Practice reading at an efficient pace while maintaining comprehension, using chunking -- reading in meaningful phrase groups rather than word by word.
By fifth grade, reading speed matters -- not because faster is automatically better, but because a reasonable pace leaves you enough time and mental energy to actually think about what you read, especially on a timed test.
Chunking is the key technique: instead of reading word by word by word, your eyes learn to take in small meaningful phrases at once, "the old dog" as one chunk, not four separate words. This is a skill that improves with deliberate practice, not something you either have or do not have.
Mastery looks like: They read a passage at an efficient, chunked pace and can accurately restate its content immediately afterward.
Common stumbles: Speeding up so much that comprehension genuinely drops -- speed should never be pursued at the cost of understanding.