Theory and Related Research 

     Statement of the Problem         Efforts to Solve Problem               Exemplary Practice           

Theoretical Underpinnings         Background in Using Exemplary Practice      Key Definitions            

Justification for Research           Literature Review

 

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Abstract

Biographical Data

Theory and Related Research

Project Design

Discussion of Findings

Analysis of Data

Conclusions and Implications

References

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

                    Spelling instruction is one of the most debated aspects of the language arts curriculum (Heald-Taylor, 1998).  Parents often argue that formal traditional programs are necessary; while on the other hand, teachers realize that one program does not fit all students.   Teachers find themselves stuck in the quandary.  Weekly lists of words to be learned, written exercises requiring student memorization, and ending the week with the test on Friday characterize traditional spelling lessons.   This type of instruction does not work.  For some children, the words are too easy; for some, the words are too hard; and most of the children memorize the words for the test and then forget them.  The students need a spelling program that will target their developmental spelling level.  Teaching at the instructional level will help the child learn spelling patterns that he/she can understand and then apply.  Spelling is a highly complex task.  Student’s spelling errors are not by mistake but a systematic process that follows a developmental sequence (Watson, 2001). A child’s deficit in spelling will affect his/her ability to read a text fluently (Zutell, 1998).  In order to become a proficient speller, a child needs to know how words work.  Children with poor reading skills limit their exposure to spelling patterns that should be encountered in reading of instructional and independent level materials (Laframboise, 1996).  In addition, a child who has a difficult time decoding words and is a reluctant reader may also find writing problematic. Graham, Harris and Chorzempa (2002) determined that a writer who expends an excess of energy on the encoding of words would have no attention left to process his/her thoughts effectively.  Therefore, this research study examined the effect that decoding, encoding and reading fluency have on one another.

 

 

 

       Statement of the Problem

 

            

What effect does teacher intervention of encoding strategies with fourth grade students have on the students’ encoding and decoding fluency as measured by running records, written  responses, and the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA)?

 

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Efforts to Solve the Problem

 

      Over the past decade, there has been a substantial amount of research in the area of developmental spelling instruction.   Word study is not a one size fits all program of instruction that begins in the same place for all learners (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnson, 2004). Learning is a developmental process; not everyone progresses at the same rate.  Vygotsky’s  (1978) theory of cognitive development presents the view that learning is both socially based and integrated (Kamil, Mosenthal, Pearson, & Barr, 2000). Critical to the construction of knowledge is the social interactions that is viewed at a child’s zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, as cited in Pressley, 2006). 

 

       Knowledgeable educators have come to know that word study instruction must match the needs of the learner. This level is known as the instructional level.  One of the easiest ways to know what a student needs to learn is to examine his/her spelling of words.  A student’s spelling provides a window into how he/she believes the spelling system works. By interpreting what students do when they spell, educators can target a specific student's “zone of proximal development” (Vygotsky, as cited in Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, Johnson) and plan word study lessons that the student is conceptually ready to master. Developmental spelling research suggests six stages of spelling knowledge through which learners pass (prephonemic, early letter naming, letter naming, within-word pattern, syllable juncture, derivational) (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnson, Invernizzi, Abouzeid, & Gill, 1994, Watson, 2001).  A student's development in spelling reflects his/her growth in sophistication of knowledge about letters and sounds, and how they are related (Bear & Templeton, 1998).  In order for the students to progress through the various stages of developmental spelling and increase their word knowledge, the educator must allow for the manipulation of words through sorting activities (Zutell, 1998). While the child is building word knowledge, the teacher must also increase the child’s ability to recognize the words in text through repeated readings, both silent and oral (Rasinski, 2003). The oral readings will allow the teacher to gain knowledge of how the child implements learned strategies.  As the student becomes more proficient in his/her reading and spelling, his/her written thoughts develop as well.  There is a link between reading, writing, and spelling.  Children who have increased word attack skills also have better sentence structure and writing fluency (Graham, Harris, & Chorzempa, 2002). 

