K-6 Fluency Rubric for Prosody – Common Core State Standard, Reading Foundational Skills #4
4 3 2 1
(At Grade Level)
¥5
Reads with great expression
and Volume
Expression
Shows enthusiasm throughout
the text
Varies expression and volume to
match his/her interpretation of
the passage
Generally reads with good
phrasing
(Within Sentences)
Adheres to punctuation stress
Phrasing
and intonation
Adequate attention to phrasing
for expression
Reads smoothly with some
breaks but word and structure
Smoothness
(Whole Text)
difficulties are resolved
Reads with no or rare breaks
since difficulties are resolved
quickly most often through self-
correction
Consistently reads at a
conversational pace
Pace
throughout the reading
*This Fluency Rubric for Prosody should be used when students are approaching grade-level accuracy and automaticity levels.
(Almost At Grade Level)
Makes text sound like natural
language for most of the passage
Occasionally reads with
enthusiasm
Generally, voice volume is
appropriate
Reads with a mixture of run-ons
Mid-sentence pauses for breath
and some choppiness
Reasonable stress and intonation
Reads with occasional breaks in
rhythm
Reads larger more meaningful
phrases
Reads with occasional breaks in
smoothness that are the result of
difficulties with specific words
Maintains an inconsistent pace
(fast and slow) throughout the
reading
Modified June, 2015, from Rasinski, R. (2004). Creating Fluent Readers. Educational Leadership, 61, 14-18.
(Approaching Grade
Level)
Begins to make text sound
like natural language
Focus remains largely on
pronouncing words
Reads in a quiet voice
Reads in two or three word
phrases resulting in choppy
reading
Does not adhere to
punctuation, stress, and
intonation (fails to mark ends
of sentences and clauses)
Reads with extended pauses
or hesitations
Reads with frequent breaks in
smoothness which are the
result of difficulties with
specific words
Reads slowly
(Below Grade Level)
Seldom or never makes text
sound like natural language
Reads words just to get them
out—robotically
Reads in some or mostly in
an inaudible voice
Reads word by word in a
monotone voice
Exhibits no sense of
phrasing or expression
Frequently hesitates while
reading, sounds out words,
and repeats words or phrases
Reads with frequent
extended pauses, hesitations,
false starts, sound outs, and
repetitions
Reads slowly and
laboriously
 surprised about the smoothness this
• was overall
student presented when reading the passage
• student read with little choppiness or pauses ,

paused for all punctuation

•
as student who was said to be struggling he read
.

passage very well

• areas for
improvement : expression /volume & pacing
• believe their issues are linked to

not knowing some words

Assessment report

Dear Parent/Guardian,

Hi there! I recently conducted a fluency test regarding reading with your

student and wanted to share their results. Your student has many strengths, but

also some weaknesses that we will be working on in order to improve their reading

skills. This letter will also detail what we will be doing in the classroom in order to

improve their reading skills.

Your student’s expression and volume skills are lacking. They have little

varying pitch or stresses in order to project any expression. Their rhythm and tone

are also lacking as they sometimes labor on words. They also often read in a quiet

voice, as they may not be very confident in the words they are saying. This is where

I believe this issue stems from, due to the fact that they are still focussing heavily

on the decoding of words.

Your student has good phrasing skills. This is how well your student reads

words within a sentence structure. Your student reads with a mixture of run-ons

and sometimes pauses for a breath. But they use punctuation in order to cue their

reading very well and have good strategic pausing skills. This is an area that your

student excels in and is not a focus of the activities that I will be doing with them.

Your student’s overall smoothness of the text is very good. Although they

labored for some words, they were able to get through the majority of them as they

self-corrected many times. They read with occasional breaks in rhythm which I
believe are to be due to their lack of vocabulary knowledge and decoding skills.

Your student paused at all appropriate punctuation, which added to their overall

smoothness in reading the text.

Your student’s pacing is also lacking a bit, as they often read slowly. As all of

the other categories link back to a lack of decoding skills, I believe this one does as

well. With some more practice in this area, your student should be able to improve

their pacing skills as well.

