The assessment of early literacy skills during the kindergarten year can provide useful information about student performance in prereading skills, which are predictors of later reading achievement. This study examined the use of fluency-based prompts of student phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, and oral reading at the end of kindergarten…

This study was an evaluation of a parent delivered, computer based beginning reading program with a group of 15 Kindergarten and Grade 1 students. Completing the "Funnix" program at home through a CD copy was expected to produce educationally and statistically significant improvements in phonemic awareness, letter-sound fluency, non-word…

The authors studied a longitudinal English intervention in a 70/30 (Spanish/ English) developmental bilingual education (DBE) program (n = 302) and compared this model with a typical-practice, 80/20, late-exit transitional bilingual education program (n = 187) in terms of students' language and literacy acquisition from kindergarten to second…

This edition of "NAEPFacts" highlights findings from the first attempt by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to measure elementary students' oral reading on a large scale. This article presents data on 1,136 fourth graders' oral fluency and its relationship to 3 other aspects of reading ability: comprehension,…

Repeated readings are a common, recommended practice for beginning readers. A study compared the gains made by high level and low level ability first grade readers in reading fluency. An initial reading of text at a second grade reading level was audiotaped and analyzed for rate and accuracy. This was followed by four readings, including a…

Presenting techniques for using the whole mind, this book describes PhotoReading, a reading program that teaches not just how to read faster, but how to learn at speeds many times faster than before. The book notes that PhotoReading teaches readers how to "mentally photograph" the written page directly into their "other-than-conscious" mind,…

Reading teachers and researchers who really want to find out for themselves how difficult it is for students to learn to read and write should teach themselves how to read and write upside down. Being able to read and write upside down will also help teachers working one-on-one with students, since it allows them to sit across the table from the…

A practicum addressed the high percentage of students lacking oral reading fluency in a primary resource class. The project used two basic strategies for increased oral reading fluency: repeated reading and paired reading. To measure the success of this project, the Brigance Oral Reading subtest was administered to 17 first, second, and third…

The theoretical literature which has had an impact upon the teaching of composition and which has evolved into the language across the curriculum approach to education, focuses upon the interaction of language and learning. By teaching about speaking and writing, educators are potentially teaching students how to learn. Language functions to…

A study examined the relative effectiveness of repeated readings and listening-while-reading in promoting reading fluency. Subjects, 20 third grade students in a community in the southeastern United States, of high, average, and low reading levels, had their reading fluency measured in two cycles: subjects who repeatedly read a passage in the…

Notes that the fluent reader needs rapid perception, the ability to use semantic and syntactic clues, and sophisticated comprehension strategies. (MKM)

Concludes that poor readers benefit from a cooperative strategy that gives them practice toward fluency in a supportive situation. Explains how repeated reading works and offers a strategy for using it. (FL)

The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of a companion text on the comprehension, vocabulary acquisition and fluency of students during teacher read alouds. Data were collected over a period of six days in an upper-middle class suburban school district in northern New Jersey. The students involved in the study consisted of eighteen…

This book presents numerous practical strategies and assessment tools teachers can use immediately to strengthen students' fluency skills in regular classrooms and in resource rooms. This new third edition offers: (1) Concise answers to teachers' questions; (2) Evidence-based strategies; (3) Practical activities; (4) Resources to develop students'…

The effects of fluency intervention strategies on students fluency rate, comprehension, and word identification were the focus of this study. Both the experimental and control groups were first grade classes, taught by the same teacher, at Elder Primary School in Sandersville, Georgia. The study was conducted over a 15-week period. The results of…