reading fluency and understanding? This article describes a set of procedures that has provided some answers to these difficult questions.