The purpose of this handbook, is to assist teachers in assessing their students in reading, regardless of the grade level or subject they teach. It is intended as a starting point on the journey to helping students become effective readers, regardless of the material they are reading. SERVE, one of the Regional Educational Laboratories, has…

"DaisyQuest" is a software bundle that offers computer-assisted instruction in phonological awareness, targeting children aged three to seven years. The instructional activities, framed in a fairy tale involving a search for a friendly dragon named Daisy, teach children how to recognize words that rhyme; words that have the same…

Oral reading fluency is an important component of the reading process. Many students develop negative attitudes about reading due to self-consciousness of their below average oral reading skills. In this study, video self-modeling was used with three third-grade students who were below grade level in reading. The self-modeling procedure allowed…

With an extensive menu of lessons that take just 20-30 minutes, this intervention guide is the key to helping students grasp the five Big Ideas of early literacy: phonological awareness, the alphabetic principle, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. General and special educators will get: (1) easy-to-implement, one-page activities and…

Most struggling readers, including those with reading disabilities, have difficulties recognizing printed words. This unique, lucidly written book synthesizes the research on how children learn to read words skillfully and translates it into step-by-step strategies for the classroom. The author demonstrates how to plan and implement a coordinated…

Describes the Community Reading Month (CRM) initiative in Iowa City, Iowa; its goals are to promote the value of reading and to build a sense of community. Topics include the development of CRM, increased reading scores of Iowa City's elementary school students, activities for people of all ages, and planning and evaluation. (AEF)

This study examined the construct validity of curriculum-based measures of oral reading fluency from basal reading programs. Twelve special education students (grades 2-5) were monitored for oral fluency using 2 reading curricula (their instructional curriculum and the mainstream reading curriculum) throughout the academic year. Performance…

Reviews research on reading fluency and provides recommendations for teaching reading skills to students with mild disabilities. Interventions that are discussed include repeated reading, peer-mediated instruction, computer-guided practice, previewing, and combined instruction. (Author/CR)

This study compared the use of two supplemental balanced and strategic reading interventions that targeted the decoding, fluency, and reading comprehension of upper-elementary and middle school students with reading disabilities (RD). All students had significant delays in decoding, fluency, comprehension, and language processing. Two comparable,…

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) of oral reading has been used to aid in identifying students who are at risk for failing the reading portion of their spring state standards tests. The purpose of this study is to determine whether adding a maze reading measure would aid in predicting the performance of students who are English learners (ELs).…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of supplemental reading instruction on the reading performance of four (two boys, two girls) second graders who were English learners (ELs) and poor readers through the use of a multiple probe across-participants design. All students received instruction from a commercial reading program,…

In 1992, the authors collaborated to develop a set of norms for oral reading fluency for grades 2-5. Since then, interest in and awareness of fluency has greatly increased, and Hasbrouck and Tindal have collaborated further to compile an updated and expanded set of norms for grades 1-8. This article discusses the application of these norms to…

The impact of adding performance-based interventions to a skill-based intervention on oral reading fluency was examined with 3 elementary students identified as having difficulty with reading. Two performance-based interventions were combined with the skill-based intervention Repeated Reading (RR) to create the three instructional packages…

Many students struggle academically because of their persistent reading problems. Active student responding is a practice that has been demonstrated to improve student achievement with a variety of important skills, including reading. One form of active student responding effective for increasing reading performance is repeated readings. When…

This study examined the relative contributions of phonological awareness, orthographic pattern recognition, and rapid letter naming to fluent word and connected-text reading within a dyslexic sample of 123 children in second and third grades. Participants were assessed on a variety of fluency measures and reading subskills. Correlations and…