D. Ray Reutzel

Effects of Fluency Training on Second Graders' Reading Comprehension

Abstract For years researchers have posited a strong relationship between developing students reading fluency and concurrent improvements in reading comprehension. Although moderate-to-strong correlations between developing reading fluency and improved reading comprehension have recently been reported, no study has shown that direct training of students reading fluency would result in improved reading comprehension ability. This study assessed the effects of developing second-grade students oral reading fluency using the oral recitation lesson (ORL) and the effects that fluency training may have upon students resulting reading comprehension. Subjects were randomly assigned to treatment groups, and instructional treatments were used for a full semester. At the conclusion of the study, second-grade subjects fluency and comprehension in the ORL group and the round robin (RR) reading control group were compared. Results showed statistically different levels of fluency as measured by errors per minute (EP...

THE ART OF CHILDREN'S BOOK SELECTION: A LABYRINTH UNEXPLORED

As teachers increase their use of trade books and literature as the core of reading instruction, children will be faced with increasing numbers of decisions about how to select books for their own reading. This study demonstrated that when children select books there is a generalizable routine or pattern that is learned and followed by most children. On the other hand, refinements or elaborations on that basic routine are best demonstrated by “outlier” behaviors atypical to the basic routine of book selection. This study also showed that children typically select books based upon the physical characteristics of the book and a holistic, implicit value attachment to a book representing preferences. Limitations, both external and internal such as time limits, check out limits, personal limitations and self concept, influence childrens books selection behaviors. The shelving of books at or below eye‐level positively influenced the likelihood that a book would be selected by a student. And finally, children k...

Whole Language: Comparative Effects on First-Grade Reading Achievement

AbstractWhole language is an approach to reading and language instruction that is gaining increasing popularity nationwide. This acceptance is occurring without evidence that the use of a whole language approach will lead to comparable reading achievement when contrasted with traditional basal reader approaches. In this article, we report the findings of a study comparing two whole language classrooms and two basal classrooms on a standardized reading achievement measure at the conclusion of first grade. The results indicated a significant difference between whole language and basal reader approaches. The size of the effects favoring whole language over basal reader approaches was a moderate .6 standard deviation from the basal group mean performance. Results of this study supported the belief that whole language strategies and routines used in first-grade classrooms will yield scores on traditional reading standardized achievement tests that are comparable or superior to those resulting from the use of b...

Developing Print Awareness: The Effect of Three Instructional Approaches on Kindergarteners' Print Awareness, Reading Readiness, and Word Reading

This study investigated the effectiveness of three instructional approaches for developing kindergarteners print concepts and print awareness. The study also sought to determine if developing childrens print concepts exerted an influence upon their reading readiness and word reading ability at the end of kindergarten. Three intact kindergarten classrooms participated in the study with a total of 132 kindergarten students. The three instructional treatments consisted of (a) a “traditional readiness” approach—the control, (b) an “immersion in print approach—an experimental group, and (c) an “immersion in print + teacher-led instruction” approach—an experimental group. Teachers were trained and provided the appropriate instructional methodologies and materials. They were also monitored regularly to check for compliance. A series of posttests assessing print awareness, readiness and word reading were administered at the conclusion of the study. Results indicated that “teacher-led” print concept lessons resulted in significantly greater print concept development, although increasing childrens print concepts did not lead to improved reading readiness nor improved word reading ability among young readers. Finally, it was shown that an immersion in print, whether or not “teacher-led” print lessons were offered, resulted in significantly better readiness and word reading abilities at the end of kindergarten than did the “traditional readiness” approach.

Whole Language and the Practitioner

A detailed comparison of the typical public school classroom and a whole language classroom

Investigating Topic-Related Attitude: Effect on Reading and Remembering Text

Abstract This study explored the effect of topic-related attitude on childrens learning and remembering from text. The subjects were 58 sixth-grade students randomly assigned to three topic-related attitude treatment groups. A 3 × 2 × 2 (Favorable-, Unfavorable-, and Neutral-Attitude Groups x Positive and Negative Passages x Immediate and Delayed Recall) repeated measures ANCOVA design was used for the study. Teachers were trained to present a social studies unit about a fictitious country, Titubia. Results within the limitations of the study supported the notion that experimentally created topic-related attitudes do not appear to interfere with the immediate recall of text-based information or cause younger subjects to selectively encode that information. Our study showed that experimentally created topic-related attitudes influenced the delayed reconstruction of memories for text but did not exert sufficient influence to interfere with the initial reception of information from text.

Whole Language with LD Children.

Practices consistent with whole language theory to help LD students become literate users of language as a communication medium

Reading comprehension skills: Testing the distinctiveness hypothesis

Abstract This study was conducted to explore the validity of the reading comprehension skills distinctiveness hypothesis. Students and teachers were randomly assigned to specific comprehension skill training groups: (a) locating details, (b) drawing conclusions, (c) finding the sequence, (d) determining the main idea, and to a control group wherein students engaged in sustained reading of self‐selected trade books. After the training period had ended the Barnell Loft Specific Skills Posttest assessing the four comprehension skills instructed was administered to all of the subjects in each of the four instructional groups and the control. The reading comprehension skill distinctiveness hypothesis would predict that scores for the skill taught would exceed the other skills measured for each skill group and the control group. A unitary hypothesis would predict concurrent gains in the skill taught as well as for all other skills measured. In this study, no differences were found among the skill instructional ...

EFFECTS OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE, EXPLICITNESS, AND CLAUSE ORDER ON CHILDREN'S COMPREHENSION OF CAUSAL RELATIONSHIPS

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of prior knowledge, explicitness and clause order on fifth‐ and sixth‐grade readers’ ability to infer causal cohesive ties in text. One hundred sixty‐eight fifth‐ and sixth‐grade students were randomly assigned from three prior knowledge blocks to participate. A text booklet comprised of four versions of six experimental passages was developed: an explicit‐normal‐clause‐order version, an implicit‐normal‐clause‐order version, an explicit‐reversed‐clause‐order version, and an implicit‐reversed‐clause‐order version. Comprehension of the causal relationships in the passages was measured by free recall task, a yes‐no‐why question, cohesion cloze tasks, literal and inferential questions. Significant effects for explicitness were found for fifth‐grade readers on all variables but only on the cohesion cloze task for sixth‐grade. Significant effects for prior knowledge were found for fifth‐ and sixth‐grade students on all variables except the cohesio...

Reading Time in School: Effect on Fourth Graders' Performance on a Criterion-Referenced Comprehension Test.

AbstractThis study explored the effect of time spent reading versus time spent learning and practicing specific reading comprehension skills as measured by criterion-referenced reading comprehension skill test (CRTs) scores. This educational question is important because many teachers and administrators are reticent to allocate more instructional time to sustained reading of connected text for fear of declining performance on locally administered CRTs. Sixty-one 4th graders were randomly assigned to three different treatment conditions: (a) reading only, (b) reading/skill instruction, and (c) skill instruction only. All the students received 30 min per day of basal reading instruction in their intact classrooms. None of the skills taught in the skill groups were taught during this time. For the remaining 30 min of the 60-min reading period, the students moved to their assigned conditions. Students in the reading-only group read books of their own choosing for 30 min each day for 30 days. Students in the s...