 

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Exemplary Practice

 

Literacy is comprised of different components: orthography, reading, oral language, stories, and writing.  This composition of components is referred to as the Literacy Braid (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnson, 2004).  The strength of the braid becomes stronger as the child acquires more literacy knowledge.   Each component of the Literacy Braid needs to be taught when the child is developmentally ready.  This readiness is referred to as the “zone of proximal development” (Vygotsky as cited in Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnson).  When students are instructed at their developmental level of word knowledge, the teacher can secure the foundation of word study and build upon it.  This type of instruction allows the student to move forward through the stages of word study.  The development of orthographic knowledge describes the growing knowledge of words as a continuum of chronological ordered phases of knowledge (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnson).  Students move through the developmental stages from the easier one to one correspondence of letter sound relationships to the more difficult and abstract relationships of sound associations. Unless the child is developmentally ready for the next stage, spelling instruction is a waste of time (Invernizzi, Abouzeid, & Gill, 1994). When teachers focus instruction on the proximal zone, they can increase progress toward an advanced writing vocabulary. As the student matures in his/her orthographic knowledge, his/her writing fluency improves as well.  Reading, writing, and spelling are all ongoing components of literacy.  Each one is dependent on the other. When component improves, all others components benefit. 

 

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Theoretical Underpinnings

 

                      Learning is a developmental process. This refers to changes in the “complexity and organization of behavioral processes and structures relating to growth over the course of the life span” (Harris & Hodges, 1995, p.135).   In other words, it begins at birth and keeps developing throughout the life of a person.  The first teachers of learning are all the adults with whom the baby interacts. Experiences during meals, social interactions, reading at bedtime, singing, etc., stimulate the literacy and language learning of the child.  Lev S. Vygotsky, (1978) believed that many of the skills a child acquires reflect internalization of thinking first carried out by the child and adults in interaction (Pressley, 2006).   If the child comes from a literate rich environment, the child will have a great appreciation for reading and writing. The healthiest of environments for the development of literacy during the school years are ones in which literate interactions are part of the natural fun of home life (Pressley).   Literacy researchers are trying to find a way to impact families so that emergent literacy interactions begin at infancy as to give each child a positive beginning to literacy and language learning.  

  

                    Reading and writing is also a linguistic process involving the thinking that all children acquire language skills innately (Chomsky, 1957 as cited in Rudell, Rudell, & Singer, 1994) and unravel naturally when given exposure to communication in the environment (Pearson & Stephens, as cited in Rudell, Rudell, & Singer).   In addition, language acquisition is a rule-governed process (Pearson & Stephens, as cited in Rudell, Rudell, & Singer).  Children, as they grow, seem to generalize the rules about how oral language works.  They learn that the past tense involves an “ed”. Therefore, having learned this, they insert an “ed” to all the words involving something that happened to them in the past. “I eated my lunch” and “I getted a new toy”. Chomsky (1957) argued that children were innately predisposed to learn language, and that they inferred rules of language and then tested them out.  When the children are corrected or are old enough to learn about exceptions to the rules, they begin to incorporate them into their reading and writing.  The linguistic process also involves the property of stress, and the property of juncture and typographical features.  The property of stress tells the listener what part of the sentence to listen closely to: (a) Chris won the award. (b)  Chris won the award. (c) Chris won the award.  Juncture is the property of sound that allows us to discriminate between I scream and ice cream. Typographical features are such things as underlining, boldface type, and italics (Pearson & Stephens, as cited in Rudell, Rudell, & Singer).   Noam Chomsky (1957) drew two basic and contrasting facts about language: (a) language is incredibly complex, and (b) language is acquired easily and naturally by children living in an environment in which they are simply exposed to (rather than taught!) the language of their community before they get to school (Pearson & Stephens, as cited in Rudell, Rudell, & Singer). 

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                    Fluency in decoding and encoding requires the knowledge of the alphabetic principle.  The alphabetic principle is when children understand that the twenty-six letters stand for the sounds that occur in spoken words (Pressley, 2006).  Along with learning the alphabetic principle, the child also begins to learn about the exceptions (when some letters represent different sounds depending on the other letters around it).  There are approximately 43 – 46 letter sound associations.   In order to begin to gain such knowledge, a child should  be exposed to a rich literate environment. The environment should  include   speaking, listening, reading, and writing.  All these tasks are interrelated and require the use of language.  Although these literacy behaviors build upon each other, one might say that the development of oral language is the foundation for reading and writing. A child’s ability to listen and speak develops before one enters school.  Most children who enter school have the basic skills to communicate, and throughout their schooling, these skills continue to progress in complexity (Wilkinson & Silliman, 2000). Children should have numerous opportunities for the integration of oral and written language in the classroom. Adults should support and encourage the development of the child's literate cognition, and at the same time, develop their own understanding of how children learn literacy (Wilkinson & Silliman).  Vygotsky’s (1978) theory states that learning is social, integrated, and requires active student engagement in classroom activities and interaction.  Therefore, using language effectively in the classroom encourages children to understand and internalize new concepts, ideas, and strategies, which promote the development of reading and writing (Wilkinson & Silliman). Good readers have the ability to have meaningful discussions about text and integrate their knowledge of sophisticated vocabulary from reading into their writing.  Since reading and writing develop simultaneously, children who exhibit proficiency in their reading ability will more than likely be proficient writers.

