Examines the effect of variations in syntactic structure (noun and participle, or verb phrase of a subject-verb-object clause) on oral reading of fourth graders and college students. Finds that children experienced many disruptions while reading the less common noun and participle structure, and that adults experienced few disruptions. (RS)

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,…

Conducted as part of the 1992 Integrated Reading Performance Record (IRPR), a study investigated the oral reading proficiency of a subgroup of students participating in the 1992 reading assessment conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Subjects, 1,136 fourth graders, read aloud one passage and were audiotaped as they…

This concise report presents excerpts from the two full reports of the 1992 Integrated Reading Performance Record (IRPR), which examined the reading habits and oral reading of a subgroup of fourth graders who participated in the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) study. The report presents major findings of the two full…

A study examined the effects of instruction in meaningful units on the comprehension and fluency of poor readers in the fourth grade. Subjects were five fourth-grade students in a northeast Georgia school classified as poor readers. Method of instruction included modeling smooth reading with appropriate junctures and good intonation. The…

A study examined oral and silent reading rates at various levels of difficulty to establish criterion rates for fluent reading at the fourth grade level. Subjects, 27 male and 45 female students from 6 classes in 3 public schools in central Oklahoma who read at an average of more than one year above grade placement, had their oral and silent…

Two studies with poor readers in grade 4 (total N=68) examined the relationship between word identification speed and story reading fluency. Benefits were found for single-word practice prior to reading stories containing those words, even for children who were particularly poor namers. Results are related to theoretical links between fluency and…

Based on the 1998 Arkansas State Language Arts Framework, this sample curriculum model for grade four language arts is divided into sections focusing on writing; listening, speaking, and viewing; and reading. Each section lists standards; benchmarks; assessments; and strategies/activities. The reading section itself is divided into print…