Teaching Children to Become Fluent and Automatic Readers

• Published in: Journal of literacy research Vol. 38; no. 4; pp. 357 - 387
• Main Authors: Kuhn, Melanie R., Schwanenflugel, Paula J., Morris, Robin D., Morrow, Lesley Mandel, Woo, Deborah Gee, Meisinger, Elizabeth B., Sevcik, Rose A., Bradley, Barbara A., Stahl, Steven A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.01.2006; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Children & youth; Comparative Analysis; Grade 2; Instructional design; Learning; Literacy; Oral Reading; Reading; Reading Comprehension; Reading Fluency; Reading Instruction; Reading promotion; Scaffolding; Scaffolding (Teaching Technique); Studies; Teaching; Teaching Methods
• ISSN: 1086-296X; 1554-8430
• DOI: 10.1207/s15548430jlr3804_1

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 Heubach's (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.