Building Reading Fluency & Expression

One of my favorite ways to let students practice reading for automaticity, fluency and expression is with Ear to Ear Reading. There are so many benefits to this easy to implement strategy! Because it is done in pairs (or triplets in rare cases) it lowers the affective filter for students and helps to build interdependence among students.

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Ear to Ear Reading was initially presented by Jim Rogers as way for partners to practice reading in pairs. When implementing this strategy, explicit instruction on how it looks and sounds is important. The teacher should model it in front of the class. This can be done either with a coteacher or with a student volunteer.
Here’s how it is implemented:

1. The teacher begins by assigning partners. This seems like a given, but trust me...if you let kids pick their own partners, some kids feel alienated. Newcomers and students who have difficulty building relationships often feel anxiety when asked to FIND a partener. We can alieviate this by hand selecting partners for the students. Partners should complement one another in that each one is a good model to follow. Partners should remain the same for an extended period (roughly 4-6 weeks) to allow for students to become comfortable with one another.
2. The partners will read from the same given text. The best texts are familiar reads such as shared reading, poetry, etc.
3. Partners sit with chairs side by side facing in opposite directions. Some teachers decide to allow students to sit or lay instead of using chairs. This is really up to you. 
4. Partners decide if they will each read a line at a time or a paragraph at a time. And they decide who will go first. Then they begin ear to ear reading for a given time. 

 
This is what it may sound like using the poem My Brother’s Bug by Jack Prelutsky:
 
Partner A:  "My brother’s bug was green and plump,"
Partner B:  "It did not run, it could not jump,"
Partner A:  "It had no fur for it to shed,"
Partner B: "It slept all night beneath his bed." 
 
And the partners continue to read this way until they finished the poem. If they still have time, they  reread the poem again and again practicing their expression, automaticity and fluency until the time is up. 

Ear to Ear Reading provides a safe, fun way for students to practice reading, gain fluency, automaticity, and expression while working with a partner. I first learned about it as a Tier III GLAD Trainer and have since used it successfully with my own students and with students in classrooms where I cotaught. It fits neatly into the reading workshop during partner reading.  When implemented with fidelity and consistent routine, it can make  a huge impact! Give it a try and let me know how you and your students enjoy it!

Resources:
Project GLAD
Brechtel, M. (2001). Bringing it all together: Language and Literacy in the multilingual classroom. San Diega, CA: Dominie Press.