National educational groups have recommended the use of universal screening to assist in the early identification of reading problems. One of the most widely used measures used for the universal screening of reading is oral reading fluency (ORF) (Fewster & Macmillan, 2002). However, ORF is somewhat time consuming to administer and has been…

Large numbers of children in the United States are not functioning at adequate levels of literacy. Students who have weak reading proficiency skills are identified as "at-risk"; failure to acquire competency early in their schooling adversely affects performance in all academic fields and limits their potential for achievement in life.…

This program evaluation of The Instant Word Notebook was conducted by two educators who created an instructional tool to teach and assess the most frequently occurring words in written text, commonly known as Instant Words. In an effort to increase the reading scores of first and second grade students, teachers were instructed to teach Instant…

Many English language learners (ELLs) in schools experience reading difficulties, particularly Spanish-speaking students. This is a serious problem given the tendency for struggling readers to fall further behind as they advance in school. This issue becomes more pressing as the number of ELLs enrolled in schools rises and the availability of…

This measurement study examined the construct validity of the retell component of the Texas Middle School Fluency Assessment (Texas Education Agency, University of Houston, & The University of Texas System, 2008a) within a confirmatory factor analysis framework. The role of retell, provided after a one-minute oral reading fluency measure, was…

The ability of 20-24 month-old toddlers to recognize graphemes and phonemes was investigated by reading a "Phonic Faces" (PF) alphabet picture book. Phonic Faces iconically picture a letter in the mouth of a character producing the sound (the curve of the P looks like the top lip popping the /p/ sound). The book was composed of nine…

Fluent reading hinges on automatic word recognition, yet little research has investigated the acquisition process with repeated exposure to novel words. In this study, elementary students in grades three to six were asked to read two-syllable pseudowords five times each (in varied sequences) during two sessions (n = 49). The goal was to study…

Research suggests that development of the alphabetic principle is a critical factor in learning to recognize words and becoming a successful reader. The alphabetic principle encompasses both the understanding that relationships exist between letters and sounds and the application of these relationships to reading words. This study investigated the…