MSD Steuben County webinar explains reading fluency, Lexiles and home practice for early readers

MSD Steuben County hosted a virtual parent webinar on reading fluency in which district Director of Elementary Education Jonathan Winslow and first‑grade teacher Kiona Beyerwalter explained what fluent reading looks like, shared district expectations by grade and offered concrete home practice strategies and online resources.

Why it matters: Teachers and parents at the session said fluent reading frees working memory so students can focus on meaning. That, presenters said, supports vocabulary growth and deeper comprehension — the ultimate goal of elementary reading instruction.

At the start of the webinar, Jonathan Winslow, director of elementary education for MSD Steuben County, described fluency as three linked skills: accuracy (saying the correct words), rate (reading at a brisk, appropriate speed) and expression or prosody (using phrasing, intonation and volume so reading sounds like natural speech). “We don’t want you to sound like a robot,” Winslow said, explaining that teachers coach students to pause at punctuation and use conversational phrasing.

Beyerwalter, a first‑grade teacher at Ryan Park Elementary School in Angola, walked parents through practical classroom and at‑home exercises. She demonstrated choral reading (adult and child read the same passage together to…