Title: Fluency: Instruction
1Fluency Instruction Assessment
- Steven A. Stahl
- The University of Illinois -- Urbana/ Champaign/
CIERA
2Fluency is more than automatic word recognition
- Children also need to be able to read with
prosody and expression.
3National Reading PanelFluency Findings
- Guided oral reading is effective in improving
reading fluency and overall achievement
- Guided oral reading is a grab bag including a lot
of different procedures including repeated
reading, assisted reading, impress reading - Not all approaches are going to be effective
4National Reading PanelFluency Findings
- Encouraging children to read on their own does
not seem to improve fluency or general reading
achievement
- This includes DEAR, SSR, Accelerated Reader.
- This is very controversial (and does not make
sense)
5Why didnt the Report find effects for just
reading?
- The best evidence may be correlational and could
not be included in this report - Often children do not choose to read material of
adequate challenge
- Few studies actually monitored the reading done
by students
6National Reading PanelFluency Findings
- Fluency-oriented reading approaches seem to be
effective, but there are very few out there to
choose from. - In spite of what report says, have children read.
- Teachers should be encouraged to have children
read material of adequate challenge.
7Being fluent is more than automaticity
8Accuracy
- What is an Instructional level?
- Depends on level of child or whether child is
reading cold or not - Depends on level of instruction
- In our work, children could benefit from material
as low as 85 accuracy with strong instructional
support
9Accuracy
- High accuracy/low comprehension
- Kendall and Hood found children who were accurate
but poor comprehenders and good comprehenders,
but not accurate. - Carpenter and Paris found a greater tendency for
older children to be able to read well with weak
comprehension. - Carpenter and Paris found that accuracy on IRIs
they studied correlated significantly with
comprehension only below the 3rd grade level
10NAEP Fluency Scale
- Level 4 Reads primarily in larger, meaningful
phrase groups. Although some regressions,
repetitions, and deviations from text may be
present, these do not appear to detract from the
overall structure of the story. Preservation of
the author's syntax is consistent. Some or most
of the story is read with expressive
interpretation. - Level 3 Reads primarily in three- or
four-word phrase groups. Some smaller groupings
may be present. However, the majority of phrasing
seems appropriate and preserves the syntax of the
author. Little or no expressive interpretation is
present. - Level 2 Reads primarily in two-word phrases
with some three-or four-word groupings. Some
word-by-word reading may be present. Word
groupings may seem awkward and unrelated to
larger context of sentence or passage. - Level 1 Reads primarily word-by-word.
Occasional two-word or three-word phrases may
occur, but these are infrequent and/or they do
not preserve meaningful syntax.
11Accuracy -- NAEP Oral Reading Study 4th grade
12Accuracy -- NAEP Oral Reading Study
13Accuracy
- NAEP Oral Reading Study did not find a relation
between oral reading accuracy and comprehension - They did, however, find a relation between the
number of meaning-changing miscues and
comprehension
14Rate
- Trade-off between accuracy, rate and
comprehension - Children may lower rate to improve accuracy, thus
impairing comprehension - Thus, may be the relationship between CBM
performance and comprehension
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16Developmental relationships
- As children get more automatic, one would expect
the relationship between rate and comprehension
to drop, since, as decoding becomes more
transparent, variations in language abilities and
strategic knowledge become more important.
17Prosody and Comprehension
- We examined sound spectrographs of 124 children
reading the first passage of the Gray Oral
Reading Test IV - We found that good and struggling readers could
be distinguished by intersentential pauses,
intrasentential pauses, declining frequency at
end of declarative sentences, but. - We found that the closeness of the prosodic
envelope (the contours of the rising and falling
intonations) to adult readers added significant
variance to the prediction of comprehension
beyond that accounted for by word recognition.
18Prosody and comprehension
- We believe, as do others, that prosody reflects
childrens syntactic processing. - It is the ability to assign words to syntactic
categories that accounts for the relationship
between prosody and comprehension.
19How do you develop fluency?
- Repeated reading?
- Assisted Reading?
- Integrated approaches?
20Repeated Reading (classroom)
- Have children read from the same text.
