Reading fluency is essential to overall reading proficiency; however, it does not always come naturally to students. For those students, there are many interventions and research-based activities that can implemented to improve fluency skills.
An effective fluency intervention to use with your disfluent students is something called “Cold Reads” and “Hot Reads.” This quick and easy to implement intervention can be used to improve fluency, but also to monitor progress with specific fluency skills. All students could benefit from a sprinkle of fluency practice, so this activity could be used with your reading groups, RTI students, or entire class.
What Are Cold Reads and Hot Reads?
A cold read is when a student reads a new and previously unseen text for the first time with no practice (cold). A hot read is when it becomes more familiar and the student reads it for the final time after practice and repeated readings.
This intervention is especially effective for students who are having difficulty with pace, accuracy, or automaticity, and need a consistent and structured repeated reading intervention to improve their reading fluency. It’s the perfect tool for your weekly fluency routine.
Why Use Cold and Hot Reads?
There are many benefits of using a cold and hot reads for both you and your students. If your students need explicit fluency instruction, you can use this as an intervention and as a way to monitor their progress over time.
This intervention is easy to implement and schedule into your day. As teachers with packed schedules, this strategy is easy to integrate into your reading group or conference time because it only takes a few minutes each week. Cold and hot reads can even be completed with a partner, fluency coach, parent helper, student teacher, or with an audio recording. This is especially great if you don’t have extra support or time to read with each student for their cold and hot read sessions.
Cold and hot reads are not limited to the classroom either. Students can practice the passage at home or during independent reading time. Between the cold and hot read, they can practice timing themselves and graphing their own progress. They can even reflect on their fluency goals and track their progress.
This intervention is powerful and motivating for students. Since each cold and hot session is tracked with a bat graph, students are actually able to SEE their progress. The visual graph builds confidence and allows students to recognize the power of repeated reading. Students will learn from this intervention that practice makes better… not only week to week, but over time with their overall fluency skills, as well.
Setting Up Cold and Hot Read Routines
There are different ways of implementing a cold and hot read routine, depending on your goal. Choose the best method for your students and classroom!
One-Minute Cold + Hot Reads
To implement this strategy with one minute reads, begin by selecting a piece of text at the student’s independent reading level. Establish a WCPM (words correct per minute) goal based on their fluency norms. Begin the cold read and time the student for one minute as they read the text. Follow along on a teacher copy of the text and take note of any errors as well as fluency strengths and weaknesses. Doing this with a blue pen can help you easily differentiate the cold read. After one minute, mark where the student stopped. Review your notes and observations with the student. Count the number of correct words read and calculate the WCPM. The student will then mark their reading rate on a graph with a blue crayon.
Practice the text with the student by first modeling the text with good phrasing, expression and attention to punctuation. You can even choral or echo read with the student so they can practice accurate fluency. Be sure to go over any difficult words. After practicing with you, the student will practice reading 3-5 times aloud on their own (these are warm reads). After the reading practice, the student will complete a final one-minute read of the text (hot read) while you follow along. Again, take note of any errors as well as strengths and weaknesses. Mark off where the student stops at the one minute mark with a red pen. Review the errors and observations with the student. Count the number of correct words and calculate the WCPM. Have the student mark the reading rate on their graph with a red crayon. Finally, they will complete a self-reflection of their strengths, weaknesses and goals moving forward.
Cold + Hot Reads Using Reading Passages
Choose a text at the student’s independent reading level and set a WCPM goal based on fluency norms. The student will read the entire text while you follow along on your copy and time them. With a blue pen (to show cold reads), make note of any errors as well as fluency strengths and weaknesses, and then record the total reading time. Count the words read correctly and calculate the WCPM. Have the student mark the reading rate on his/her graph with a blue crayon.
Practice the text with the student by first modeling the text with good phrasing, expression and attention to punctuation. Consider choral or echo reading with the student so they can practice accurate fluency. Be sure to go over any difficult words. After practicing with you, the student will practice reading the entire text 3-5 times aloud on their own (these are warm reads). After the reading practice, the student will read the entire text one last time (hot read) while you follow along and time them. Again, take note of any errors as well as strengths and weaknesses. With a red pen, record the total reading time. Review the errors and observations with the student. Count the number of correct words and calculate the WCPM, and have the student mark this on their graph with a red crayon. Finally, they will complete a self-reflection of their strengths, weaknesses and goals moving forward.
Scheduling
Cold and hot reads can be completed as often as you feel your students need. It can be part of your weekly routine, for more practice, or your monthly routine. You can even start off by doing it weekly and then switch to monthly as students make progress.
Tips & Tricks for Administering Cold and Hot Reads
As you complete cold and hot reads, keep these tips and tricks in mind to help things run smoothly!
- Be sure to remind students that they should be focusing on good pace, phrasing, expression, and attention to punctuation, and that it’s not just about how fast they can read.
- If you notice the student has too many errors for a cold read, you may want to choose a lower level reading passage. They should be reading at about a 98% reading accuracy.
- If too much effort is spent on decoding, you may read the passage out loud first so it becomes familiar to the student. Keep in mind, if you do this, you should do it for every timed reading with this student.
- Use a countdown timer instead of watching the clock so your focus can be on the intervention (grab one from your local dollar store, or use a cell phone or tablet app for this).
- Errors can be any of the following: skipped words, mispronounced words, word substitutions, words in the wrong sequence (all words out of order are considered individual errors), word endings, and words “given” after a three second wait.
- Errors are not self-corrections, word repetition (if correct), and insertions.
- If a student does not reach his/her goal for a selected passage, you may choose to repeat the passage during the next session or revisit again for a later timed reading session.
- To develop long lasting fluency skills, consider spreading the “cold” and “hot” reads across a few days or a week. You could do “cold” reads on Mondays, “warm” untimed practice reads throughout the week, and then final “hot” reads on Fridays.
Additional Cold and Hot Read Options
Quick Comprehension Checks
- After the cold and hot reads, ask students to retell what the passage was about. Did it improve from the cold read to the hot read?
- Have students think about or beyond the text using comprehension question cards or comprehension sticks for a quick check for understanding
Free Sample Fluency Graphs
Are you ready to try this intervention? Grab a FREE sample graph and reference sheet for cold and hot reads from my Fluency Boot Camp resource HERE! Read the entire post about introducing fluency skills with a Fluency Boot Camp or just download the sample pages to get started with cold and hot reads today!
