Protecting Early Reading Progress: Why Fluency Depends on Stability, Not Speed
Reading fluency develops through stability, not speed. Discover how to protect fragile early gains and recognise progress before it becomes measurable.

Reading fluency develops through stability, not speed. Discover how to protect fragile early gains and recognise progress before it becomes measurable.

Scope exists for disciplined innovation in schools. If schools were encouraged to extend conventional approaches to the teaching of early reading, and if this was done in a systematic, rigorous and methodical way, many children would benefit.

In this post I invite you to consider ways in which a focus on empathy can mitigate the challenges of social disadvantage and boost reading comprehension.

When a child dials their pace of reading up or down to reflect the degree that they are assimilating meaning from the text, their nuanced and flexible response is a strong indicator that their reading fluency and comprehension are in alignment.

“It’s only an hour that they have with you over the time that you come in over the six weeks and for it to be able to make, for a lot of them, up to a year’s difference in their reading ability is quite amazing really.” Year 3 teacher
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