Overall, I have rated your student’s reading skills as a 2 which is approaching

grade level. The reading they were supplied with was meant to be a reading which

was on the easier side for a 4th grade level, however, they still struggled on multiple

words. They were rated a 2 in expression and volume, a 3 in phrasing, a 3 in

smoothness, and a 2 in pace. They were overall rated a 2 because they are closer to

below grade level than above grade level.

Here are the two major goals I plan to reach with your student:

Improvement in expression and volume. This is the skill that makes your

student read with life in their voice and no longer read in a monotone way. This is

important to reading fluently because it makes the reading come alive for students.

If there is no expression while reading, it would all be very boring. To help with

your student’s expression and volume skills, I will use an activity called Read Like a

Storyteller. With this activity, I will model for your student what reading with

expression looks and sounds like, we will practice it together, and your student will
do it on their own. I plan to do this with multiple passages. The best thing you can

do to help with this skill is to read with them and to read with inflection and

expression in your voice. Read as if you are narrating the story and have your

student do it with you.

Improvement in decoding skills. This is the skill that allows students to read

more quickly and with more accuracy. Decoding is referring to sounding out the

words. If a student has good decoding skills, they are able to read a word and its

individual letters and sounds quickly, even if they are unsure of what it means. This

is the skill I want to work the most on with your student as I feel this will help with

most of their other reading skills as well. For this skill, I chose an activity called

Think, “Have I Seen It on the Word Wall?” This activity engages with a “word wall”

(shown here as just a word sheet) where the words which may be more difficult to

read are pulled from the text where they can be read in isolation from the

surrounding words in the text. This can help students because they will no longer

be focused on the sentence or the words around the word they are having issues

with, but rather they are just focused on that single word. The best thing you can

do to help with this skill is to engage in pre-reading with your student. By doing

this, you would go through the story before actually reading it and search for words

that may be more difficult. Have your student look as well and have them attempt

to pronounce the words they may be unfamiliar with. Help them when necessary.

Word count: 837

 EDU 443 Fluency Intervention Lesson Plan
Name: Amanda Yoder Grade Level: 4th
Target Content/Lesson Topic: expression/volume and decoding Date: 10/3/21

Planning
State Learning Standards RF.4.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
Identify relevant grade level standards • Use combined knowledge of all letter-sound correspondences, syllabication patterns, and morphology (e.g.,
and Learning Outcomes from the State roots and affixes) to read accurately unfamiliar multisyllabic words in context and out of context.
Content Learning Standards, Common
Core Standards, and school learning
outcomes.
Learning Targets/Objectives LT: I can identify and pronounce words more fluently and with automaticity using my decoding skills.
What should the students know or be LT: I can use my improved decoding skills in order to read with better expression and volume.
able to do after the instruction? Use a
common format with a measurable verb LO: SWBAT identify and pronounce words more fluently and with automaticity using their decoding skills.
that matches the cognitive domain LO: SWBAT use improved decoding skills in order to read with better expression and volume.
standard. This should be a small piece of
the standard stated in measurable
terms.
Grouping As this would be individual intervention with student as they increase their automaticity skills, there would be
Describe how and why students will be no grouping involved.
divided into groups, if applicable
(homogeneous, heterogenous, random /
based on ability, interest, social
purposes, etc.)
Differentiation As this would be individual intervention with student as they increase their automaticity skills, there would be
If either or both lessons are whole class, no differentiation involved.
how is the lesson(s) differentiated for
the focal student?
Assessment
Assessment I will re-assess student using the same reading passage after I have had intervention with student. Once I see
How will students demonstrate that the improvement, I will provide them with passages of increasing difficulty in order to measure their
focal student is making progress in improvements.
toward their fluency goals?