- Have them start reading orally.
- After 3 minutes, say Stop
- Have them mark last word they read.
- Repeat.
- Children should read further down the page with
each repeated reading.
21Paired Repeated Reading
- Children read in pairs
- One child reads the text three times
- The other child reviews errors and rates the
reader on fluency on the third reading. - The children reverse roles with next section.
- Koskinen, P. S., Blum, I. H. (1986). Paired
repeated reading A classroom strategy for
developing fluent reading. The Reading Teacher,
40, 70-75.
22Assisted Reading
- Teacher and student read passage together,
repeatedly, until desired level of fluency is
achieved.
23Assisted Reading
- Teacher and children read passage together.
- Teacher and children re-read until adequate level
of fluency is attained.
24Research on Repeated and Assisted Reading
25Results
- Repeated reading does not seem to produce higher
results than a control - Effects could be due to increased amount of
reading - Assisted reading seems to be effective
- Modeling?
- Monitoring?
26Effects of difficulty?
27Effects of Difficulty?
28Fluency Oriented Reading Instruction
- Four teachers, a graduate student, and myself met
one summer to design the program - We began with five principles
29Five principles
- All lessons must be comprehension-oriented
- Children will be supported through repeated
readings - Children will read at their instructional level
- Children will do partner reading to maximize
eyes on text time. - Children will read as much as possible both at
home and at school.
30 - New superintendent mandated that all children
will read material at their grade placement - We decided to scaffold children at a higher
level, using material at their level.
31Three components of fluency-oriented reading
instruction
- Home reading program
- Choice reading
- Redesigned Basal Reading Program
32Redesigned Basal Reading program
- Comprehension Focus
- Teacher reads story to class
- Teacher discusses story
- May do story map, or graphic organizer
- May ask questions
33Redesigned Basal Reading program
- Preparation for reading
- Teacher preteaches vocabulary, does prereading
activities - Home reading
- Students bring book home
- Partner reading
34Prepare for reading
- Children need some practice in word reading prior
to reading. - In this lesson, children are taught the strategy
of comparing words to words they already know, as
well as being taught the new words.
35Comprehensive Reading Program
- Because we are emphasizing fluency, does not mean
we are neglecting other aspects of reading.
- There are word study lessons as well as
comprehension building activities. - Making words
- Compare/contrast
- Comprehension strategy instruction
36Echo Reading
- Echo reading is used for struggling readers to
provide additional support.
37Home reading
- Children may be asked to read the story at home
1, 2, 3 or 4 times during the week. - This gives children additional practice
38Paired reading
- Paired reading is the most efficient way of
giving children practice in reading connected
text - These are two struggling readers.
39Paired Reading
- With more advanced readers, one could combine
paired reading with reciprocal questions. - These children had been taught Question-Answer
Relationships to improve their questioning.
40Home Reading Program
- Students read at home, as part of homework.
- We met with parents as part of a PTO program to
discuss how to read at home. - We kept track using logs, but teachers did not
feel they were efficient.
41Choice Reading
- Children read material of their choosing for
15-20 minutes per day. - Allowed for children to read material at their
instructional level
42Results
- Teachers were able to do the program all year
long.
43Results
- Children made an average of 1.8 years gain in
each single year
44Results
- All children who were reading at the primer level
or higher at the beginning of the year were
reading at the second grade level or higher at
the end of the year.
45Results
- Children were able to benefit from material at
their frustration level, if given adequate
support.
46Replication
- Purpose To demonstrate that modifying classroom
instruction to increase the volume of childrens
reading will improve fluency and comprehension - Sites
- Athens, GA
- Atlanta, GA
- North Plainfield, NJ
47 - Fluency Oriented Reading Instruction
- Supported reading of a single text weekly, using
repeated reading - Wide Reading Adaptation
- Uses many of the same techniques as FORI, but has
children read three or more texts per week - Control
- Involves teachers using the district's reading
program as usual
48Measures
- Gray Oral Reading Test IV (GORT)
- Set of graded passages. Scores based on rate and
accuracy - Fluency Measure
- Test of Word Reading Efficiency
- Two word lists (sight and nonsense). Scores based
on number of words read correctly in 45 seconds. - WIAT Reading Comprehension
- Individual, open ended comprehension measure
49Measures
- The GORT and TOWRE were given three times a year.
