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FAQ: What about fluency?

Is reading "round robin" style effective in building fluency and comprehension?

The short answer is "no". It has been a long standing practice to have students read out loud, taking turns "round robin" reading for decades. That style of teaching has been shown to be ineffective and is not recommended in The Read Side by Side Reading Program.

Round Robin Reading (1200 x 630 px)

Timothy Shanahan, an internationally recognized professor and reading researcher, explains why in his article "Is Round Robin Reading Really That Bad?"

In the Read Side by Side program, it is important that the read aloud text be read out loud by the classroom teacher, the most fluent reader in the classroom. This allows for students to hear strong fluency modeled for them that they can then transfer into their own reading. The time spent reading out loud for fluency during round robin reading is quite minimal, only about 1-2 minutes per child in a 30 minute lesson. The rest of the time students are listening to less than fluent readers. This is not enough time to have them practice their fluent reading skills, nor does it provide appropriate modeling of the skill.

In The Read Side by Side Reading Program we recommend students practice a paragraph or a page in their book club book (see the Must Do/May Do list) and then read it out loud to the teacher or their reading partner, or practice with a partner using the Dyad reading strategy, or read one on one with an adult.

Round robin reading also does not work well for improving comprehension. Unfortunately, during round robin reading, students are often not fully paying attention to what other students are reading. According to Shanahan, "by grade 4 students should be doing most of their reading for comprehension silently, not orally." Students in grade 4 are not very good at this yet, so this is a skill that needs to be taught. 

The Read Side by Side Reading Program is designed for the transfer of skills. The oral nature of the read aloud and its accompanying skills practice and modeling prepares students to successfully navigate the book club portion of the program when they are reading their books silently. 

This intentional hugging between the read aloud and the book clubs provides the scaffolding students need to move from being able to comprehend only when reading out loud to being able to comprehend well when reading silently. This is a skill necessary to create life-long readers. For students who still need more support with this skill, interventions are provided in the Assessment & Intervention Guide.

While round robin reading might be a technique teachers are familiar and comfortable with, it does not support continued success for our students in reading or other content areas.Therefore, it is important to transition away from that practice and implement new, more research based practices, such as those found in The Read Side by Side Reading Program.