Melanie R. Kuhn

Fluency: A Review of Developmental and Remedial Practices.

The authors review theory and research relating to fluency instruction and development. They surveyed the range of definitions for fluency, primary features of fluent reading, and studies that have attempted to improve the fluency of struggling readers. They found that (a) fluency instruction is generally effective, although it is unclear whether this is because of specific instructional features or because it involves children in reading increased amounts of text; (b) assisted approaches seem to be more effective than unassisted approaches; (c) repetitive approaches do not seem to hold a clear advantage over nonrepetitive approaches; and (d) effective fluency instruction moves beyond automatic word recognition to include rhythm and expression, or what linguists refer to as the prosodic features of language. The process of becoming literate can be conceptualized as a series of qualitatively different stages through which learners progress as they become increasingly proficient with print (Chall, 1996b; Harris & Sipay, 1990). One of the primary advances in this process involves the shift from dealing with words on a word-byword basis to a rapid, accurate, and expressive rendering of text. In other words, learners develop such familiarity with print that they achieve fluency in their reading. Fluent reading may underlie or assist in effective engagement with text (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974). The purpose of this article is a review of the literature examining how children move toward fluent reading. It will incorporate both theoretical discussions and practical studies relating to fluency research. Specifically, to accomplish this purpose, we have reviewed the theoretical accounts of reading that include an important role for fluency in the reading process and studies that have attempted to facilitate its development.

Becoming a Fluent Reader: Reading Skill and Prosodic Features in the Oral Reading of Young Readers.

Prosodic reading, or reading with expression, is considered one of the hallmarks of fluent reading. The major purpose of the study was to learn how reading prosody is related to decoding and reading comprehension skills. Suprasegmental features of oral reading were measured in 2nd- and 3rd-grade children (N = 123) and 24 adults. Reading comprehension and word decoding skills were assessed. Children with faster decoding speed made shorter and less variable intersentential pauses, shorter intrasentential pauses, larger sentence-final fundamental frequency (F(0)) declinations, and better matched the adult prosodic F(0) profile. Two structural equation models found evidence of a relationship between decoding speed and reading prosody as well as decoding speed and comprehension. There was only minimal evidence that prosodic reading was an important mediator of reading comprehension skill.

Weaving Chains of Affect and Cognition: A Young Child's Understanding of CD-ROM Talking Books.

This qualitative case study employed Wittrocks Generative Learning Model to examine in-depth one kindergarten childs comprehension when reading considerate and inconsiderate CD-ROM talking books in a classroom computer center. A CD-ROM talking book consists of a story told through multimedia modes of information that has been digitized on a CD. Considerate CD-ROM talking books are those that include multimedia effects that are congruent with and integral to the story. Inconsiderate CD-ROM talking books are those that include multimedia effects that are incongruent with or incidental to the story. Findings indicate that considerate CD-ROM talking books supported the childs understanding and retelling of the story and involved meaning-making processes that wove together affective responses, cognitive processes, and metacognitive activity; however, inconsiderate CD-ROM talking books resulted in the childs inability to retell the story in a cohesive way and fostered passive viewing. Implications for research and practice are drawn.

Becoming a fluent and automatic reader in the early elementary school years.

The goals of this study were to (a) develop an empirically based model regarding the development of fluent and automatic reading in the early elementary school years and (b) determine whether fluent text-reading skills provided benefits for reading comprehension beyond those accounted for by fluent word decoding. First-, second-, and third-grade children completed a series of reading tasks targeting word and nonword processing, text reading, spelling knowledge, autonomous reading, and reading comprehension. Structural equation modeling was carried out to evaluate how these skills operated together to produce fluent text reading and good comprehension. Evidence supported a simple reading fluency model for the early elementary school years suggesting that fluent word and text reading operate together with autonomous reading to produce good comprehension.

Teaching Children to Become Fluent and Automatic Readers.

The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of two instructional approaches designed to improve the reading fluency of 2nd-grade children. The first approach was based on Stahl and Heubachs (2005) fluency-oriented reading instruction (FORI) and involved the scaffolded, repeated reading of grade-level texts over the course of each week. The second was a wide-reading approach that also involved scaffolded instruction, but that incorporated the reading of 3 different grade-level texts each week and provided significantly less opportunity for repetition. By the end of the school year, FORI and wide-reading approaches showed similar benefits for standardized measures of word reading efficiency and reading comprehension skills compared to control approaches, although the benefits of the wide-reading approach emerged earlier and included oral text reading fluency skill. Thus, we conclude that fluency instruction that emphasizes extensive oral reading of grade-level text using scaffolded approaches is effective for promoting reading development in young learners.

Teaching Children to Learn Word Meanings From Context: A Synthesis and Some Questions

This article reviews 14 studies investigating approaches that aimed at teaching children to be more efficient at learning words from context. In nearly all of the studies reviewed, treatments were effective at improving childrens skill in learning words from context compared to a no-treatment control. However, in the 4 studies that included a practice-only treatment, no significant differences were found between the strategy treatment and practice-only groups. These findings suggest that the effects of the treatments were due to the practice rather than to the specific strategies taught. Suggestions are made for improving research examining the effects of context-clue strategies.

