Steven A. Stahl

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.

The Effects of Vocabulary Instruction: A Model-Based Meta-Analysis

This paper reports a meta-analysis of studies concerned with the effects of vocabulary instruction on the learning of word meanings and on comprehension. This analysis was used to examine two questions: Does vocabulary instruction have a significant effect on children’s comprehension of text? What types of vocabulary instruction are most effective? In response to the first question, a mean effect size of .97 could be attributed to vocabulary instruction for comprehension of passages containing taught words and of .30 for global measures of comprehension, both of which are significantly different from zero. For the second question, it was suggested that the most effective vocabulary teaching methods included both definitional and contextual information in their programs, involved the students in deeper processing, and gave the students more than one or two exposures to the to-be-learned words. In addition, the mnemonic keyword method was found to have reliable effects on recall of definitions and sentence comprehension.

Systematic Phonics Instruction Helps Students Learn to Read: Evidence from the National Reading Panel’s Meta-Analysis

A quantitative meta-analysis evaluating the effects of systematic phonics instruction compared to unsystematic or no-phonics instruction on learning to read was conducted using 66 treatment-control comparisons derived from 38 experiments. The overall effect of phonics instruction on reading was moderate, d = 0.41. Effects persisted after instruction ended. Effects were larger when phonics instruction began early (d = 0.55) than after first grade (d = 0.27). Phonics benefited decoding, word reading, text comprehension, and spelling in many readers. Phonics helped low and middle SES readers, younger students at risk for reading disability (RD), and older students with RD, but it did not help low achieving readers that included students with cognitive limitations. Synthetic phonics and larger-unit systematic phonics programs produced a similar advantage in reading. Delivering instruction to small groups and classes was not less effective than tutoring. Systematic phonics instruction helped children learn to read better than all forms of control group instruction, including whole language. In sum, systematic phonics instruction proved effective and should be implemented as part of literacy programs to teach beginning reading as well as to prevent and remediate reading difficulties.

Whole Language and Language Experience Approaches for Beginning Reading: A Quantitative Research Synthesis

To examine the effects of whole language and language experience approaches on beginning reading achievement, a quantitative synthesis was performed on two data bases: the five projects conducted as part of the United States Office of Education (USOE) first grade studies and 46 additional studies comparing basal reading approaches to whole language or language experience approaches. The results of both analyses suggest that, overall, whole language/language experience approaches and basal reader approaches are approximately equal in their effects, with several exceptions. First, whole language/language experience approaches may be more effective in kindergarten than in first grade. Second, they may produce stronger effects on measures of word recognition than on measures of reading comprehension. Third, more recent studies show a trend toward stronger effects for the basal reading program relative to whole language/language experience methods. Fourth, whole language/language experience approaches produce weaker effects with populations labeled specifically as disadvantaged than they do with those not specifically labeled. Finally, studies with higher rated quality tend to produce lower effect sizes and the lowest effect sizes were found in studies that evaluated existing programs, as opposed to newly implemented experimental programs. These results are discussed within a stage model of reading that suggests that whole language/language experience approaches might be most effective for teaching functional aspects of reading, such as print concepts and expectations about reading, whereas more direct approaches might be better at helping students master word recognition skills prerequisite to effective comprehension.

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.