 

                   Sight words are words that are recognized by sight, without the need for analysis   (Harris & Hodges, 1995). These words are recognized and understood quickly and easily, with little thought.  Skilled readers use immediate word recognition, based on semantic or physical word features, for 99% of the words they read (Vacca et al., 2006).  It is essential that developing literates increase their sight word vocabulary so that they recognize words immediately and therefore are able to attend more mental energy towards comprehending text.

 

                   Automaticity is effortless processing of information.  This processing is in fact “automatic” and requires little mental attention.  Sight words are recognized with automaticity (Harris and Hodges, 1995).  Developing readers need to develop immediate word recognition or automaticity so that the majority of their mental effort is focused on comprehending text.

 

                   Reading fluency is characterized by smooth, easy, and automatic reading.  The word "prosody" is often associated with fluent reading; prosody is fluent reading that approximates the sound patterns, pitch, and expressiveness of natural speech.  When developing automated, fluent reading, students learn to use both phrasing cues and graphic features to learn how to put words together in phrases that convey meaning (Vacca et al., 2006).  

 

                    When children begin to write down their thoughts at an early age, they use what is referred to as invented spelling (Invernizzi, Abouzeid, & Gill, 1994).  The children may only use the initial and final sounds of words when writing their sentences.  This is their “zone of proximal development” (Vygotsky, as cited in Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnson, 2004). Theorists conclude that when teachers focus instruction on the proximal zone, they can facilitate increase progress toward an advanced writing vocabulary (Invernizzi, Abouzeid, & Gill).  

 

 

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Background in Using the Exemplary Practice

 

                     The researcher has explored the practice of developmental spelling. She has found that “one-size fits all” does not work in the area of spelling.  Some students do not need to study for the weekly spelling test, and others  struggle with the words.   The school system that she works in does not have an adopted spelling program. Each teacher is required to create his or her own spelling curriculum.  Some teachers use words from the anthology, others from daily writing, and still others, high frequency words for fourth-grade students. There is no cohesiveness within the school as far as spelling instruction is concerned.  However, everyone (except the researcher) has the philosophy that there is one list for all students.

 

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  Definition of Key Terms

 

1.                  Developmental Spelling is spelling instruction at the student’s zone of proximal development.  The teacher administers a spelling inventory test that spans the five levels of spelling development.  Then the teacher analyzes the spelling errors to determine the instructional level of the student.

 

2.                  Digraph is two letters that represent one speech sound, as ch for /ch/ in chin or ea for /e/ in bread. (Harris & Hodges, 1995).

 

3.                  Diphthong is a vowel sound produced when the tongue moves or glides from one vowel sound toward another vowel or semivowel sound in the same syllable as /i/ in buy and the vowel sounds in bee, bay, boo, boy, and bough.. (Harris & Hodges, 1995).

 

4.                  Reading Fluency is known as the ability to decode words quickly and accurately with smooth flow and expression without hesitation.  Educators want their students to be fluent readers.  In order to become a fluent reader, the student needs to be an automatic decoder.  When automaticity is in place, there is cognitive ability for comprehension. When a student is reading fluently, he/she is reading at his/her independent reading level.

 

5.                  Orthography is the study of the nature and use of symbols in a writing system (Harris & Hodges, 1995).

 

6.                   Writing Fluency is the clear and easy flow of written expression of ideas. Letter sound correspondence, phonics, spelling patterns, high frequency word recognition, and word meaning, and other word attributes are the basis  of written word knowledge (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, Johnson, 2004).

 

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Justification for Research Study

 

 

The study is being conducted for the following reasons:

 

Ø                                          To establish if, in fact, a developmental spelling curriculum assists students with the

                         ability  to learn and internalize spelling pattern.

 

Ø                                          To verify students’ developmental spelling level. 

 

Ø                                           To convince other colleagues that developmental spelling is in the best interest of the

                          students.

 

Ø                                          To determine if decoding and encoding fluency is increased when student’s spelling

                         strategies are improved.  

