Using FREDs Fluency Assessments

Brand new for 2023/24, we are super excited to launch our FREDs Fluency Assessments. These have been modelled on the American DIBELs fluency assessments but written in a style and using extracts more suited to a UK audience. Each assessment includes a pupil extract (which the pupil will have in front of them to read from) and an adult marksheet which the adult will have in front of them to annotate as the child reads.

Children should be timed reading for one minute, following the script provided with each resource, and adults follow and circle any words that the child reads incorrectly or is unable to read. At the end of the minute, the adult should mark on the marksheet the point that the child reached and use this to calculate the number of words read correctly per minute (total number of words read minus any errors).

Across school, there are different expectations for the number of words a child should be reading correctly each minute.

Year 2 – 90 wcpm

Year 3 – 95 wcpm

Year 4 – 100 wcpm

Year 5 – 110 wcpm

Year 6 – 120 wcpm

All of the fluency assessments we release have been given a Lexile Level which indicates the difficulty of the text, and across the year the challenge will increase for each year group.

In Year 2, texts will have a Lexile Level between 200 and 420.

In Year 3, texts will have a Lexile Level between 400 and 640.

In Year 4, texts will have a Lexile Level between 620 and 750.

In Year 5, texts will have a Lexile Level between 730 and 870.

In Year 6, texts will have a Lexile Level between 850 and 980.

A child should be aiming to reach the relevant number of wcpm whilst reading a text at the higher end of the Lexile range for their year group by the end of the year to be consider a fluent reader. They could also be considered fluent if reading a text at the lower end of the Lexile range for their year group at the beginning of the year at the correct speed. So, for example, you can be confident that a child in Year 3 is reading with the correct level of fluency if you assess them in September and they read a text with a Lexile Level of 410 at a speed of 95wcpm.

When it comes to end-of-year assessment, children can be given a level of either Building Fluency, Almost Fluent or Fluent depending on the Lexile Level of the text they are able to read at the relevant pace. For example, if in June you assessed your Year 5 class, the children would be given a level based on their performance as follows;

Child 1 is able to read a text with a Lexile Level of 750 at 110wcpm – they are Building Fluency.

Child 2 is able to read a text with a Lexile Level of 810 at 110wcpm – they are Almost Fluent.

Child 3 is able to read a text with a Lexile Level of 860 at 110wcpm – they are Fluent.

We will be releasing lots of our Fluency Assessments as the year progresses, what is one the website now (September) is intended to be used to give you a baseline for the beginning of the academic year and an idea of the children you need to focus on developing fluency with, using our Fluent in Five intervention resources.

Let me know if you have any questions!