Course at a Glance

Short, focused professional learning designed to fit real school schedules. ✓ One focused session, about an hour: learn the routine, see it modeled, and prepare to use it in your classroom. ✓ Self-paced and asynchronous: complete the course on your own schedule. ✓ Lifetime access: return to the session and tools whenever you need them. ✓ Earn a certificate: complete the course and receive confirmation of your professional-development hours. ✓ Captions available: turn them on for any course video.

Why Fluency? Why Ten Minutes?

You've seen it: students can get through the words, but reading is still slow, choppy, or effortful. You can hear it when they read aloud. So much attention goes into getting through the words that there is less room for meaning. Complex texts feel out of reach, and students may begin to avoid what feels hard, which can look a lot like not caring. That pattern points to fluency as a practical place to start. When reading becomes more accurate, smooth, and expressive, students have more room to make meaning, take on challenging texts, and notice their own progress. Purposeful repeated reading uses short excerpts, making it possible to build focused practice into ten minutes within the instruction you already use, without adding another lesson to your day. This course shows you the routine.

Gerrit sits with students around a classroom table as they practice a daily fluency routine with open books.

What the Ten-Minute Routine Helps Students Do

Build Foundations Within Grade-Level Instruction

Use short, repeated reading to build foundational skills within your core instruction.

Prepare for Grade-Level Texts

Use short excerpts to help students get used to how complex texts sound and feel — so they can actually handle them.

Spark Engagement and Confidence

Build curiosity about new texts, and motivate students by showing them their reading is improving every day.

What You'll Walk Away With

The routine, the demonstration, and a plan for using it. ✓ A repeatable ten-minute fluency routine: designed to fit within the instruction you already use. ✓ A demonstration of the routine: see it in action and reflect on the instructional moves before you try it. ✓ Your Session Map and next steps: guidance for preparing to bring the routine into your classroom.

Course Curriculum

3 Chapters · 8 Lessons

    1. Session Map Free preview

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Fluency for Real Reading

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Reflect: Why Fluency?

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Seeing Fluency in Action

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Discuss: The Moves That Matter

    5. Preparing for Your Classroom Free preview
    6. (Included in full purchase)

      Discussion: Getting Ready to Try it

    1. Take it to Your Classroom Free preview
Gerrit teaches at the front of a classroom, smiling and gesturing beside an anchor chart of claims and transition words.

Meet Your Instructor

I've spent my career working with students and teachers to make reading instruction actually work, especially for students who find reading difficult. I've taught across grade levels, from elementary through high school, and have seen how these challenges show up differently at each stage. In my own classroom, this approach led to some of the strongest reading growth in the city and helped build a culture where students genuinely saw themselves as readers. That work even drew national attention, with my class selected to appear on the final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show for the reading culture we built together. Since then, I've continued teaching while also working with schools and educators across the country and internationally, helping teachers solve a common challenge: how to build foundational reading skills, grow confidence with complex texts, and give students daily evidence that they're getting better. Daily Fluency for Reading Growth comes directly from this work. Together, we can help all students experience growth and joy in reading.

What Teachers & School Leaders Say

Educators on what Gerrit's work has meant in their schools.

”
Gerrit’s work helping to grow kids’ identities as readers and writers changed the trajectory of my teaching and the identities of my students. When Gerrit teaches them how to think like a reader, he makes texts—even ones above their reading level—more accessible and more fun. There’s no better gift for teachers and students.
Nora M. (Louisiana Teacher of the Year Finalist)

New Orleans, LA

”
Gerrit has a rare ability to help students fall in love with reading, particularly those who struggle or lack confidence. His use of purposeful routines led to exceptional reading growth, and his impact extended far beyond his classroom through his work supporting and developing other reading teachers.
Adam Meinig (Principal of Gerrit’s School)

New Orleans, LA

”
With Gerrit, you never get rote methodologies. You get someone well versed in great practices to support literacy—and he helps you decide on best approaches that fit your class and their needs.
Amanda O. (Teacher)

Bogota, Colombia

Bring the Ten-Minute Fluency Routine Into Your Classroom

Start the course, try the routine with your students, and see what changes when fluency becomes part of daily reading work. Buying for a team? Schools and districts can purchase seats through Thinkific, or contact Gerrit at [email protected] for help getting set up.

$29.00

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