Discusses the concept of reading flexibility; suggests a two-step instructional procedure (termed ReFlex Action) for teaching children to be flexible in reading rate and purpose. (DD)

Describes four teaching techniques which help poor readers experience decoding automatically. (MKM)

Presents and discusses findings from exploratory research on the effect of grouping and pace on reading acquisition. (RB)

The effects of assisted reading (in which students listen to the passage and then read it along with the teacher prior to reading the material independently) on three elementary students with learning disabilities were evaluated using a multiple baseline design. Assisted reading resulted in more words read correctly, fewer words read incorrectly,…

Describes methods for increasing the reading fluency of slow readers; presents a step-by-step method for developing fluency through oral reading. (MAI)

A synthesis of research on interventions designed to build reading fluency in students with learning disabilities identified 24 studies on various interventions. Results suggested that effective interventions include explicit models of reading fluency, multiple opportunities to read familiar text repeatedly, independently, and with corrective…

Evaluation of the use of repeated readings to increase the reading fluency of four elementary students with low vision found the intervention was effective in improving all four students' reading fluency without adversely affecting error rates or comprehension. Students' improved reading rates also generalized to classroom reading. (DB)

Three instructional approaches have worked well in increasing reading fluency of students with reading difficulties: previewing; hypothesis/test training; and repeated readings. However, it is crucial that students also receive instruction in reading comprehension. (CB)

Methods shown to be effective in helping less fluent readers develop fluency suggest a set of principles that teachers may find helpful in designing regular classroom activities for fluency development. These principles include: (1) repeated reading of one text or meeting target words repeatedly in a variety of texts; (2) teacher modeling of…

Asserts that it is important to develop a fast rate of reading, discusses how children remain slow readers for years after they have learned about letters and sounds, argues that there is no need for even a beginning reader to read slowly, and proposes some methods to improve reading. (Author/JM)

This study of 36 backward readers (mean age=111 months) from the Netherlands determined that repeated reading-while-listening of the same text did not lead to better results (except in reading speed) than reading different texts, and asking readers to detect mismatches between written and spoken texts did not improve performance. (Author/JDD)

The effects of three conditions (no model, a teacher-presented reading model, and a computer-presented reading model) on the reading of four students with emotional or behavioral disorders, found the teacher model resulted in the greatest number of words read correctly per minute and the greatest percentage of words read correctly. (Contains…

The commonly-used instructional sequence in which children read material silently and then read it orally is simply not effective. The arguments presented by E.A. Betts in 1957 for silent before oral reading can be countered point by point. Studies that have compared various reading conditions have had serious limitations and have failed to show…

This booklet is written for use in university and college courses on the teaching of reading in the elementary grades. It is also written to assist supervisors, teachers, teacher assistants, and student teachers in knowing what to teach in reading and in planning activities to help children learn to read to their maximum potential. Parents also…