1

Minilesson One -- Read Like a
Storyteller
1. Introduction (including setting
expectations and establishing
procedures and instructions)
2. Activate/Connect To Prior
Knowledge
3. Fluency Activity (including
modeled, guided, and independent
practice, as needed)
Minilesson Two -- Think, “Have I
Seen It on the Word Wall?”
Introduction (including setting
expectations and establishing
procedures and instructions)
1. Activate/Connect To Prior
Knowledge
2. Fluency Activity (including
modeled, guided, and independent
practice, as needed)
**this would take place during
individual reading time I would have
with student. may need to be adapted to
a “word sheet” instead of a “word wall”
Instruction
Intro
I would tell my student that today we would be using our “narrator” voice in order to read our passage with
more expression. I would ask my student if they ever felt as though they were just saying the words, not
actually reading them like a narrator would?
Activate/Connect prior knowledge
I would ask my student if they had ever watched a movie where there was a narrator? I would ask them if that
made the story more interesting or if it made it more boring? They would hopefully tell me that it made the
movie more interesting, as most narrators do.
Activity
Modeled
I would display the difference for my student. I would read one sentence with no expression and the next with
a lot of expression so they can hear and see the difference between the two.
Guided
I would next ask my student to switch off with me when reading. I read one sentence with expression and they
read the next sentence with the same level of expression as I just did.
Independent
Student will read passage on their own, this would likely be a passage that they have no issues with decoding
the various words. They will read with appropriate expression in order to increase their confidence.
Intro
I would tell my student how today we would be using our “word wall” today to help us with our reading. I
would ask the student if there was ever a word that they felt looked familiar, but they couldn’t figure out how it
made sense in the sentence they’re reading?
Activate/Connect prior knowledge
I would tell them that this would be a good time to look at the “word wall” we have in the classroom where
words are just words, they aren’t in sentences. By using the word wall, I would tell them that they would more
easily be able to read those words aloud in the passage. Whenever they hear me snap, they know it’s time that
they pause for a minute in order to look at the word wall.
Activity
Modeled
I would model for them myself reading a passage and stopping at a word that I didn’t know. I would look for
the word on the word wall and when I find it, I read it as it is in the passage and continue on.
Guided
2

Instructional Materials,
Equipment and Technology
List equipment or technology that needs
to be available. Attach a copy of ALL
materials the teacher and students will
use during the lesson; e.g., handouts,
questions to answer, overheads,
PowerPoint slides, worksheets.
I would read a passage and stop at a word that I didn’t know. I would remind the student to make a snap noise
with me to say that I should take a look at the word wall. I would ask the student to help me in finding the
word that I don’t know. When we find it, I say it and continue reading the passage.
Independent
This is where I would allow the student to read the passage on their own. When they pause on a word as if
they don’t know it, I would snap. This would be their cue to look at the word wall in order to find their word.
When they find it, they should say it and then continue on with the reading. Would assist student where they
need it.
Reading passages of increasing difficulty -- included
(https://mrswarnerarlington.weebly.com/fluency-practice.html)
“Word wall” (in this lesson, I have 3 “word sheets” to represent the word wall -- included)
3
 #
I
Name passage average difficulty Date
-
-

Summer Camping
Last summer, Tony and his brother went camping with
their mom. They drove around the park for a long time. Finally,
they found the perfect campsite. They decided to set up camp on a
quiet spot surrounded by tall trees.
Their tent was shaped like an igloo. It was big enough for
the three of them. It was made of thin red nylon cloth. It had a door
that zipped and unzipped as they went in and out. It also had three
windows covered with netting. There were lots of bugs in the
woods. The windows stopped the bugs from coming in.
For cooking, they had a little stove. Mom set the stove at
the end of a picnic table. Finally, they were ready for their first
picnic under the trees. They had a tasty meal of barbecued chicken
and boiled corn. Then the boys helped clean up.
When it got dark, they made a fire. They toasted some
marshmallows, told stories, and sang songs. It was nice to be
together under the stars.

