Idea by Laura, 1^st Grade Teacher, Akron , OH

When it comes to fluency I have a few tricks. First I use the Toobaloos so the kids can actually here themselves as they are reading. It has worked wonders for my speech kids too. They hear how they say a word wrong, look at me shocked and we work together to correct ourselves.

Another trick I have done is to video tape them as they read, like they are reading a news report on the TV. They like seeing themselves, but when they hear how they sound, they work very hard to do better. When they are more fluent, we actually do classroom news and I show it on Friday afternoons. Everyone gets to participate and they work to do well so no one will be embarrassed.