Fluency-OrientedReadingInstruction

Steven A. Stahl

University of Georgia

This work was donewith KathleenHeubach

Virginia Common-wealth University

Stages of ReadingDevelopment

n EmergentLiteracy

n Decoding

n Confirmation andFluency

n Learning the New

n MultipleViewpoints

n A World View

Emergent Literacy

n Children develop understanding ofthe form and function of reading.

n Important landmarksu Print concepts

u Alphabet knowledge

u Phonological Awareness

u Vocabulary growth

Decoding

n Children learn about words, letters,and sounds

n Important landmarks

u Children begin to readindependently

u Children learn basic letter-soundcorrespondences

u Children develop sight vocabulary

Confirmation andFluencyn Children develop automatic word

recognition

n Children move from learning toread to reading to learn

n Important landmarksu Fluency and prosody in reading

u Use of context to monitor reading

u Reading more complex books

How do you developfluency?

Practice!

Types of Practice

n Wide Reading

n Repeated Reading

n Assisted Reading

n Echo Reading

Wide Reading

n The most important thing we cando to improve children’s readingachievement is to have them readas much connected text at theirinstructional level as possible.

n It is important that children readchallenging (but not toochallenging) material.

The NationalReading Paneln Analysis could not find support that

having children read texts that theyhave chosen affects their readingachievement

The NationalReading Paneln Panel looked only at experimental

studies. Best evidence iscorrelational.

n Studies did not control for relativedifficulty.

Repeated Reading

n Classical approach

n Have children read a passage of100 words.

n Time their reading and notemiscues

n Graph their time and errors

n Have them re-read the passageuntil they read with 0 or 1 error at100 words per minute.

Wor

ds p

er m

inute

Err

ors

per

100

wor

ds

Date of Reading

Paired RepeatedReadingn Children read in pairs

n One child reads the text threetimes

n The other child reviews errors andrates the reader on fluency on thethird reading.

n The children reverse roles withnext section.

n Koskinen, P. S., & Blum, I. H. (1986). Paired repeated reading: A classroomstrategy for developing fluent reading. The Reading Teacher, 40, 70-75.

Assisted Reading

n Teacher and children readpassage together.

n Teacher and children re-read untiladequate level of fluency isattained.

Research onRepeated andAssisted Reading

RepeatedReading

AssistedReading

Favorstreatment 6 5

NoDifference 8 2

Favorscontrol 1

Results

n Repeated reading does not seemto produce higher results than acontrolu Effects could be due to increased

amount of reading

n Assisted reading seems to beeffectiveu Modeling?

Questions?

n Are the effects due to increasedamount of reading or something inthe treatment?

n How difficult should the materialbe?

n What is the role of prosody?

Tape Reading

n Children read along with a tapedversion of the story.Children practice until they canread the story fluently andaccurately.

n This only works if the child isresponsible for reading the storyto teacher without the tape.

“Curious George”Technique

n Use Series books like “CuriousGeorge”, “Harry the Dirty Dog,”“The Poppletons”, etc.

n Read entire book and discuss.

n Teacher and children read firstthird of the book using assistedreading.

n Children choose five words to learnfrom the book.

“Curious George”Techniquen Children practice their words at

home.

n Teacher and children make asummary of the story, usingpictures from the book.

n Children practice the summary.

n Class proceeds through the book.

n See Richek & McTeague

Buddy Reading

n An older child reads with a youngerchild regularlyu Two years apart seems best

n Older struggling readers practiceeasy booksu Motivational

u Provides practice at an appropriatelevel

n Should be school-wide

Fluency OrientedReading Instruction

n A classroom approach todeveloping fluency in secondgrade

Five principlesn Lessons would comprehension-

oriented.

n Children would read material attheir instructional level.

n Children would be supportedthrough repeated readings

n Children would read with partners

n Children would increase theamount of reading they do at homeand at school.

Process ofdeveloping theprogramn Four teachers, Kathleen and I met

over the summer, reviewing thesefive principles.

n A new superintendent mandatedthat all children read using a gradelevel text.

n We developed the followingprogram.

Fluency-OrientedReading Instruction

Choice Reading Home Reading RedesignedBasal Reading Program

Fluency Oriented Reading Instruction

Choice Reading

n Children read books of their ownchoosing.

n Children read either alone or inpartners.

n Fifteen to twenty minutes per day.

What books shouldchildren choose?n We found that children chose

books at an appropriate level.

n Teacher made sure that childrendid so by encouraging them toread chapter books and the like.

n Remember the “GoldilocksPrinciple”!!!

Home Reading

n School is only 6 1/2 hours per day.

n Adding an extra half an hourmakes a great deal of difference

n Children either practiced the basalselection or read books of theirown choosing.

n Parents could listen to children invariety of situations.

Home Reading

n Could be combined with anincentive program like ReadingMillionaires.

Redesigned BasalReading Lesson

Children develop their ownquestions.

Children do Partner-Reading

Children work with vocabulary from the story

Children read the story at home

Teacher Echo Reads the Story(Optional)

Teacher Reads book to classTeacher discusses book, either using questions or

graphic organizers

Teacher reads storyto classn The purpose was to make sure

comprehension was dealt withearly.

n Teachers discussed story eitherusing questions or story maps.

Echo Reading

n Used for children who neededextra help with story

n Used to provide a fluent readingmodel.

n Teacher reads a paragraph,children follow along and echoback.

Home reading

n All children read the story at homeon first night.

n Some children read story at homeup to four times.

n We had parent meeting atbeginning of the school year.

n Some children did “home” readingin afterschool program.

Partner Reading

n Most popular part of the program

n Children read the story withpartner, each reading a page.

n Children generally chose theirpartner, table by table.

n Took a while to get organized.

Program Evaluation

n We worked with 4 teachers the firstyear, 10 teachers the second year.

n Schools had mixed SES, butgenerally poor.

n We pretested and posttested withthe Qualitative Reading Inventory.

n We did a number of substudies,qualitative and quantitative duringthe study.

What have welearned?

Teachers could carrythis program outthroughout the wholeyear.

What have welearned?n Children would make significant

growth on an informal readinginventory.

n Children averaged 1.78 yearsgrowth in 14 classes over twoyears.

What have welearned?n All but two children who began

reading at primer or higher werereading at grade level by the endof the year.

What have welearned?n The most effective partner reading

occurred when children couldchoose partners.

n Choosing partners tended to cutback on disagreements.

n Children tended to choose eitherfriends or other children who couldhelp them.

What have welearned?n Children benefited from reading

text with at least 85% accuracy.

n An instructional level may dependon the amount of instruction given.

Questions

n Should children read difficult oreasy text?

n What is the relationship of thisinstruction to comprehension?

n Do children continue their growthafter the program is over?

Where do we gofrom here?n We want to expand this program

into more schools.

n We want to explore the relationshipbetween fluency andcomprehension.