: How Fluency Brought Joy Back to Reading Lessons Fluency practice and well-chosen texts have brought reading back to life
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How Fluency Brought Joy Back to Reading Lessons
Fluency practice and well-chosen texts have brought reading back to life
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by Tudor Grange Research School
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Katherine Wright
Katherine is Head of Key Stage Two English at Park Side Middle School.
Park Side Middle School is participating in the Worcestershire EEF Partnership – Transforming the leadership of disadvantage and the leadership of Literacy.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that children are not reading for pleasure like they used to. The National Literacy Trust (2025) suggests that there is a worrying decline in reading for pleasure rates among 5 – 18-year-olds. These levels are at their lowest for twenty years, following a long downward trend.
Why does this matter?
Children who read for pleasure have better outcomes (Department for Education, 2012). Reading for pleasure can be a vital way to combat social exclusion and raise educational standards, yet disadvantaged pupils are more likely to report that they do not enjoy reading (Clark and Rumbold, 2006; Department for Education, 2012). Now more than ever, schools must provide the time and space for children to encounter and enjoy a range of texts. Fluent reading is the key to independent reading for pleasure, and it is a skill that can be taught explicitly.
Why change?
Rather than developing fluency or enjoyment, our reading lessons were previously focused on finding evidence and answering SATs-style questions. As a middle school, it was easy to assume that fluency practice was unnecessary beyond Key Stage 1, yet our pupils in Key Stage Two still needed to develop this skill.
As the EEF Guidance Report, Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2, notes:
"Fluency is not a stage that is completed in Key Stage 1; it continues to develop as pupils encounter more complex texts."
This aligns with reading expert Christopher Such, who explains that reading fluency “is likely to be of benefit to all pupils” (2025). Our previous model of simply reading a text and answering questions showed little evidence of leading to better reading.
The EEF has clarified that there is a “misconception that the statutory content domains, relating to ‘types’ of questions on the SATs assessments, are the aspects of domain-specific knowledge which must be explicitly modelled and taught.” (Education Endowment Foundation, 2021). Our lessons, which were focused on improving assessment technique. We needed a change that addressed the root cause: our pupils were not yet fluent enough.
Why fluency?
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) defines Fluency as
accuracy (decoding words correctly),
automaticity (recognising words quickly and without effort)
prosody (how the words are said)
When children read fluently, their cognitive resources can be redirected from focusing on decoding and onto comprehending a text. Christopher Such (2025) notes that “repeated reading supports fluency development, which in turn frees up the cognitive resources that pupils can then dedicate to comprehending the text in front of them”. Pupils have the “bandwidth” required to truly understand the story or information.
What to change?
We looked at how to engage children using a wide range of literature. In every lesson, children are presented with a well-chosen text from critically acclaimed authors across fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, that reflect our pupil’s interests.
The teacher models fluency by reading aloud while children follow along with a straight edge. They then re-read the text using strategies such as choral, echo, and whisper reading, with the teacher acting as a guide.
"Guided oral reading instruction—which involves pupils reading a text aloud with support and feedback from a teacher—can have a positive impact on reading comprehension."
The texts are chosen for enjoyment, but they also offer opportunities for children to discuss reading choices and encounter the right level of challenge. Many of these texts are now available in our library, allowing children to continue reading what they enjoyed independently.
The Department of Education (DfE) found that “An important factor in developing reading for pleasure is choice” and improving children’s attitudes to reading has been and will continue to be a goal (Department for Education, 2012).
Top Tips
Explain the why: Some children may be nervous about reading aloud or sceptical of repeated reading. With perseverance and an explanation of how it builds confidence, they quickly get on board.
Include everyone: Fluency practice is vital for all pupils, not just younger readers or striving readers. We have seen improvements filtering right through to our Key Stage Three classes.
Model first: Popcorn reading (where pupils are called on at random to read aloud) is less effective if the reading hasn’t been modelled first. It can be high-stakes and pressure individuals who lack confidence; Christopher Such (2025) comments that he has met “countless pupils who were mortified at the prospect of reading aloud.”
Teacher confidence: Teachers need to be confident and familiar with the text and feel comfortable reading the texts aloud and discussing why they have made those reading choices.
Final Thoughts
Pupil voice has been overwhelmingly positive, with many children moving away from what is “easy” and choosing more challenging books for pleasure. Teachers appreciate the space to read, rehearse, and discuss texts together. Enjoying books together is now a highlight of our school week. Our hope is now that as teachers and children get used to fluency strategies, they will be deployed in foundation subjects too, ensuring children move on to the next stage of their schooling as confident and competent readers.
How could a renewed focus on reading fluency transform the reading culture in your classroom?
