Fluency

http://www.timrasinski.com/

Timothy Rasinski, Ph.D.

This is the website of Tim Rasinski, noted author and national speaker on reading fluency in today’s classrooms.  This website contains links to Dr. Rasinski’s presentation materials, articles he has authored, and resource links that he mentions in his lectures.

http://www.nrcld.org/symposium2003/vellutino/bio.html

The National Research Center on Learning Disabilities sponsored this two-day symposium focusing on responsiveness-to-intervention (RTI) issues. The speakers, discussants, and participants assembled represented the wide diversity of individuals with a vested interest in LD determination issues. Advocates, instructional staff, researchers, and state-level education officials brought their collective and considerable expertise to the discussions.

Frank R. Vellutino of the University at Albany presented this invited paper during the symposium.

Frank Vellutino is professor of psychology, the University at Albany, the State University of New York. He is also director of the University’s Child Research and Study Center. Most of his research has focused on reading development, the cognitive underpinnings of reading, and the relationship between reading difficulties and various aspects of language, and other cognitive functions. This research has generated numerous articles in refereed journals, in addition to a book and numerous book chapters addressing the causes and correlates of reading difficulties in young children. His most recent studies have addressed the development of predictive, assessment, and remedial procedures for correcting and preventing long term reading difficulties in children at risk for early reading difficulties.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3785/is_200504/ai_n13638848

Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction

Stahl, Steven A

This paper reports the results of a two-year project designed to reorganize basal reading instruction to stress fluent reading and automatic word recognition. The reorganized reading program had three components: a redesigned basal reading lesson that included repeated reading and partner reading, a choice reading period during the day, and a home reading program. Over two years of program implementation, students made significantly greater than expected growth in reading achievement in all 14 classes. All but two children who entered second grade reading at a primer level or higher (and half of those who did not) were reading at grade level or higher by the end of the year. Growth in fluency and accuracy appeared to be consistent over the whole year. Students’ and teachers’ attitudes toward the program were positive. In evaluating individual components, we found that self-selected partnerings seemed to work best and that children chose partners primarily out of friendship. Children tended to choose books that were at or slightly below their instructional level. In addition, children seemed to benefit instructionally from more difficult materials than generally assumed, with the greater amount of scaffolding provided in this program.

http://www.readingcenter.buffalo.edu/center/research/tmgrr.html

CENTER FOR LITERACY AND READING INSTRUCTION
University at Buffalo

Supporting Theory, Research, and Rationale for TMgRR. A theory underlying the process of reading is that a reader has only so much attention that can be focused on gaining meaning while reading a specific text. If part of that attention is diverted from comprehension and understanding, the result is limited reading fluency and comprehension. For beginning readers and children with reading problems, the factors most likely to detract from fluency and meaning are the reader’s (a) inability to identify quickly most of the words of the text, (b) reading in stilted, word-by-word, or otherwise unnatural language, and (c) lack of attention to meaning. Teacher Modeling with Guided Repeated Readings (TMgRR) helps children develop fluency in reading. Fluency is reading smoothly, without hesitation, and with comprehension (The Literacy Dictionary, IRA: 1995). A requirement for fluent reading is automaticity in word recognition. Automaticity comes from the word automatic, and means the recognition of individual words in text with little effort or attention: i.e., sight vocabulary.

http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/units/fluency.htm

This website designed by Busy Teachers Cafe, is a treasure trove of information about the aspects of fluency (accuracy, rate, and prosody), a
discussion of when, how and where to teach fluency, and links for more information and sites for material.  This link is for teachers!

By Maryanne Wolf

http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4468

Fluency is one of those seemingly simple concepts that rewards you well for digging deeper. At the basic level, reading fluency refers to the ability to
read text accurately, quickly, and with good expression so that time can be allocated to understanding what is read (Meyer & Felton, 1999). There has
been a flurry of attention to reading fluency in the last few years because of a growing realization of its importance in reading comprehension.
Simultaneously, many researchers and teachers have become increasingly aware of the number of children who have problems in fluency and comprehension, some of whom have adequate but slow decoding skills.

By Maryanne Wolf

http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4470

The four most common questions about reading fluency are:
1) what is it?
2) why do so many struggling readers have great difficulty in becoming fluent
readers?
3) how can we predict who is going to have trouble becoming a
fluent reader?
4) what contributes to making a fluent reader?

I’m going to answer these questions one at a time and then I want to explore three trickier questions that are not so frequently asked but are key to
cracking the puzzle of fluency.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2000)

http://www.readingrockets.org/articles/72

Fluency, reading in a fast and fluid manner, is what often distinguishes to observers the reading performance of a good reader from a poor reader. Find
out what the research says about the two most common instructional methods for developing fluency: guided oral reading and independent silent reading.

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~samue001/publications.htm

The father of reading fluency research and instruction is Dr. Jay Samuels, professor at University of Minnesota.  On his webpage, you will find
downloadable articles reflecting his research.

Fluency—A Review of the Research By Sebastian Wren, Ph.D.

http://www.balancedreading.com/fluency.html

At its core, the skill of reading with comprehension is comprised of two
component skills.  In order to read with comprehension a reader must
simultaneously be able to automatically and fluently decode the text and
competently understand the language in which the text is written.