1. What is the story mostly about?

2. What did Tony and his family do when it got dark?

© Macmillan/McGraw-Hill

184 • Fluency Assessment • Grade 4

word sheet for passage # 1

camping
campsite
igloo
nylon
cloth
tasty
barbecued
songs
 maybe difficult
#
Name passage 2 Date
-
-

A Special Honor
Sometimes, many people admire a person. They want to
honor that person. One way to honor a person is to put
picture on a stamp.
The United States printed its first postage stamp in 1847.
The first five-cent stamp showed Benjamin Franklin. The first
ten-cent stamp showed George Washington.
Stamps honor all kinds of people. They honor artists and
writers. They honor soldiers and teachers. Do you have sports
heroes? How about people in music? They may be on stamps.
Anyone can ask the Post Office to honor someone with a
stamp. Is there someone you would like to honor? Write a letter.
Send the letter to the Postmaster General. Give the person’s full
name. Tell when the person was born. Also, tell when the person
died. The person cannot be alive. Tell why you admire the person.
A group of citizens reads the letters. They may have to read
thousands of them. The group talks about the people. They tell the
Postmaster what they think. He or she picks the person.
Who knows? It will take at least three years. But perhaps
your person will be chosen for a stamp.

1. What is the passage mainly about?

2. How are people chosen for the special stamps?
© Macmillan/McGraw-Hill

196 • Fluency Assessment • Grade 4

word sheet for passage # 2

admire perhaps
honor
Franklin
Washington
soldiers
heroes
Office
citizens
thousands
Postmaster
 #
Name passage 3 -
-

most difficult Date

Plant Art
Topiary is a garden art. The artists do not use paintbrushes.
They use clippers. To make a topiary sculpture, the artist cuts away
leaves and twigs. After a lot of clipping and trimming, a shape
will form.
The shape might be a ball. It might be a cone. It might be
an animal. It might look like a bear or lion. It might be shaped like
a seal.
Some animal shapes are made with wire frames. First, the
artist puts a plant into dirt at the foot of the frame. Then, the plant
grows up over the wire. After a long time, the plant covers the
wire. The artist now trims it to look like an animal.
Topiary artists use many different kinds of plants. They use
ivy and box hedges. Some even use daisy bushes. The kinds of
plants that work best are thick with leaves. The leaves hide the
branches. That way the shape is leafy green.
You can practice this old art. Many garden shops sell wire
frames. You can choose from a variety of shapes.
Today, you may see big green sheep at a shopping center.
You may see a green horse at a hotel. Think about how much time
an artist has spent making these animals.

1. What is this article mostly about?

2. What kinds of shapes do topiary artists create?
© Macmillan/McGraw-Hill

212 • Fluency Assessment • Grade 4

word sheet for passage1+3

topiary
paintbrushes
sculpture
clipping
trimming
practice
variety
shopping
Reflection

I have really enjoyed this time that we have spent assessing and teaching

fluency because it is likely something that I will often deal with when I start

teaching elementary school. The advantages I see to this is being able to see which

students need less help and more extensions versus the other students who just

need more help. Using the fluency rubric is also very helpful because it shows you

based on their skills what level they are at. Some of the challenges I see to this is

that some students may not exactly fit in the categories. On one side, maybe they’re

way higher than grade level and on the other side, there will be students who are

far below grade level. And there will be some students who are in between some of

the levels. This was an issue I had with the student I fluency tested. I felt like they

were really in between the levels and I had to decide if they were closer to a 4 or a 1.

I had a good experience assessing my student’s fluency. He was actually

pretty excited to do it and even asked me what it was for after. I told him I had to

make a lesson and it was going to be all about how he read the passage. He read the

passage way better than I thought he would and I did tell him he did very well,

because he did do very well compared to the expectations that I (unfortunately) had

for him. Ever since I did the fluency assessment on him, he has seemed more

responsive to me.

I do think that there is validity in assessing oral reading fluency, as there is

also great validity in just listening to your students read. However, I am not sure
how much I will do it in actuality due to all of the other things I’m sure I’ll need to

be doing with my students. While I will undoubtedly have interventions with my

students, I think that rating the different aspects of their oral reading fluency will

not be on the top of my list as things to test my students on. So, while I question

the practicality, I applaud its purpose in improving students’ reading.

Word count: 381