Margin Notes

Texts used for fluency teaching and practice should be connected to reading students are actually going to engage in. One of the most effective ways to do this is to select a short, purposeful excerpt from a complex text before students read it in full. When used this way, fluency practice supports access, comprehension, and confidence going into the larger reading task.

A strong fluency excerpt gives students more than a chance to reread. It introduces essential vocabulary, builds background knowledge, and offers an early glimpse into the ideas, tone, and language of the text they are about to encounter. Through repeated reading, students begin to make sense of complex sentences and unfamiliar concepts before they face them at scale.

This kind of fluency work helps students feel oriented rather than overwhelmed. By the time they begin the full text, they have already heard the language, practiced making meaning, and developed a sense of what the reading will ask of them. In this way, fluency practice becomes a form of preparation that sets students up for success across the entire reading experience.

Here is an example using  Climbing Cringe Mountain With Gen Z from the NYT Learning Network.

Fluency Excerpt:

The phrase cringe mountain came from Erica Mallett, 34, a creator consultant based in Sydney, Australia, who coined it in 2023. Ms. Mallett spent years in the public eye, first as part of the hip-hop duo Coda Conduct and later as a host of a national breakfast show on the radio station Triple J. The role put her in front of a huge audience almost overnight, and she was bombarded with texts from listeners telling her she was “so cringe.”

This idea of stumbling publicly, enduring judgment and finding resilience in the process is not new. What’s new is the language. The phrase “cringe” is distinctly of the internet age, born of comment sections and meme culture to describe acute awkwardness or social embarrassment.

At first, Ms. Mallett tried to shrink herself to avoid criticism, but it only dulled her personality and stifled her creativity. She eventually reframed the word, deciding that being cringe was actually proof she was experimenting and taking risks. To her, “climbing cringe mountain” meant growth.

Why this excerpt:

This excerpt works for fluency practice because it prepares students for the larger text they are about to read. It introduces the term “cringe mountain” and reframes it from public embarrassment to personal growth, giving students essential background knowledge needed to understand both the article’s title and its central idea. Vocabulary such as “meme culture” and “acute awkwardness” supports students as they engage with the article’s exploration of public judgment, embarrassment, experimentation, and risk taking. By working through these concepts in the excerpt, students are better positioned to make sense of the full text as they read. Additionally, the explanatory, layered sentences offer opportunities for students to practice phrasing and pacing while making sense of complex meaning.