Reading‐Specific Flexibility Moderates the Relation Between Reading Strategy Use and Reading Comprehension During the Elementary Years

The goal was to test whether cognitive flexibility moderates the relation between reading strategy use and reading comprehension during the elementary years. Seventy‐five second‐ through fifth‐grade students completed a think aloud task and a metacognitive questionnaire to measure reading strategies, two card‐sorting tasks to measure general and reading‐specific cognitive flexibility, and one standardized measure of reading comprehension, as well as measures of oral reading fluency and vocabulary. As expected, oral reading fluency and vocabulary predicted reading comprehension, as did reading‐specific flexibility. Importantly, reading‐specific flexibility had a significant moderating effect, over and above the other effects. Specifically, weak reading‐specific flexibility skills were associated with a negative relation between reading strategy use during think aloud and reading comprehension, suggesting that children with weak flexibility skills are less adept at using reading strategies effectively.     

Using Peer Coaches to Build Oral Reading Fluency

Fluent oral reading is essential for success in elementary school. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of enhanced reading fluency instruction for struggling readers. The intervention was provided to small groups of students at risk for reading difficulties. Students were assessed on key early literacy skills. Second-grade students who were at risk for reading failure and who received supplemental intervention scored higher on measures of fluency than students who received only typical classroom instruction; the effects of enhanced fluency instruction were evident across different dosages for many children at risk for reading failure. In addition, statistically significant improvements and relationships were evident for oral reading fluency and comprehension. We discuss guidelines for developing and using the intervention in other classrooms.     

Associations Between Reading Skills,Interest in Reading,and Teaching Practices in First Grade

This study examined associations between classroom-level reading fluency, comprehension, interest in reading, and teaching practices. Participants were 466 children from 21 classrooms. Reading fluency and interest were assessed at the beginning and end of Grade 1, reading comprehension at the end of Grade 1. Teaching practices were observed with the Early Childhood Classroom Observation Measure (ECCOM). Teachers were more likely to use teacher-directed methods in classrooms where children had poorer initial reading fluency. In classrooms with mostly child-centered methods, children showed better reading fluency, comprehension, and higher interest, whereas in classrooms with predominately teacher-directed practices, children had lower reading comprehension at the end of Grade 1. Findings highlight the need for teacher education programs to incorporate discussions about the benefits and disadvantages of different teaching methods.     

Examining the Cross-Lagged Relationships Between RAN and Word Reading in Chinese

The purpose of this 4-year longitudinal study was to specify the direction of the relationship between RAN and word reading (accuracy and fluency) in Chinese. This is important in light of arguments that the developmental relationships between RAN and reading can disclose changes in the reading processes underlying reading as development proceeds. One hundred thirty-five Mandarin-speaking Chinese children (65 boys, 70 girls; M age = 96.40 months) were assessed on RAN (digits), word-reading accuracy (Character Recognition), and word-reading fluency (One-Minute Reading). The children were assessed on the same measures when they were in Grades 3, 4, and 5. The results of path analysis indicated that the effects between RAN and word reading were unidirectional and subject to the type of reading outcome: Only RAN predicted word reading and only when word reading was operationalized with a reading fluency measure.     

Relationships among Special Education Teachers' Knowledge,Instructional Practice and Students' Performance in Reading Fluency

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among (1) special education teachers’ knowledge for teaching reading fluency, (2) the specific instructional practices they used in fluency instruction, and (3) gains of students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) on a performance measure of oral reading fluency (ORF). Analyses based on multilevel linear modeling and analysis of covariance indicated that for 42 special education teachers teaching third, fourth, and fifth graders with SLD in intensive reading groups, teachers’ knowledge for teaching reading fluency predicted student gains on ORF measures, but did not predict their instructional practice. Furthermore, teacher practice did not predict student gains on ORF. Practical implications and future research are discussed.     

The Relations Among Oral and Silent Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Middle School: Implications for Identification and Instruction of Students With Reading Difficulties

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations among oral and silent reading fluency and reading comprehension for students in Grades 6 to 8 (n = 1,421) and the use of fluency scores to identify middle school students who are at risk for failure on a high-stakes reading test. Results indicated moderate positive relations between measures of fluency and comprehension. Oral reading fluency (ORF) on passages was more strongly related to reading comprehension than ORF on word lists. A group-administered silent reading sentence verification test approximated the classification accuracy of individually administered ORF passages. The correlation between a maze task and comprehension was weaker than has been reported for elementary students. The best predictor of a high-stakes reading comprehension test was the previous year's administration of the grade-appropriate test; fluency and verbal knowledge measures accounted for only small amounts of unique variance beyond that accounted for by the previous year's administration.     