 

 

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 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

 

                         In order to support the justification of the research, a review of the literature has been completed, tying together the many facets of how decoding and encoding difficulties are related to reading and writing fluency.  Many students lack the ability to decode and encode words properly, and as a result, their reading fluency suffers.  There are many literacy components that a child needs that   lead to the ability for decoding and encoding of words.  All of the components are equally important and are interconnected within what is referred to as the literacy braid (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnson, 2004). The literacy braid is the interconnection of orthography, reading, oral language, stories, and writing. As the students mature as readers and writers, the threads of the literacy braid are strengthened through direct instruction in school and oral language that the students are exposed to during read alouds and daily discourse.

 

Decoding and Encoding:

 

                        Decoding simply means the ability to generate a phonological – or sound-representation of each printed word on the page (Samuels, 2006).  Encoding simply means to change an oral language into writing, encode an idea into words (Harris & Hodges, 1995).  When  children enter school, their decoding and encoding ability relies on  phonological awareness, and as they advance, their spelling strategies. Spelling is not only a subject in school, but also a functional writing skill. To increase a child’s reading ability, a teacher must start with phonics instruction (Savage, 2004).  Many struggling readers are struggling spellers as well.

   

                        Spelling instruction is a controversial topic with many educators. Some educators feel that spelling instruction should be taught as a whole class lesson (Zutell, 1998), while others feel that spelling is a developmental process and needs small group instruction (Heald-Taylor, 1998). Child-centered instruction is in the best interest of the student’s enhancement of spelling knowledge (Ganske, 1999).This process can be time consuming as well as difficult, especially when the capabilities of students within a class are likely to span several grades and represent several stages of spelling development.  Mastering spelling patterns has been shown to be a highly complex intellectual achievement rather than a low-order memory task (Watson, 1988).   Research has shown that there is a link between delayed readers and poor spellers (Jitentra, Edwards, Starosta, Sacks, Jacobson, & Choutka, 2004). The students are caught in a catch-22 situation.  Their poor reading skills limit their exposure to spelling patterns that should be encountered in reading instruction and independent level materials (Laframboise, 1996).  Reading and spelling should be taught in conjunction with one another.  The increase of opportunities to reading and write also enhance the development of phonemic awareness and word recognition, both of which are predictors of future reading and spelling success (Laframboise, 1996).  A student does not notice everything while reading that is seen in text, but what is noticed is a reflection of the student’s word knowledge.  Repeated exposure to invariant spelling patterns while reading instructional material becomes what is noticed and allows the child to  construct the next level of phonological and word knowledge, leading to new understanding of orthographic concepts necessary for fluent reading.  On the other hand, without these underlying orthographic principles, students will continue to struggle with both reading and spelling, further limiting their exposure to text (Gill & Scharer, 1993). As a starting point, the teacher needs to assess the student’s knowledge base of phonemic awareness (Bear & Templeton, 1998).  

        

                      Phonemic awareness is the awareness of the sounds (phonemes) that make up spoken language.  How does one assess phonemic awareness one may ask? Studies have used a variety of tasks.  A task could be as simple as asking a child if two words rhyme through sound- to- word matching and blending, to more challenging tasks such as isolating individual phonemes, segmenting a word into all of its component phonemes, and deleting phonemes (Harris and Hodges, 1995).   Although a young child does not need this awareness to have the ability to speak or to understand speech, he/she does need phonemic awareness to have the ability to read (Harris & Hodges).  In alphabetic languages, letters represent phonemes.  In order to learn the correspondence between the letters and sounds, one must be aware and have an understanding that words are made up of phonemes (Harris & Hodges).  This is not an easy undertaking.  Phonemes are abstract units of sound.  They are made up of individual letters and letter clusters.  When a child pronounces a word, he/she does not pronounce one phoneme at a time. Rather phonemes are folded into one another and are pronounced as a blend (Harris & Hodges, 1995).  Blending means joining together the sounds represented by letters and letter clusters in a word (Vacca et al., 2006). Essentially, the child links sound sequence to letter sequence.   A child must also be able to segment the sounds. Segmenting requires the child to break the words apart. Many children find it much more difficult to segment a word into individual sounds than to segment a word into syllables.  Phonemic awareness should be integrated into the total reading program. A child’s awareness of phonology of his or her own language is now known to be one of the most important predictors of that child’s progress in learning to read and spell (Goswami, 2000).  The children should be reading stories, poems, plays, and trade books.  Children should be made aware that words are streams of sounds that can be disentangled and that sounds can be assembled to produce words (Pressley. 2006).  Children who lack phonemic awareness, a metalinguistic insight that is essential to learning to read, begin their early literacy days at a deficit. 

