You may have heard your student talk about fluency testing at school. Fluency testing is a brief literacy assessment that helps us understand how smoothly and naturally your child is developing foundational reading skills. Fluency is composed of 3 different parts; accuracy, rate and expression.
Accuracy
This means your child reads the words correctly.
If a child is constantly stopping to sound out or misreading words, it’s harder for them to understand what they’re reading.
Think of this as “getting the words right.”
Rate (Speed)
This is how fast or slow your child reads.
- Too slow → They may forget what the sentence was about.
- Too fast → They may skip words or miss meaning.
We’re looking for a comfortable, conversational pace.
Think of this as “not too slow, not too fast.”
Expression
This is how the reading sounds.
Does your child:
- Pause at commas and periods?
- Change their voice for questions?
- Show excitement or emotion in dialogue?
When reading sounds like talking, it shows deeper understanding.
Think of this as “reading with feeling.”
How will my student be tested?
Depending on the grade level, students may read letter names, letter sounds, or a grade-level passage aloud for one minute while a teacher listens and records responses. This allows us to measure accuracy and speed which are important skills that support overall reading comprehension. Fluency testing helps us identify strengths, monitor growth over time, and determine if additional support or enrichment is needed to ensure every student continues to grow as a confident and capable reader.
How Parents Can Help at Home
- Have your child read aloud for 10–15 minutes daily
- Reread favorite books (repeated reading builds fluency!)
- Model expressive reading
- Echo read (you read a sentence, they repeat it)
- Listen to audiobooks while following along in the text