Using Complexity Metrics to Assess Silent Reading Fluency: A Cross-Sectional Study Comparing Oral and Silent Reading

Reading typically undergoes a qualitative shift around Grade 4, becoming more fluent and silent, but there is no established measure for fluency in children’s silent reading. The present study presents a measure of self-paced reading in children, examining the use of complexity measures for time-series analyses recently established with adults. Cross-sectional groups of adults and children in Grades 2, 4, and 6 read the same passage of a Grade 2-level story, either silently or aloud. The dynamical structure of fluency in reading times was explored with fractal and recurrence quantification analysis. Results revealed that more fluent reading (with increasing age) was marked by greater structure and stability and that oral reading compared with silent reading showed less fractal structure, indicating silent reading as a more flexibly stable, adaptive coordinated behavior. The complexity metrics show promise for an alternate way to characterize reading fluency.     

Children’s Reading Comprehension and Oral Reading Fluency in Easy Text

This study explored third-graders’ oral reading fluency (ORF) in easy text in relation to their third- and fourth-grade reading comprehension. It also examined the children’s performance on two different measures of text exposure, a self-report questionnaire and a title-recognition test. Although third-graders’ ORF related significantly to their reading comprehension, oral language comprehension accounted for most of the variance in reading comprehension, whereas single word reading speed accounted for most of the variance in ORF. Third-grade reading comprehension and ORF each predicted unique variance in children’s scores on a fourth-grade state-mandated reading comprehension assessment. Scores on the self-report questionnaire correlated significantly with third-grade ORF and fourth-grade reading; the self-report accounted for reliable variance in ORF even with all of the other reading ability variables entered first. Results are consistent with the viewpoint that text exposure affects reading fluency. They also demonstrate that ORF is a valuable predictor of middle-elementary children’s reading comprehension, even when the ORF measure employs very easy text in which children achieve near-perfect word accuracy.     

The role of word recognition,oral reading fluency and listening comprehension in the simple view of reading: a study in an intermediate depth orthography

Empirical research has provided evidence for the simple view of reading across a variety of orthographies, but the role of oral reading fluency in the model is unclear. Moreover, the relative weight of listening comprehension, oral reading fluency and word recognition in reading comprehension seems to vary across orthographies and schooling years. This study aims to examine the direct effects of these three variables on reading comprehension and to test for the existence of indirect effects of word recognition and listening comprehension on reading comprehension via oral reading fluency in European Portuguese, an orthography of intermediate depth. A sample of 264 students was assessed at the end of grades 2 and 4. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that listening comprehension, word recognition and oral reading fluency predicted reading comprehension in both grade 2 and grade 4. Moreover, the three variables measured in grade 2 predicted later reading comprehension in grade 4. Listening comprehension was always the strongest predictor. Oral reading fluency mediated the relationship between word recognition and reading comprehension, but it was not a mediator variable in the relationship between listening comprehension and reading comprehension. These findings indicate that, similarly to what has been found for other orthographies, the simple view of reading is a valid framework to account for reading comprehension variability in European Portuguese and that interventions to increase reading comprehension levels should focus on word recognition, fluency, and, especially, listening comprehension.     

Facilitating English-language learners' oral reading fluency with digital pen technology

Oral reading fluency is an indicator of overall reading competence. Many studies have claimed that repeated reading can promote oral reading fluency. Currently, novel Web- or computer-based reading technologies offer interactive digital materials that promote English oral reading fluency using the repeated reading strategy; however, paper-based English materials in physical classrooms are still used to train students in oral reading fluency because most students are used to learning environments with paper, pen, and face-to-face interaction. With the growth of digital pen technologies, developing an interactive learning environment that combines printed textbooks and a digital pen to support English-language classroom learning has become feasible. Thus, this work presents a digital pen and paper interaction platform (DPPIP) composed of a student-learning tier, course management tier, and teacher tutoring tier, in which digital pen technologies are integrated with printed textbooks and Moodle course management system, to support the repeated reading strategy for promoting English-language oral reading fluency, learning motivation, and learning satisfaction. Meanwhile, this work also examined whether the proposed DPPIP provides different benefits in terms of the promotion of the oral reading fluency to students with field-dependent and field-independent cognitive styles. Based on the non-equivalent control group design in the quasi-experimental research, this work recruited two junior high school classes from Taoyuan County, Taiwan, to participate in an instructional experiment. One class was randomly assigned to the experimental group, which used the DPPIP to perform the repeated reading strategy in order to enhance English-language oral reading fluency. By contrast, the other class was assigned to the control group, which adopted the traditional paired reading method to support the repeated reading strategy to improve English-language oral reading fluency. Analytical results show that applying the proposed DPPIP to support a regular English-language course in classrooms had significantly positive effects in promoting the English-language oral reading fluency, learning motivation, and learning satisfaction of junior high school students. Moreover, this DPPIP simultaneously helped the experimental group students with the field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles accelerate their oral reading fluency. Importantly, the oral reading fluency of the experimental group students is positively correlated with the frequency which the digital pen was used.     

