Phrasing:

 

Fluent readers chunk or group words together and use slight pauses between the clusters of words to make the reading sound more natural, like talking. Some words sound natural squished together without a pause, like spaghetti and meatballs, peanut butter and jelly and birthday cake.

 

Rate:

 

Fluent readers read at a rate similar to talking. The goal is not to read as quickly as possible, but to read at a natural speaking rate. Sometimes, however, the text makes more sense when read slowly or quickly. For example, Hurry! Everyone hide or we’ll ruin the surprise! is best read quickly, while, Slowly, the snail slithered down, down, down the window is best read slowly.

 

Intonation:

 

Fluent readers put emphasis on particular words or phrases. Emphasizing different words changes the focus of the sentence.

 

Matt loves spaghetti and meatballs.

Matt loves spaghetti and meatballs.

Matt loves spaghetti and meatballs.

 

Reading fluently takes practice, practice, practice!!!