What Happens When Students Read Multiple Source Documents in History

Some educators (e.g., Ravitch, 1992) have suggested that students use multiple source documents to study history. Such documents could be primary sources, such as legislative bills or eyewitness accounts; secondary sources, such as editorials; or tertiary sources, such as textbooks. This study examined the processes used when high school students were presented documents about a controversial incident in U.S. history, the Tonkin Gulf Incident and its aftermath. These students were asked to read these either to describe or develop an opinion about the incident or the Senate action on the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. We were interested in (a) whether students could develop a rich, mental model of a historical event, (b) what they would do with the document information, (c) how the task influenced their processing of information, (d) how students integrated information across texts, and (e) whether students engaged in corroborating, sourcing, and contextualizing in evaluating historical materials. We found that the mental models created by these students were more internally consistent after reading at least two documents, but did not become more consistent after that. When compared to knowledgeable readers, they failed to make any growth after a first reading. Examining their notes, we found that students tended to take literal notes, regardless of the final task, suggesting that they were using the initial readings to garner the facts about the incident or the resolution. If students were asked for a description, they tended to stay close to the text. If asked for an opinion, however, they tended to ignore the information in the texts they read, even though they may have taken copious notes. Our observations suggest that high school students may not be able to profit from multiple texts, especially those presenting conflicting opinions, without some specific instruction in integrating information from different texts. ALGUNOS EDUCADORES (por ej. Ravitch, 1992) han sugerido que los estudiantes usan documentos de diversas fuentes para estudiar historia. Estos documentos pueden ser fuentes primarias, como por ejemplo declaraciones del Congreso o relatos de testigos presenciales, fuentes secundarias, como por ejemplo editoriales, o fuentes terciarias, como los libros de texto. Este estudio examino los procesos usados por estudiantes de escuela secundaria al presentarseles documentos acerca de un incidente controvertido de la historia de los Estados Unidos, el incidente del golfo de Tonkin y sus consecuencias. Se solicito a los estudiantes que leyeran estos documentos para describir o desarrollar una opinion acerca del incidente o de la accion del Senado respecto de la Resolucion del golfo de Tonkin. Nos interesaba investigar: (a) si los estudiantes podian desarrollar un modelo mental rico sobre un evento historico, (b) que harian con la informacion de los documentos, (c) como influenciaba la tarea el procesamiento de la informacion, (d) como integraban los estudiantes la informacion de distintos textos y (e) si los estudiantes procedian a corroborar, buscar las fuentes y contextualizar durante la evaluacion de los materiales historicos. Encontramos que los modelos mentales creados por estos estudiantes eran mas consistentes internamente luego de la lectura de al menos dos documentos, pero su consistencia no aumentaba despues de eso. Cuando se los comparo con lectores conocedores del tema, no lograron hacer ningun progreso despues de una primera lectura. Al examinar sus notas, encontramos que los estudiantes tendieron a tomar nota literalmente, sin tener en cuenta la tarea final, lo que sugiere que usaron las lecturas iniciales para reunir el conjunto de los hechos acerca del incidente o la resolucion. Cuando se les pidio una descripcion, tendieron a permanecer muy ligados al texto. Cuando se les pidio una opinion, sin embargo, tendieron a ignorar la informacion de los textos, aun cuando hubieran tomado abundantes notas. Nuestras observaciones sugieren que los estudiantes de escuela secundaria parecen no poder beneficiarse con el uso de multiples textos, especialmente aquellos que presentan opiniones conflictivas, si no se les da instruccion especifica acerca de la integracion de informacion de distintos textos. EINIGE PADAGOGEN (z.B. Ravitch, 1992) schlugen vor, das Schuler/innen unterschiedliche historische Quellen zum Studium der Geschichte lesen sollten. Solche Dokumente konnen Primarquellen sein, z.B. Kongresakte oder Augenzeugenberichte, Sekundarquellen, wie z.B. Zeitungsberichte, oder Tertiarquellen, wie z.B. Lehr- oder Geschichtsbucher. Diese Studie untersuchte die Vorgange, als Highschool-Schuler/inne/n Dokumente uber kontroversielle Ereignisse der amerikanischen Geschichte, z.B. den Vorfall am Tonkin-Golf und dessen Nachwirkungen, vorgelegt wurden. Die Schuler/innen wurden gebeten, diese Dokumente zu lesen und diese zu beschreiben, oder sich eine Meinung uber den Vorfall oder die Masnahmen des Senats in Form der Tonkin-Golf-Resolution zu bilden. Unser Interesse richtete sich darauf, ob a) die Schuler/innen eine reiche, geistige Vorstellung von dem historischen Ereignis entwickeln konnten; b) was sie mit den Informationsquellen machten; c) wie die Aufgabenstellung ihren Wissenserwerb beeinfluste; d) wie die Schuler/innen die Informationen der einzelnen Texte transferierten und e) ob die Schuler/innen sich in der Auswertung des historischen Materials engagierten, indem sie dieses bestatigten, ausfindig machten und Sinnzusammenhange herstellten. Wir fanden heraus, das das Geschichtsbild, das sich die Schuler/innen geschaffen hatten, gefestigter war, wenn mindestens zwei Dokumente gelesen wurden, aber mit mehr nicht besser wurde. Verglichen mit gutinformierten Lesern zeigten sie keinen Wissenzuwachs nach dem ersten Lesen. Bei der Untersuchung ihrer Bemerkungen fanden wir heraus, das Schuler/innen dazu neigten, wortgetreue Bemerkungen zu machen, ohne auf das Lernziel zu achten, was den Schlus nahelegt, das sie die ersten Leseeindrucke verwendeten, um die Fakten uber den Vorfall oder die Resolution im Gedachtnis zu speichern. Wenn die Schuler/innen um eine Beschreibung gefragt wurden, tendierten sie dazu, nahe am Text zu bleiben. Wenn sie um ihre Meinung gefragt wurden, neigten sie jedoch dazu, die im Text gelesenen Informationen zu negieren, auch wenn sie sich umfangreiche Notizen gemacht hatten. Unsere Beobachtungen legen den Schlus nahe, das Higschool-Schuler/innen noch nicht imstande sind, von verschiedenen Informationsquellen zu profitieren, besonders wenn diese einander widersprechende Meinungen ergeben und wenn keine ausdruckliche Anweisung erfolgt, Informationen aus verschiedenen Texten miteinander zu kombinieren.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Phonics (But Were Afraid to Ask)

The authors review basic principles underlying word learning and phonics instruction. These principles are applicable to many primary-grade classrooms. They then discuss approaches to teaching phonics. Finally, they draw some tentative conclusions on how an integrated language arts program that includes phonics might look in a first-grade classroom.

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.

Differential Word Knowledge and Reading Comprehension

This study examined the effects of vocabulary pre-instruction on reading comprehension. Two vocabulary training treatments, chosen on the basis of a theoretical framework for vocabulary instruction, and a control were used with 28 average fifth-grade readers. For two of three order groups, both training treatments produced significantly higher scores on passage tests, and, for all children, both training treatments produced significantly higher scores on two sentence comprehension measures and a multiple-choice synonym test, indicating that pre-instruction had a significant effect on both comprehension and vocabulary learning. In addition, a mixed method of vocabulary instruction, or one which provided both definitional and contextual information about the taught words, produced significantly higher comprehension scores than did a definitional method.