The construct and predictive validity of a dynamic assessment of young children learning to read: implications for RTI frameworks

The purpose of this study was to examine the construct and predictive validity of a dynamic assessment (DA) of decoding learning. Students (N = 318) were assessed in the fall of first grade on an array of instruments that were given in hopes of forecasting responsiveness to reading instruction. These instruments included DA as well as one-point-in-time (static) measures of early alphabetic knowledge, rapid automatized naming (RAN), phonemic awareness, oral vocabulary, listening comprehension, attentive behavior, and hyperactive or impulsive behavior. An IQ test was administered in spring of second grade. Measures of reading outcomes administered in spring of first grade were accuracy and fluency of word identification skills and reading comprehension. Factor analysis using principal axis factor extraction indicated that DA loaded on a first factor that also included language abilities and IQ, which the authors refer to as the "language, IQ, and DA" factor. It was relatively distinct from two additional factors: (a) "speeded alphabetic knowledge and RAN" and (b) "task-oriented behavior." A three-level (children nested within classroom; classrooms nested within school) random intercept model with fixed effects predictors suggested that DA differed from word attack in predicting future reading skill and that DA was a significant predictor of responsiveness to instruction, contributing unique variance to end-of-first-grade word identification and reading comprehension beyond that explained by other well-established predictors of reading development.     

Orthographic processing is a key predictor of reading fluency in good and poor readers in a transparent orthography

We used structural equation modeling to investigate sources of individual differences in oral reading fluency in a transparent orthography, Russian. Phonological processing, orthographic processing, and rapid automatized naming were used as independent variables, each derived from a combination of two scores: phonological awareness and pseudoword repetition, spelling and orthographic choice, and rapid serial naming of letters and digits, respectively. The contribution of these to oral text-reading fluency was evaluated as a direct relationship and via two mediators, decoding accuracy and unitized reading, measured with a single-word oral reading test. The participants were “good” and “poor” readers, i.e., those with reading skills above the 90th and below the 10th percentiles (n = 1344, grades 2–6, St. Petersburg, Russia). In both groups, orthographic processing skills significantly contributed to fluency and unitized reading, but not to decoding accuracy. Phonological processing skills did not contribute directly to reading fluency in either group, while contributing to decoding accuracy and, to a lesser extent, to unitized reading. With respect to the roles of decoding accuracy and unitized reading, the results for good and poor readers diverged: in good readers, unitized reading, but not decoding accuracy, was significantly related to reading fluency. For poor readers, decoding accuracy (measured as pseudoword decoding) was related to reading fluency, but unitized reading was not. These results underscore the importance of orthographic skills for reading fluency even in an orthography with consistent phonology-to-orthography correspondences. They also point to a qualitative difference in the reading strategies of good and poor readers.     

When Is Reading Also Writing: Sources of Individual Differences on the New Reading Performance Assessments

This research examined component processes that contribute to performance on one of the new, standards-based reading tests that have become a staple in many states. Participants were 60 Grade 4 students randomly sampled from 7 classrooms in a rural school district. The particular test we studied employed a mixture of traditional (multiple-choice) and performance assessment approaches (constructed-response items that required written responses). Our findings indicated that multiple-choice and constructed-response items enlisted different cognitive skills. Writing ability emerged as an important source of individual differences in explaining overall reading ability, but its influence was limited to performance on constructed-response items. After controlling for word identification and listening, writing ability accounted for no variance in multiple-choice reading scores. By contrast, writing ability accounted for unique variance in reading ability, even after controlling for word identification and listening skill, and explained more variance in constructed-response reading scores than did either word identification or listening skill. In addition, performance on the multiple-choice reading measure along with writing ability accounted for nearly all of the reliable variance in performance on the constructed-response reading measure.     

Bidirectional Relations Between Text Reading Prosody and Reading Comprehension in the Upper Primary School Grades: A Longitudinal Perspective

The purpose of this study was to examine the directionality of the relationship between text reading prosody and reading comprehension in the upper grades of primary school. We compared 3 theoretical possibilities: Two unidirectional relations from text reading prosody to reading comprehension and from reading comprehension to text reading prosody and a bidirectional relation between text reading prosody and reading comprehension. Further, we controlled for autoregressive effects and included decoding efficiency as a measure of general reading skill. Participants were 99 Dutch children, followed longitudinally, from 4th to 6th grade. Structural equation modeling showed that the bidirectional relation provided the best fitting model. In 5th grade, text reading prosody was related to prior decoding and reading comprehension, whereas in 6th grade, reading comprehension was related to prior text reading prosody. As such, the results suggest that the relation between text reading prosody and reading comprehension is reciprocal but dependent on grade level.     

