Having guided oral reading instruction by using reading centers where students can listen and use aural media, creating echoed reading exercises, and allowing students to work in pairs as silent readers on the same text and then ask questions of one another reinforces critical concepts, the process of reading, and can act as vocabulary-building exercises (Busy Teacher's Cafe, 2007, "Improving reading fluency in young readers"). If available, resource aids can act as support for uncertain readers and help them make the critical transition to fluency: "Provide support for your nonfluent readers by asking tutors -- instructional aides, parent volunteers, or older students -- to help. The tutor and the student can read a preselected text aloud simultaneously" (Blau 2007).

Giving students opportunities to practice and perform is also critical, through activities like combining whole group and small group activities and...

Aural performances like plays and scripts that are read aloud, and word study are all valuable performance-based tools. Even if there is not time to perform an entire play using reader's theaters is a good way to introduce performance: "Because reader's theater is an oral performance of a script, it is one of the best ways to promote fluency. In the exercise, meaning is conveyed through expression and intonation. The focus thus becomes interpreting the script rather than memorizing it" (Blau 2007).
Works Cited

Blau, Lisa. (2007). "5 Surefire strategies for developing reading fluency." Scholastic.com Retrieved 1 May 2008 at http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4367

Busy Teacher's Cafe (2007). "Improving reading fluency in young readers." Retrieved May 2008 at http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/units/fluency.htm