- The WIAT was given fall and spring.
50Problem
- The control schools were not really control.
- We did not get a control school in Atlanta.
- The control school in Athens was put on a state
list and underwent an extensive reading
intervention. - The control school in New Jersey was a true
control, but was a high functioning school, with
excellent instruction.
51Problem
- We analyzed the data with two controls
- A contemporary control analysis used the control
schools during the same school year. - A historical control analysis compared the
treatment schools with the children from all the
schools at the end of the previous second grade
year.
52Results -- Historical Controls
- We found statistically significant differences
between the treatment groups and the historical
control on all measures (all at p lt .001). - This suggests that children were performing at a
higher level after treatment than similar
children did the year previous.
53Analysis -- Concurrent Controls
- What is presented here is a repeated measures
analysis. Children were tested three times during
the year, August/September, January, and
May/June. - All analyses are based on a Time x Group
analysis, with a significant interaction
considered as evidence for significant treatment
effects.
54Results -- Concurrent Controls
- Students in all groups made significant progress
from the beginning of the year on all measures - The only statistically significant effect was on
the WIAT Passage Comprehension measure. We found
a significant (p .044) effect favoring the Wide
Reading group. - The effects on the TOWRE subtests and the GORT
were not statistically reliable.
55Results -- Concurrent Controls
- When we included entering level in the analysis,
there were significant effects found on the GORT
and TOWRE. - The greatest treatment effects were found for
children who were between 1.0 and 1.7, or
somewhat below grade level.
56Results -- Concurrent Controls
- Similar to the Stahl et al. Study, children who
were reading at a primer or higher were reading
at an average of 3rd grade level at the end of
second grade. - In other words, children who began with modest
entering abilities were ready to begin 3rd grade
reading 3rd grade materials.
57Scientifically-Based Reading Research?
- When we add programs to schools, we need to worry
about how they are implemented. - We need to worry about all the things left out of
our programs. - We need to worry about our professional
development.
58Scientifically based Reading Research?
- Phonics is not, by itself, a solution
- Children will continue to differ by entering
abilities - Instruction will have to be differentiated to
meet those different abilities - Grouping is and is not a solution
- If you group, you need to make sure that the
lower ability group receives challenging
instruction
59Scientifically based Reading Research?
- Differential support with the same curriculum
- May work best for children in the second
quartile, those who are within the ZPD - Some children will need external support
60What do we know about fluency?
- Classroom interventions can improve childrens
reading significantly, even bringing children
from below grade level to grade level. - Classroom interventions are practical. They can
be carried out over a school year.
61What do we know about fluency?
- We know children can read difficult material with
appropriate support. - We want children to have some time during the day
so that they can read easy material as well.
62What do we know about fluency?
- We know that the most important thing one can do
to improve childrens achievement is to have them
read text at an appropriate level. - We do not know whether these approaches work
because children are reading more or because of
the repetition.
63What do we know about fluency?
- We think that this instruction will improve
comprehension. - We may have to think about how to integrate
comprehension instruction into fluency-oriented
reading.
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65References
- Kuhn, M. R., Stahl, S. A. (2000). Fluency A
review of developmental and remedial practices (
2-008) Center for the Improvement of Reading
Achievement, University of Michigan. - Samuels, S. J., Schermer, N., Reinking, D.
(1992). Reading fluency Techniques for making
decoding automatic. In S. J. Samuels A. E.
Farstrup (Eds.), What research says about reading
instruction (2nd ed., pp. 124-144). Newark, DE
International Reading Association. - Stahl, S., Heubach, K., Cramond, B. (1997).
Fluency-oriented reading instruction. AthensGA
National Reading Research Center U.S. Dept. of
Education Office of Educational Research and
Improvement Educational Resources Information
Center.
66sstahl_at_uiuc.eduwww.ciera.org