This study used a multiple-baseline-across-students design to examine the effects of repeated readings combined with systematic error correction and performance feedback on the reading fluency and comprehension of 4 middle school students attending an outpatient day treatment program for their behavior problems. Additionally, a brief prediction…

This article discusses two activities--Readers Theatre and Rhythm Walks--that encourage students to "get moving" with fluency instruction. Movement can be a motivating factor for struggling students, as well as a kinesthetic tool for conceptualizing the rhythm and flow of fluent reading while triggering brain function for optimal learning. Also…

Some important approaches to reading instruction and assessment, as well as influential theories of reading, are based on the assumption that reading fluency is necessary for good comprehension. However, this may not always be the case. This article takes another look at the relationship between word reading fluency and comprehension. It also…

Effects of having 32 learning disabled elementary grade students read passages orally one, three, or seven times with instructions to work for either fluency or comprehension were analyzed. Both fluency and comprehension improved with the number of readings with the greatest improvement being between one and three readings. Attentional cues…

The effect oral reading fluency has on comprehension is still being ascertained. This project examines the role of fluency and the effect it has on analysis skills. The purpose of this study is to show that fluency affects overall reading comprehension. Literature supports the view that fluent reading frees up capacity for the comprehension of…

Reviews the literature concerning oral reading fluency and offers six hypotheses about how beginning readers develop oral fluency and about strategies to help those who do not. (FL)

Reports that in a word naming experiment, experienced readers of Persian named high frequency transparent Persian words significantly faster than matched low frequency words. Finds no such effects for adults who had, for 10 years, little experience in reading Persian due to emigration to the West; overall, previously experienced adults named words…

Reprints a reading classic, originally published in this journal in 1979. Describes the method of repeated readings, discussing the procedure, comprehension, and theoretical rationale. Compares it with music and sports and notes how versions of this method were used in early schooling. (SR)

A brief experimental analysis of four instructional strategies was administered to 5 children referred for remedial reading services. Assessment isolated a single, effective strategy for each child. Alternating treatment designs were then employed to assess the differential effects of the selected strategy across time and on repeated measures of…

Discusses an integrated theory of literacy development with synchrony between beginning stages of reading and spelling. Explores the reasons why beginning readers read disfluently, fingerpoint, and read aloud. Discusses orthographic correlates to these behaviors. Suggests that fluent reading must wait for a certain power in word knowledge.…

Argues that educators must address the challenge of helping all students read fluently. Presents strategies to improve student performance in reading speed, accuracy, and the ability to chunk meaning into units or gists. Advises teachers to encourage students to increase reading speed as they encounter an unfamiliar word, use repeated readings,…

Experimental analyses for improving reading fluency deficits have rarely targeted generalized increases in academic responding. As a consequence, the variables that may help students to generalize newly learned forms of academic responding like reading are not well understood. Furthermore, experimental analyses of reading fluency interventions…

Research has shown fluency plays a vital role in learning. Precision Teaching, a method for measuring behavior and facilitating decision-making, has demonstrated it can benefit teachers interested in fostering fluency. Through the use of a systematic practice routine derived from Precision Training, teachers can apply a method that efficiently…

Research has consistently demonstrated that strategic preteaching activities led to improved reading fluency, but lacked studies examining the effect on reading comprehension. The current study investigated the effect of teaching unknown key words as a preteaching strategy with 20 students identified as learning disabled in basic reading skills…

This article proposes that visual encoding learning improves reading fluency by widening the span over which letters are recognized from a fixated text image so that fewer fixations are needed to cover a text line. Encoder is a connectionist model that learns to convert images like the fixated text images human readers encode into the…