Test scores across the country show American students are far more able to read narrative than nonfiction text. Some research speculates this is due to a great lack in the background knowledge of many children. Librarians are beginning to realize that a unique fit for the school librarian is as a provider of background knowledge materials for…

This paper investigates the relationship between ability to detect changes in prosody and reading performance in Spanish. Participants were children aged 7-8 years. Their tasks consisted of reading words, reading non-words, stressing non-words and reproducing sequences of two, three or four non-words by pressing the corresponding keys on the…

The purpose of this investigation was to compare instructional effectiveness and efficiency among the use of phonic analysis, incremental rehearsal, and traditional drill and practice word reading techniques during repeated reading lessons. Sixty primary grade children who had difficulty acquiring basic oral reading fluency skills were randomly…

Brief experimental analyses were conducted using two dependent variables to evaluate the effectiveness of reading interventions. Specifically reading rate (words read correctly per minute) and mean reading comprehension levels for six students with reading difficulties were obtained using six different reading intervention/intervention…

This technical report describes the development of progress monitoring measures in the area of Reading Comprehension. Measures were developed for grades 6 through 8. Twenty alternate forms of each measure were created. Passages were written by graduate students and reviewed by the lead author, as well as teachers and panels of graduate students.…

Many students have difficulty achieving reading fluency, and nearly half of fourth graders are not fluent readers in grade-level texts. Intensive and focused reading practice is recommended to help close the gap between students with poor fluency and their average reading peers. In this study, the "Quick Reads" fluency program was used…

Teaching children with mild disabilities to read can be a challenging task for even the most seasoned teacher. In order to be successful, teachers need to be knowledgeable about the big five of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000). While the ultimate goal of reading is…

The purpose of this study was to examine oral reading fluency (ORF) in the context of a large-scale federal reading initiative conducted in low performing, high poverty schools. The objectives were to (a) investigate the relation between ORF and comprehensive reading tests, (b) examine whether slope of performance over time on ORF predicted…

The present study examined the predictors of fourth graders' reading skills (reading comprehension, text reading and word chain reading). Reading skill antecedents of 158 children of 5-6 years of age were measured at the beginning of kindergarten; students' reading skills were measured in kindergarten and in Grades 1 and 4. The results showed that…

This randomized pretest/posttest group study examined the impact of explicit instruction in decoding, comprehension, and fluency on the reading achievement of incarcerated students from facilities in a southwestern (SW) state, a southeastern (SE) state, and a mid-Atlantic (MA) state. Comparisons were made between instruction comprised of higher…

Structural equation modeling procedures are applied to the standardization sample of the Woodcock-Johnson III to simultaneously estimate the effects of a psychometric general factor (g), specific cognitive abilities, and reading skills on reading achievement. The results of this study indicate that g has a strong direct relationship with basic…

To become fluent readers students need to become proficient in recognizing words. Word recognition is a skill and not an end in and of itself. This paper cites the following reading behaviors of students who do poorly in word recognition: (1) read in a halting manner; (2) identify words incorrectly; (3) fail to read in thought units; (4)…

Documents growth in reading fluency and answers persistent questions on fluency. Illustrates fluent reading and the changes in fluency that occur during the school year through a classroom research project and the collection of more than 2,800 1-minute oral-reading samples.(MG)

Since the inception of the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1975, an increasing percentage of children between the ages of 3-21 have been identified as students with learning disabilities (LD). Reports from the National Center of Learning Disabilities (2000) have suggested that monitoring of student learning is frequently…

All students from grades 3 through 8 were tested in the fall, winter, and spring of 2009 on passage reading fluency (PRF) measures from easyCBM [R]. Student characteristics were analyzed for influence on reading growth. The results showed the negative effects from being a male or a student of color, coming from an economically disadvantaged…