John J. Pikulski

Fluency: Bridge between decoding and reading comprehension

A deep, developmental construct and definition of fluency, in which fluency and reading comprehension have a reciprocal relationship, is explicated and contrasted with superficial approaches to that construct. The historical development of fluency is outlined, along with conclusions of the U.S. National Reading Panel, to explore why fluency has moved from being “the neglected aspect of reading” to a popular topic in the field. A practical, developmental instructional program based largely on the theoretical framework and research findings of Linnea Ehri is delineated. The nine essential components of that program include building the graphophonic foundations for fluency; building and extending vocabulary and oral language skills; providing expert instruction and practice in the recognition of high-frequency vocabulary; teaching common word parts and spelling patterns; teaching, modeling, and providing practice in the application of a decoding strategy; using appropriate texts to coach strategic behaviors and to build reading speed; using repeated reading procedures as an intervention approach for struggling readers; extending growing fluency through wide independent reading; and monitoring fluency development through appropriate assessment procedures. The position is taken throughout that teaching, developing, and assessing fluency must always be done in the context of reading comprehension.

A Comparsion of Figure Drawings and WISC IQ's Among Disabled Readers

Childrens figure drawings have been used as a measure of intellectual development since at least the 1920s. This study assesses the relationship between IQ scores from two systems for scoring figure drawings as compared to performance on the WISC in a population of disabled readers. The two figure drawing scoring systems yield very similar results in spite of the fact that one was more recently standardized and is more complex. Scores derived from figure drawings show significant correlations with scores from the Performance, but not the Verbal, section of the WISC. Scores on several of the Performance subtests were also significantly related to figure drawing scores. The results of the study also pointed out the need to differentiate subgroups among disabled readers.