Here is a short video (8 minutes in length) that I made to do some fluency training with teachers and tutors. When a student reads a sentence, the goal is not speed, but an aspect of fluency called prosody. Intonation, stress, and rhythm are all features of prosody.
You will see some of the following demonstrated in this video:
1. Please remember to practice prosody with a sentence containing words that the student has already been taught. So, for example, do not have them read words that have silent-e in them if the student has not already explicity been taught the concept of silent-e.
When a student reads a word correctly, I like to give immediate praise even if it is just a small “yes” or “mmm-hmm” so that they know they got it correct and they can move on.
Often, I will say the word out loud after they have read it so they can hear it once again and they know that they read it correctly.
Once they read all the words in a phrase correctly, then have them go back and read the entire phrase again. If they miss any of the words, have them read the entire phrase again and again until it becomes more fluent. Then you can have them go to the next phrase to figure out what that phrase says. Then have them read that phrase a few times until it is fluent. Once all phrases have been read a few times correctly, then you can have them read the whole sentence all together a few times until fluent.
After they have read the entire sentence (or sentences) then you can model good prosody. Read it to them and tell them you are using good expression and you want them to try to make it sound the same.
Have the student put a line after the Who (or subject), the Did What (or verb/action), and the When/Where/Why. Then they will read the sentence with a slight pause after each line that they drew. You may need to model this concept if it is a new practice for your student.
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