Creating Lifelong Learners » Blog Archive » Increase Reading Fluency with Fluency Timer.
I’m excited to announce that I’ve developed and released my very first software application, Fluency Timer, available now in the new Mac App Store or via my own site at: http://www.fluencytimer.net.
Fluency Timer is both a timer and a recorder that records students’ one minute fluency readings. Research has shown that having students listen to themselves reading will increase reading fluency over time. There are other voice recorders that exist but none have an integrated timer and all are too complicated for me to quickly teach students to use.
In my own classroom I have been having students read their daily reading passages into the computer and then playing it back and having them listen to themselves reading. After the initial novelty of hearing their own voices played through the computer wears off, students study the reading passage while listening and start to become cognizant of their mistakes. They ask me if they can reread the same passages over again to try and read them better. It has made reading fluency into a game so that it’s no longer tedious to practice.
