A child is able to read a text fluently when she is familiar with it. Repeated readings of the same piece of text gives the child a chance to learn the difficult words. She learns to anticipate the structure of the text so she's better able to read it in a flowing manner instead of stumbling over the words. With each reading, the child gains more confidence in her reading, which may help her as she approaches new passages. She also becomes familiar with words she is likely to see in other books at the same reading level.
Reading with an adult or another student who reads fluently gives the child a model of how fluent reading should sound. She also gets to hear the difficult words in the passage so she is able to read them on her own. One option is to have the stronger reader go through the text first while the struggling reader listens. She then gets a turn to read the text. Another option is to read the passage together. The adult or student partner should let the struggling reader set the pace. Otherwise she will likely fall behind and mumble or get lost in the text.
A recorded version of a story gives the child a guide for fluency and allows a child to practice independently at any time. She hears all of the words as she listens to the recording, which helps her figure out the words that she doesn't recognize on her own. She also gets to hear the expression in the taped reader's voice. Libraries often have books on tape for elementary grade levels. Another option is to record your own books on tape. Read the book, using your most fluent voice, while recording. An ideal rate is approximately 80 to 100 words per minute, according to Reading Rockets. To check the word rate, play the tape for one minute. Mark how far the recording goes in the text. Count the number of words up to that point.
A child is better able to read fluently if she has a command of basic sight words for her reading level. Incorporating sight word practice into the classroom expands her bank of words that she recognizes without decoding. Play games, such as sight word bingo, matching games and building words with letter cards, so those words are familiar in text. Another word activity to improve fluency is to focus on clusters of words. Part of fluency is the flow between words instead of reading in a choppy voice one word at a time. By writing chunks of a text on a sentence strip or a white board, the kids get used to reading the whole phrase together. Poems work well since they are naturally broken up into shorter lines, according to Scholastic. This practice gets the students in the habit of reading sections of a sentence in one flowing phrase.