Strategies
to increase reading fluency; intervention in school and clinic
Mastropieri, M.A., Leinart, A. & Scruggs, T.E., 1999,
vol.34, no.5, pp.278-283.292.
One
of the difficult stages of reading for dysfluent, slow readers is
to develop automatic word recognition skills thus enabling more fluent
reading, thereby reducing the load on memory and in turn facilitating
more effective comprehension of texts. The authors outline a number
of techniques to promote this process, practices that are currently
in use in some shape or form but without the prescription that the
authors offer here. The strategies are listed below.
- Repeated
Reading- ‘Sindelar, Monda, and O’Shea (1990) reported
that three repeated readings were effective for increasing fluency
for students with LD in Grades 3 through 5, as well as for nondisabled
students of similar reading fluency,’ In another study by
Carver and Hoffman(1981) students studied a passage for 10minutes
before tape recording themselves with a goal of achieving 85 words
per minute. Most students achieved this after four days.
- Classwide
Peer Tutoring (CWPT)- in a study conducted by Simmons, Fuchs,
Fuchs, Hedge, and Mathes (1994) it was found that ‘after
14 weeks of tutoring, it was found that students in all CWPT conditions
made more improvements in fluency than students in a traditional
instruction condition…’.
- Using computers-
‘Jones, Torgeson, and Sexton (1987) investigated the effects
of computer —guided practice on reading fluency and accuracy
using the hunt and hunt program. The program emphasised recognizing
words with different medial vowels and vowel combinations….
After 10 weeks of daily practice with the program, the experimental
groups had increased in reading fluency and accuracy, and generalized
to reading similar words in context.’
Previewing-
this technique is similar to repeated reading but with some variations.
Listening to a teacher read a passage initially, for example can assist
a student to establish a more functional baseline. A number of prescription
are provided for implementing the previewing. One example provided in
the article is the following:
Previewing by Listening for the Teacher
-
Decide
on an appropriate passage for the student.
-
Explain
the procedures to the student.
-
Instruct
the student to follow along as you read the passage orally at a
relatively slow conversational pace (approximately 130-160 words
per minute).
-
Instruct
the student to read aloud from the passage for one minute.
-
Mark
errors on a copy of the reading passage while you follow along.
-
Record
and chart the number of words read correctly per minute by subtracting
error words from the total number of words read.
-
Start
the next lesson at the point where reading instruction stopped the
previous lesson.
This
article provides valuable, prescriptive information to assist teachers
in developing strategies that promote fluency in reading. Considering
that this step is a major obstacle for most LD students, careful study
of the article would be well worth while.
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