Hustle, Flow, and Voice: Reimagining Fluency Instruction as a Culturally Sustaining Practice

ABSTRACT As the Science of Reading continues to shape the national conversation about what constitutes effective literacy instruction, fluency is too often approached through decontextualized practices that privilege speed and standardization over meaning, expression, and cultural relevance. Such approaches can obscure the rich oral and linguistic practices Black and Brown students already bring to the classroom, particularly students who speak Black Language and emergent bilinguals. Drawing from sociocultural theories of literacy, Hip Hop pedagogy, and cognitive science, this work offers a culturally sustaining approach to fluency development that treats students’ cultural and linguistic knowledge as an instructional resource rather than something separate from learning to read. Anchored in a fourth‐grade classroom case study, the article illustrates how Hip Hop‐infused practices can support the development of prosody, pacing, expression, and comprehension while creating opportunities for students to experience reading through rhythm, identity, and joy. In this framing, fluency becomes more than the accurate and automatic production of words. It becomes an opportunity for students to make meaning, find their voices, and bring the fullness of their linguistic and cultural selves to the act of reading.