Academic Skills Improvement: Reading Fluency
Drill Sandwich
When to use: To help students increase fluency in recognizing words,
build vocabulary, and strengthen comprehension.
Brief Description: A strong relationship exists between increased practice and opportunities to respond on fluency. One intervention technique
aimed at increasing reading fluency through the use of drills and practice is the Drill Sandwich (Coulter &
Coulter, 1991) This technique uses drills with known and unknown words to provide increased practice
with words to improve reading fluency. By including known words in the drills in addition to unknown words,
the
student is likely to maintain higher levels of motivation overall and higher levels of concentration on
learning new words presented. Continued use of this technique will likely result in faster learning of new
material and increased retention than with traditional fluency techniques (Shapiro, 2011).
Materials Needed: Flash cards with vocabulary or sight words written on them, 2 copies of instructional level reading passage, data recording sheet
Procedure:
Preparation:
1. Obtain or create flashcards for vocabulary or sight words
2. Give the student one copy of the reading passage and have student read passage aloud for 1 minute.
Provide help with any unknown words, incorrect words, or words the student hesitates on (3 seconds).
Mark the words the student received help with and the last word read before the minute ended on your
copy of the passage. Check all words the student received help for with the student to confirm the
words are unknown. Hesitations are considered to be Unknown words. Count and record the number of
words read correctly.
3. Ask the student to identify 7 words that he/she knows from the passage or other words known.
4. Make flash cards for the 7 Known words identified by the student and for the Unknown words from the
passage. Arrange the cards in two stacks, Knowns and Unknowns. Sequence each stack in the order
in which they appear in the passage.
5. Build a “sandwich” using 7 Knowns (K) and 3 Unknowns (U) using the following pattern: KKKUKKUKKU
Implementation (8-12 minutes per session):
1. Go through the sandwich of 10 items with the student using the pattern above and
ask the student to read each word
2. When you show the first Unknown word, ask the student to say the word, tell you
what the word means, and use the word in a sentence (vocabulary is word in
context). You may help at any time.
3. Continue showing cards in sequence, using the same procedure above for Unknown words.
4. Continue showing flash cards in sequence, repeating the sequence of the first drill sandwich until the
student recognizes the Unknown word without hesitancy. Conduct up to 3 rounds of the sequence of 10
cards.
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Academic Skills Improvement: Reading Fluency
Drill Sandwich
Implementation:
5. As Unknown words become learned (aka: Knowns, correct response to the word within 2 seconds),
remove one of the original Known words with the newly learned word and add a new Unknown word to
the sandwich, always following the pattern and the procedure for Unknown words.
6. Continue showing the flashcards in sequence, providing opportunities for many repetitions of Unknown
words. Drop off old Known words and add new Unknown words until the student recognizes all of the
words on the flash cards.
7. Ask the student to look at the passage. Point to the previously Unknown words and ask the student to
read them.
8. Ask the student to read the passage as if they were talking to themselves or a friend. You may ask
them to read the passage several times to increase speed.
9. To build FLUENCY with COMPREHENSION you may use a pointer or card to pace the student’s
reading. Note punctuation for the student. Sometimes practicing a phrase helps to increase recognition
of a word in context.
10. Ask the student to read the passage again, listening and helping if needed, for one minute. Mark the
unknown words in the passage and the last word read before the minute ended. After one minute, stop
the student at the end of the paragraph or page. Now, ask them two or three questions about what they
read. Count and record the number of words read correctly during the one minute.
Tips:
 Teach peers to deliver the intervention.
 Have a plastic zip-top baggie for each student with their own flashcards in the baggie. Having specific word
flashcards available for each individual student will make it easier to implement the intervention and will cut down
on the need to make new known and unknown words cards. Students can keep the cards with them for practice.
References
Coulter, W. A. & Coulter, E. M. B. (1991). C.B.A.I.D.: Curriculum-based assessment for instructional design [Training Manual].
New Orleans: Louisiana State University Medical Center.
Shapiro, E. S. (2011). Academic Skills Problems: Direct Assessment and Intervention (4th Ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.
http://www.hdc.lsuhsc.edu/tiers/Resources.php
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Academic Skills Improvement: Reading Fluency
Drill Sandwich
Drill Sandwich Flashcard Template
Cut out the cards below and use them as flashcards! Write the known and unknown words chosen on the
cards. Store each student’s flashcards in their own zip-top baggie for future sessions.
http://www.hdc.lsuhsc.edu/tiers/Resources.php