Rapid Word Chart

One of our favorite fluency activities is the Rapid Word Chart. There are so many ways to use this quick strategy to help increase fluency in beginning readers up to adults! It is sometimes overlooked or forgotten about. Don’t forget that you can laminate this chart to have new words each week. You could also just continue to add to the pile of Rapid Word Charts so you can revisit any of the concepts at any time. This will help students with the automaticity of words.  Students should practice reading these words so that they are not sounding them out, but simply reading them fluently.

Check out some of the many ways to use this chart:

• Fill the chart randomly with different letters and have students rapidly name the sounds and letters or just sounds.

• Choose four phonetic words that focus on your new concept of the week.  Fill the chart up randomly with these words. Incorporate a smiley face in each line. When your student gets to the smiley face, they should clap once. Start by having them read one line at a time. Then do two lines, three lines, etc., until they are reading the whole page. You can also fill the chart with five words of the same concept or twenty different words with the same concept:

• Choose five Red Words or twenty different Red Words. Fill the page randomly with these five or twenty words. Have students read each line.