A Comparative Study of Small Group Fluency Instruction

The present study investigated the reading development of small groups of learners making the transition from intentional decoding to fluent reading. The research focused on the relative effectiveness of repeated and wide reading as a means of developing reading fluency. It also looked at the importance of expressive, or prosodic, reading in concert with automatic and accurate word recognition. Three intervention strategies were selected: Repeated Reading, Wide Reading, and Listening Only. In order to evaluate these strategies, three second-grade classrooms were randomly assigned, without replacement, to the various intervention strategies. Six struggling readers from each class participated as a cohort. Additionally, a Control group made up of two students from each of the three participating classrooms was pre‐ and posttested. Findings indicated substantive differences in favor of the students in the Wide-Reading and Repeated Reading groups for word recognition in isolation, prosody, and correct words per minute and for the Wide Reading group in terms of comprehension.

Helping Students Become Accurate, Expressive Readers: Fluency Instruction for Small Groups

Effective approaches to fluency instruction should facilitate automatic and accurate word recognition as well as the ability to read with expression. The study reported in this article focused on instructional approaches that can be used with small groups of learners within a broader literacy curriculum, one that is suitable for flexible grouping. It also explored the relationship between fluent reading and comprehension. Twenty-four struggling second-grade readers were selected to take part in the interventions. The research evaluated two approaches for assisting learners who were making the transition to fluent reading: a modified repeated reading approach, and a scaffolded wide-reading approach in which learners read equivalent amounts of text without the use of repetition. A listening-only group, designed to serve as a Hawthorne control, and a control group were also included. Results indicate that the students in the wide-reading and repeated reading groups demonstrated growth in terms of word recognition in isolation, prosody, and correct words per minute, and that the wide-reading group also demonstrated growth in terms of comprehension. Suggestions for integrating these approaches with the literacy curriculum are discussed.

Insights into Fluency Instruction: Short- and Long-Term Effects of Two Reading Programs.

The purpose of the study was to examine short- and long-term effects of two instructional approaches designed to improve the reading fluency of second-grade children: Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (or FORI; Stahl & Heubach, 2005) and a wide reading approach (Kuhn et al., 2006). By the end of second grade, children in the wide reading classrooms showed better fluency and self-concept compared to children in control classrooms. Classroom observations indicated children in FORI classrooms were more likely to be off-task than controls. However, by the end of third grade, children in both programs displayed better comprehension. We conclude that extensive and long-term focus on the oral reading of complex texts using practices that scaffold reading in second grade is beneficial for the long-term development of reading comprehension skills.

The Family Fluency Program.

One goal of reading instruction is to help children become fluent readers. When children are fluent they read automatically, decoding words quickly and accurately (Kuhn & Stahl, 2003). Fluent readers read with prosody— that is, they use the appropriate pitch, pace, phrasing, and expression (Schreiber, 1987, 1991). Fluent reading aids comprehension. According to the report of the U.S. National Reading Panel (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD], 2000), fluency is a predictor of reading success. Although it has been found that fluency is a major goal in reading instruction, teachers are not as familiar as they should be with fluency strategies, and they are not using them regularly (Rasinski, 1989). It is often assumed that if students can decode they will become fluent. Research has indicated that this is not necessarily so, and therefore students need training in fluency strategies (Allington, 1983; Reutzel, 1996). The success of a literacy program, to a certain extent, depends on the literacy environment at home. Successful family literacy programs promote parent-child interaction with many types of literacy events (Wasik, 2004). Involving parents as an integral part of literacy instruction is crucial. Letting parents know how they can help to support the school program at home is important, but home–school programs need to be easy to use. Materials sent home should be introduced to children in school first. The content should be non-threatening and the activities need to be enjoyable (Morrow, Scoblionko, & Shafer, 1995; Morrow & Young, 1997). In a meta-analysis of 20 interventions involving 1,583 families (Senechal, 2003), results clearly showed that parent involvement had a positive effect on children’s reading acquisition. The most effective form of parent involvement, producing the best results, was training parents to use a specific reading strategy that their children were working on in school (Darling & Westberg, 2004). While reviewing literature about family literacy we found many programs that dealt with very young children (e.g., Even Start and Head Start for preschoolers and their parents), but few that dealt with children in the primary grades and beyond (Wasik, 2004). Teachers, other school personnel, and parents must communicate and collaborate with one another to contribute to children’s literacy growth. This is particularly important in schools with diverse populations (Casanova, 1987; Chavkin & Gonzalez, 1995). In the Family Fluency Program our goal was to heighten the awareness of parents, children, and teachers concerning the important roles they collectively play in the literacy development of children. The Family Fluency Program introduced parents whose children were in a fluency program at school to strategies for use at home that would engage their children in fluency development experiences. We wanted to find out if the parents involved in the fluency workshop sessions did the following: -engaged in fluency building activities at home, developed heightened awareness about the importance of fluency training in their child’s literacy development, and increased the level of literacy involvement at home with their children. The Family Fluency Program was part of a larger investigation called Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (FORI; Stahl, Heubach, & Cramond, 1997). Before we discuss the Family Fluency Program, it is important to describe the context in which the program was embedded.