Neurologist and middle school teacher Judy Willis connects what you do in the classroom to what happens in the brain when students learn how to read, including: (1) Why a classroom has to be safe and supportive in order to overcome barriers to reading fluency; (2) How to jumpstart students who are not well prepared for reading with activities that…

This book presents numerous practical strategies and assessment tools teachers can use immediately to strengthen students' fluency skills in regular classrooms and in resource rooms. This new third edition offers: (1) Concise answers to teachers' questions; (2) Evidence-based strategies; (3) Practical activities; (4) Resources to develop students'…

Educational leaders need to ask themselves how it is possible that nearly 40% of 329,969 Texas fourth grade students are reading below grade level? With accountability standards rising, how does any school with an at-risk population produce fluent readers and in turn master grade level expectations? Scholars agree that meaning derives from…

Effects of having 32 learning disabled elementary grade students read passages orally one, three, or seven times with instructions to work for either fluency or comprehension were analyzed. Both fluency and comprehension improved with the number of readings with the greatest improvement being between one and three readings. Attentional cues…

Reprints a reading classic, originally published in this journal in 1979. Describes the method of repeated readings, discussing the procedure, comprehension, and theoretical rationale. Compares it with music and sports and notes how versions of this method were used in early schooling. (SR)

Research has consistently demonstrated that strategic preteaching activities led to improved reading fluency, but lacked studies examining the effect on reading comprehension. The current study investigated the effect of teaching unknown key words as a preteaching strategy with 20 students identified as learning disabled in basic reading skills…

This action research project was developed in order to increase student literacy, particularly in the area of reading, for students who were considered at-risk. The targeted student population was 2nd grade students who were served within a primary cross-categorical special education program. The classroom was housed in an elementary (K-2) school,…

A self-modeling, self-monitoring intervention to increase oral reading fluency was investigated in elementary school students (N=5). Videotapes of students reading were edited to create a system of self-modeling with feedback on subsequent efforts. Results indicate improvements in oral reading rate over time with advances in instructional…

While the critical importance of phonological awareness (segmental phonology) to reading ability is well established, the potential role of prosody (suprasegmental phonology) in reading development has only recently been explored. This study examined the relationship between children's prosodic skills and reading ability. Hierarchical multiple…

For most people, it is easy to learn to read faster. A reading rate is often just a matter of habit. To change some habits, try these tips: (1) pay attention when reading and read as if it really matters; (2) do not talk either silently or aloud while reading; (3) read in thought groups or phrases of 3-4 words, especially in complete clauses and…

Offers four methods for improving the reading fluency of poor readers: three-minute repeated timings, repeated readings, taped reading, and model reading. Suggests that these methods allow the poor reader to attend to meaning. (FL)

Provides references to improve oral reading. Presents a diagnostical and remediable disability and diagnostic techniques for assessing rate and prosody. Describes remedial strategies for the use of reading teachers and clinicians which have been found to be effective in improving oral reading fluency. (MG)

Discusses what oral reading fluency is and why it is important. Describes rate, recognition, and phrasing, three important aspects of fluent oral reading. Examines some methods for developing fluency including modeling, repeated reading, paired oral reading, the Oral Recitation Lesson, and choral reading. (SR)

Nearly 40% of America's fourth-grade students are below the basic level in reading. Creating opportunities for practice to build reading accuracy and speed (i.e., fluency) is an important link between word decoding and passage comprehension. The purpose of this study was to combine several empirically validated reading interventions into an…

This study investigates the effectiveness of multiple fluency interventions on a single subject in grade three. Fluency interventions, including choral reading, echo reading, repeated reading, audio book modeling, and teacher modeling were implemented over a period of eight weeks. Results indicated that using multiple fluency strategies, rather…