The Fluent Reader: Oral Reading Strategies for Building Word Recognition, Fluency, and Comprehension (Paperback)

by Timothy V. Rasinski (Author) "Step into any elementary or middle-school classroom around the world and you are likely to see oral reading at some point in the day..." (more)
Key Phrases: assessing word recognition, percent word recognition accuracy, oral reading instruction, The Fluent Reader, Fast Start, Overview of Oral Reading (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Oral reading strategies for building word recognition, fluency and comprehension.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic, Inc. (June 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439332087
• ISBN-13: 978-0439332088
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,936 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LIFESAVER!, August 1, 2005

By	Daria Doering (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book was a lifesaver for me, when I was thrown in with a class of middle-school students who had very poor reading skills. I used a number of the techniques described in the book, with good results: paired reading for very low readers (which I also encouraged their parents to do with them); Fluency Development Lesson for the whole class (reading poetry aloud, both whole class and in pairs); and much more. This book promotes oral reading, which I think is imperative in boosting reading skills (in contrast to my college professors, who said "never require students to read out loud"), and also gives a good, concise background on how and why oral reading fell out of favor. This book is easy to read, and gets across a lot of information in as painless a way as possible. Each chapter describes a particular technique, and then has a "(that technique) at a glance" box at the end that summarizes the information. I had looked at all the books on fluency I could find, and selected this as the best, and I recommend it without reservation. I used Jack Prelutsky's "Something Big Has Been Here" book of poetry for the Fluency Development Lesson, and it was awesome. Clever, humorous poetry that appeal to kids, but contain very sophisticated vocabulary, which became the basis of our vocabulary study.
The other two books that were part of my "reading instruction triumvirate": "Teaching Phonics and Word Study in the Intermediate Grades" by Wiley Blevins, and "Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades 6-12: a Toolkit of Activities" by Jeff Zwiers. Both indispensable.

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anyone who teaches reading must get this book!, September 19, 2004

By	Teacher who loves books "caringteacher" (AZ) - See all my reviews

I was at a workshop where dozens of books were recommended. I asked if I only want to order one book which should I get. I was told to get "The Fluent Reader". I was blown away with the great reading ideas in this book. None of these are difficult to implement, and all are well researched to work. This book is not a "cutesy" book, but great reading ideas that are clearly innovative, well-reasearched, effective, and inspiring for the children. Yes, most appear to be very fun to. The 1st chapter is rather slow, but chapters 2-6 will more than make up for the slow start.

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This changed how I teach fluency!, March 12, 2005

By	Mary Owen "Old dog with new tricks" (Salt Lake City, UT) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After teaching for many years, I didn't think one book could have the impact this book did. I look at fluency in a new light. I have always used repeated oral readings to increase fluent reading, but with more and more students, the time to listen to individual readers decreased. Mr. Rasinski has given us many new ways to bring oral reading for fluency back into a busy classroom. After using some of his ideas for only a few weeks, I had children reading orally in front of the class. This wouldn't sound so outstanding until you know these are children with very substantial learning disabilities who are reading way below grade level, until they read the poem, book or passage they have practiced many times and then... for a few minutes, they are fluent readers.