Use this as a technique for building motivation during the practise stage of the fluency lesson and to require each child to do some independent reading.

Set a time limit, initially quite a short one like a minute, for children to practise reading a familiar text aloud to themselves. All the children in the group should do this at the same time, so an unconfident reader is not embarrassed by feeling that she/ he is being observed by others.

Take feedback from the children about how they’ve got on with the reading, how far they managed to read etc. Then ask them to do the same reading for the same time span but this time with a particular ‘slant’ to the reading, e.g. you might ask them to whisper the reading, make the reading sound as scary as possible, read it like a very old person etc. As before, all the children should read independently and at the same time. Again stop them at the agreed time and take feedback on the success of the activity.  The activity could continue, either by asking the children to change the reading characteristic, e.g. this time I want you to do it differently, try reading it like …, or, if the children are confident enough, by sharing their favourite reading with the group.

• Ensure the text is familiar to the children – one they have read at least three times before
• The time limit is fairly arbitrary – but can be used to press the children to work more effectively and brings an element of fun and perhaps competition into the activity. It also ensures that the children get opportunities to repeat their reading. Beware though that the time limit doesn’t encourage over rapid reading – remember we want fluent reading at an appropriate pace.