A Poem of the Week to Build Fluency

Many struggling readers feel discouraged when reading aloud because they have difficulty decoding the words.  However, oral reading is an essential component of building reading fluency.

Poems are the perfect tool to help your student become excited about reading aloud.  Poetry is filled with rhyme, rhythm and repetition, which helps a student build fluency naturally.  Students can sometimes anticipate the words that are coming next.  Implementing a poem of the week with your student is easy.  You may want to consider the following quick steps:

1. First, find a poem!  There are several poetry books available at John Paterson's library, as well as Lucy Robbins Welles Library.  Poems can also be found at the following websites:

http://www.poetryteachers.com/schoolpoems/schoolpoems.html

http://www.gigglepoetry.com/


2. Pick a time and place to read your poem.  If the poem is in a book, you may want to keep it on a nightstand to read before bed.  If it is a printed piece of paper, the refridgerator is a great place.  Creating this routine helps your student know what to expect.

3. Practice, practice, practice! Have the student read the poem aloud 2 or 3 times every day for a week.  You will notice that throughout the week, your student is not only reading the poem quicker, but that he or she is reading the words more accurately and with improved expression.  To make sure this happens, it helps to point out things that you want your child to work on the next day when reading it.  (For example, if your student reads all the words correctly, but isn't reading it with enthusiasm, you may want to tell them that tomorrow you are going to focus just on reading with expression.)

There are so many entertaining poems out there for children.  Find the right ones and your children will enjoy reading aloud and their oral reading will improve!

We hope this helps!  Let us know if you have any questions!