Fostering the Development of Reading Skill through Supplemental Instruction: Results for Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Students

This paper reports the effects of a two-year supplemental reading program for kindergarten through third grade students that focused on the development of decoding skills and reading fluency. Two hundred ninety-nine students were identified for participation and were randomly assigned to the supplemental instruction or to a no-treatment control group. Participants' reading ability was assessed in the fall, before the first year of the intervention, and again in the spring of years 1, 2, 3, and 4. At the end of the two-year intervention, students who received the supplemental instruction performed significantly better than their matched controls on measures of entry level reading skills (i.e., letter-word identification and word attack), oral reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The benefits of the instruction were still clear two years after instruction had ended with students in the supplemental-instruction condition still showing significantly greater growth on the measure of oral reading fluency. Hispanic students benefited from the supplemental reading instruction in English as much as or more than non-Hispanic students. Results support the value of supplemental instruction focused on the development of word recognition skills for helping students at risk for reading failure.     

Relations Among Oral Reading Fluency,Silent Reading Fluency,and Reading Comprehension: A Latent Variable Study of First-Grade Readers

In the present study, we examined oral and silent reading fluency and their relations with reading comprehension. In a series of structural equation models with latent variables using data from 316 first-grade students, (a) silent and oral reading fluency were found to be related yet distinct forms of reading fluency, (b) silent reading fluency predicted reading comprehension better for skilled readers than for average readers, (c) list reading fluency predicted reading comprehension better for average readers than for skilled readers, and (d) listening comprehension predicted reading comprehension better for skilled readers than for average readers.     

Word Reading Fluency as a Serial Naming Task

Word list reading fluency is theoretically expected to depend on single word reading speed. Yet the correlation between the two diminishes with increasing fluency, while fluency remains strongly correlated to serial digit naming. We hypothesized that multi-element sequence processing is an important component of fluency. We used confirmatory factor analyses with serial and discrete naming tasks with matched items, including digits, dice, objects, number words, and words, performed by about 100 Greek children in each of Grades 1, 3, and 5. Separable serial and discrete factors emerged across grades, consistent with distinct skill dimensions. Loadings were greater for serial than discrete, suggesting that discrete processing does not fully determine serial processing. Average serial performance differed more than discrete between grades, consistent with improvement beyond single-item speed. Serial word reading aligned increasingly with the serial factor at higher grades. Thus, word reading fluency is gradually dominated by skill in simultaneously processing multiple successive items through different stages (termed “cascading”), beyond automatization of individual words.     

Cross‐language relationship between Spanish and English oral reading fluency among Spanish‐speaking English language learners in bilingual education classrooms

This study examined whether oral reading fluency in a child's first language (Spanish) as assessed by Curriculum‐Based Measurement (CBM) was related to oral reading fluency in a second language (English) and whether Spanish oral reading fluency probes administered in the fall were predictive of English oral reading fluency outcomes for spring of the same academic year. A total of 68 bilingual education students across grades 1 through 5 were assessed in Spanish and English during the fall, winter, and spring. Results showed that reading in Spanish and English across grades and time periods correlated moderately high with the exception of fourth grade. In addition, Spanish oral reading fluency at the beginning of the year significantly predicted English reading outcomes at the end of the year. These findings suggest that CBM can be a valuable tool for evaluating the relationship between oral reading fluency in both the first and second language. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 795–806, 2007.     

Oral Reading Fluency as an Indicator of Reading Competence: A Theoretical,Empirical, and Historical Analysis

The purpose of this article is to consider oral reading fluency as an indicator of overall reading competence. We begin by examining theoretical arguments for supposing that oral reading fluency may reflect overall reading competence. We then summarize several studies substantiating this phenomenon. Next, we provide an historical analysis of the extent to which oral reading fluency has been incorporated into measurement approaches during the past century. We conclude with recommendations about the assessment of oral reading fluency for research and practice.     

Contributions of phonological processing skills to reading skills in Arabic speaking children

This cross-sectional study investigated contributions of phonological awareness (Elision and blending), rapid naming (object, color, letter, and digit), and phonological memory (nonword repetition and Digit Span) to basic decoding and fluency skills in Arabic. Participants were 237 Arabic speaking children from Grades K-3. Dependent measures included word decoding, oral passage reading fluency, nonword reading fluency, and retell fluency. Within-grade analyses indicated that phonological awareness accounted for more variance than rapid naming regardless of the nature of the outcome measure and grade. Rapid naming’s capacity to predict variance, while less than that of phonological awareness, tended to rise steadily and was highest in Grade 3. Phonological memory, as measured by this study’s tasks, showed almost no relationship to reading performance. The findings are discussed with respect to changing the requirements of Arabic reading in Grades K-3 and suggestions are made for future research.