Books for Two Voices: Fluency Practice With Beginning Readers

This article discusses how to implement paired reading with developing readers to foster students’ fluency and reading comprehension. The teacher first helps students comprehend the story with focused discussion questions and the completion of a beginning, middle, and end (B-M-E) chart. Then, the teacher scaffolds students to do the oral reading through modeling, guided practice, and independent practice. Students are encouraged to use a fluency self-assessment rubric to reflect on their reading and think of ways to improve their reading. Once students are familiar with the routine, the teacher can set up a station with a variety of children's books where students can practice paired reading on their own. A bibliography of children's books is provided wherein the two main characters’ dialogue carries the majority of the story and font support is provided to aid in prosody.