Overview
MindPlay Reading Fluency enhances students' silent reading fluency by developing essential skills like visual scanning across the page and automatic word recognition. Students progress from visual scanning and high-frequency word matching to reading connected text smoothly.
Placement
The Universal Screener determines the student’s initial independent reading level, which sets the starting point for the Reading Fluency component. To ensure success and build confidence, students begin the fluency stories at one grade level below their screener-determined independent reading level (ex., if the Independent Reading Level is 4.5, Fluency will start at 3rd grade).
When students enter the story-reading activity for the first time, they are assigned four stories at the screener-determined reading level. If the student does not pass any of these four stories, the system automatically adjusts the fluency level down by one additional grade level to better match their current needs.
Student Map
The student map is locked until students complete the first fluency practice of the day.
Students will have the option to do one additional fluency practice for every lesson they master in a day.
There are two ways to earn a check on the Fluency Widget:
- The completion of a fluency practice.
- The completion of an assigned comprehension lesson.
Note: The fluency widget resets every week.
Fluency Activity Sequence
Visual Scanning
Visual Scanning activities build focus, stamina, and automaticity to support fluent reading. Students start by tracking a target shape moving left to right, gradually progressing to more complex tasks with added distractors and eventually target numbers. Students count how many times the target appears. As students improve, they advance through levels, where tasks become more challenging and closely simulate reading demands.
Choose a Story
Students begin each fluency activity by selecting a story that interests them, allowing for a more personalized reading experience. This choice helps engage students by aligning the content with their interests, which can improve motivation and focus. By reading material they find appealing, students are more likely to stay invested in their fluency practice, making the learning process enjoyable and effective.
Word Match
Stories below grade 5 include a Story Word Match activity to ensure students have the reading skills for the assigned story level before they begin. This activity presents words from the story and the Fry Sight Words list to support fluency and word recognition.
Question Preview
Reading faster is only beneficial if a student comprehends the material. Before beginning the story, students are shown the questions they’ll answer afterward, simulating the process of reading for information—an essential skill in standardized tests and many real-life scenarios.
Fluency Passage
There are two types of reading activities: single-line and multi-line. Both present a story to the student, but the text is displayed differently.
Single-Line Reading Activity
Only one line of the story is visible at a time, with the visible section moving from left to right at the student’s individualized word rate. As each line is completed, the following line appears in the same position, and the tracking continues—line by line—until the whole story has been presented.
Multi-Line Reading Activity
The Multi-Line Reading activity displays several lines of text at once, allowing students to practice reading with a broader visual span. Words gradually fade out at the target reading rate, prompting students to scan left to right and down the page, reinforcing fluent, continuous reading.
