Fluency Without Foundation: Why Rushing Ahead Fails!

Imagine a student reading aloud, stumbling over words, rushing to keep up with the pace, but missing the meaning of every sentence. The teacher is pushing for fluency, but the student doesn’t have the foundational skills to decode or comprehend the text. This scenario is far too common in classrooms where the race to fluency begins too early.

Fluency, while essential, cannot be the starting point. Fluency is the culmination of a strong foundation in reading skills—skills that most students lack when they first arrive at school. In fact, many children are missing the critical first steps of phonological awareness, and when teachers skip directly to phonemic awareness, students are left behind, struggling to make sense of words and sounds.

Fluency: What It Is and Why It Matters

Fluency refers to the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with appropriate expression. Fluent readers don’t have to stop to sound out every word; instead, they can focus on understanding the text, connecting ideas, and thinking critically about what they read. This connection between fluency and comprehension is essential—without fluency, reading becomes laborious, and comprehension suffers.

But fluency isn’t just about speed. It’s about understanding. And before students can become fluent, they need to build strong foundational skills that allow them to decode and make sense of language.

The Essential Building Blocks of Fluency

Before fluency can be achieved, several key literacy skills must be in place, starting with phonological awareness, which includes more than just phonemic awareness.

Phonological Awareness: The Foundation That Cannot Be Rushed

Phonological awareness is a broad skill that involves recognizing and working with the sounds in spoken language. It includes the ability to hear and manipulate larger parts of spoken language such as rhymes and syllables, as well as the more specific skill of phonemic awareness, which focuses on individual sounds (phonemes) in words.

Many teachers start with phonemic awareness—the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds. However, students who lack the first three levels of phonological awareness are often lost. These early levels are the most cognitively challenging for students. They must be able to abstract a beginning sound from a spoken word and compare it with the beginning sound of other words. This ability is referred to as "decentration," a term coined by Piaget to describe the cognitive process of considering two aspects of a situation at the same time.

Research shows that struggling readers are slow to develop decentration abilities (Lavert, 2005), which delays their phonemic awareness development. Some students can analyze sounds naturally, but many more struggle to distinguish even the three sounds in words like "cat" (/k/a/t/) or "sit" (/s/i/t/).

For students who haven’t developed these skills at home, the task of becoming phonemically aware is daunting. It is essential that teachers and parents work together to build these early phonological awareness skills, or fluency will remain out of reach.

Phonics: Understanding the Relationship Between Letters and Sounds

Phonics instruction teaches students how letters correspond to sounds and how to use this knowledge to decode and spell words. Phonics builds on phonemic awareness and is crucial for fluency development. If students don’t have a strong grasp of phonics, they cannot decode words automatically, making fluent reading difficult.

Vocabulary and Comprehension: Expanding Word Knowledge

Fluency is not just about speed; it requires a strong vocabulary. The more words students know, the more quickly they can recognize and understand them when reading. Vocabulary and comprehension go hand-in-hand, as students must understand the words in a text to read fluently with expression. Without comprehension, fluency is superficial.

Why Rushing to Fluency Fails

Rushing into phonemic awareness or fluency without first developing the earlier stages of phonological awareness can leave students confused and discouraged. Many struggling readers find it difficult to develop decentration—the ability to focus on two aspects of language at once. This cognitive challenge slows down the development of phonemic awareness, making it harder for them to recognize and manipulate sounds in words.

Some students develop these skills naturally through active home dialogue, where caregivers read to them, mediate pronunciation, and explain how letters form words. These students often excel in early reading and fall into the "A+" category of readers. However, many other students arrive at school with weaker language readiness. In some cases, children face additional barriers such as dyslexia, which makes phonological awareness even more challenging.

The Role of Parents in Teaching Phonological Awareness

For many students, phonological awareness skills need to be developed at home before they enter school. Children who are exposed to rich language experiences at home—where caregivers read to them, discuss sounds and words, and encourage early language play—are far more likely to succeed in early reading.

Students who come from homes with strong phonological readiness often have a significant advantage in the classroom. Their ability to abstract sounds and compare them, as Piaget’s concept of decentration describes, sets them on the path to fluency. Conversely, students who lack these early experiences may struggle to grasp even basic phonemic tasks.

Actionable Tips for Building Fluency Foundations

To ensure that all students can achieve fluency, educators and parents need to work together to build the necessary skills. Here are some practical strategies:

• For Parents: Engage children in sound play by reading rhyming books, clapping out syllables in words, and practicing blending sounds. Talk about the sounds of words in everyday conversations, pointing out how letters represent different sounds.
• For Teachers: Begin with phonological awareness activities before moving into phonemic awareness. Use sound games, rhymes, and syllable work to strengthen students’ ability to hear and manipulate sounds.
• Phonics and Vocabulary: Provide systematic phonics instruction, focusing on letter-sound relationships. Expand students' vocabulary by reading aloud and discussing new words.
• Comprehension: Encourage students to ask questions, make predictions, and summarize what they read. Fluency is not just about reading quickly—it’s about understanding the text.

Fluency and Comprehension: A Deeper Connection

Fluency without comprehension is like a shell without substance. True fluency comes from understanding the text. Students who are rushed into reading quickly may miss the deeper meaning, losing the opportunity to engage critically with the text. Fluency and comprehension must be developed together, as students need both to become proficient readers.

Conclusion

Fluency is a crucial part of reading proficiency, but it cannot be achieved without building a solid foundation first. Rushing into phonemic awareness or focusing solely on fluency leaves students at risk of frustration and failure. By focusing on phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension, educators and parents can provide students with the tools they need for reading success. Let’s ensure that every child builds a strong foundation—because fluency is not the goal until the groundwork is in place.

Reference

Lavert, G., Phonemic Awareness: The Foundation for Reading Success(A Manual for Balanced Reading Instruction (Cognitive Pathways to Reading Achievement), IRI, 2005.

Lavert, G., Words, Words, Words: The Fluency Framework(A Manual for Balanced Reading Instruction (Cognitive Pathways to Reading Achievement), IRI, 2005.