 

                      Children begin to recognize words at an early age.  As a preschooler rides in the car, he or she may recognize trademarks and signs.  This is reading to a young child.  He/she is performing what is known as  logographic reading (sometimes referred to as visual cue reading; e.g., Ehri, 1991 as cited in Pressley, 2006), which involves using only salient visual characteristics of a display that includes a word to recognize the word rather than relying on letter-sound correspondence. The child associates a distinctive visual cue with the word.  Thus, a young child can read Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, even Walt Disney’s signature, although it is in script.  Each has a distinctive visual cue.  This is the beginning of associations with words and meaning. 

 

                  Traditional decoding instruction begins with sounding out words, using letter sound relationships.  Preschoolers use letter-sound relationships when they try to write words using the sounds that they know in a word.  This is what is referred to as phonetic cue reading.  This is  “reading” a word based on only a few of its letters (Ehri, 1991 as cited in Pressley, 2006).

 

                    At some point, the child progresses from phonetic cue reading to understand the alphabetic principle.   The alphabetic principle is when children understand that the twenty-six letters stand  for the sounds that occur in spoken words (Pressley, 2006).  Along with learning the alphabetic  principle, the child also begins to learn about the exceptions (when some letters represent  different sounds depending on the other letters around it).  There are approximately 43 – 46 letter sound associations. 

 

                    In order to develop word identification skills, a reader must have explicit instruction in phonics and ample reading and writing opportunities.  Juel & Minden-Cupp identified two types of phonics, synthetic phonics (learning to segment a word into its sounds and blend these sounds-decoding) and phonics by analogy (children taught a spelling pattern using onsets and rimes)  (Juel & Minden-Cupp).  Less skilled readers rely on synthetic phonics where as more skilled readers can learn by analogy.  Juel and Minden-Cupp  believe that all beginning readers should be exposed to synthetic phonics, though once a child learns to decode, other linguistic activities should take place. Many teachers use activities such as songs, poems, word family games, and open and closed word sorts. These types of activities allow the students to work with words using an authentic approach (Mesmer and Griffith, 2005).  This will promote automaticity and greater levels of fluency and comprehension.

 

                     Reading is an interactive process, which includes phonics, vocabulary, and background knowledge skills (Anderson and Fox, 2004).  Knowledge of phonics allows readers to take the print off the page and translate it into words and sentences (Juel &Minden-Cupp,2004).  Individuals who demonstrate strengths in phonics (i.e. decoding, pattern recognition) will be able to identify words immediately in text, allowing the reader to devote more conscious effort to comprehension (Juel & Minden-Cupp).  Spelling is but one of many aspects of word knowledge (Bear & Templeton, 1998).  Oral language concepts and vocabulary are the base for written language development; students build reading, writing, and spelling concepts on this foundation (Bloodgood & Pacifici, 2004).     

 

                    Phonics and vocabulary were deemed word level processes that affect understanding while reading (Pressley, 2000).  Nagy and Scott (2004) identified the close connection between knowing a word and being able to decode it and using it within context to construct meaning from text.   Although most children acquire vocabulary through reading, children continue to require explicit instruction of words encountered in text that includes knowledge in areas such as word meaning, morphemes (e.g. prefixes, suffixes.), and multiple meanings (Nagy & Scott, Pressley, 2000).  Children who have a more complex understanding of word knowledge will be able to construct more informed interpretations of  text while making comparisons to background knowledge (i.e. the knowledge a reader has about a topic or event based on previous experiences) (Harris & Hodges, 1995).

 

                        Sight words are words that are recognized by sight, without the need for word analysis (Harris and Hodges, 1995). These words are recognized and understood quickly and easily, with little thought.  Skilled readers use immediate word recognition, based on semantic or physical word features, for 99% of the words they read (Vacca et al.2006).  It is essential that developing readers increase their sight word vocabulary so that they recognize words immediately and therefore are able to attend more mental energy towards comprehending text.

 

                     Once the students have an understanding of how words work, they are ready for word study (Watson, 1988). Word study is instruction that integrates spelling, phonics, and vocabulary.  To read and write words appropriately and fluently and to appreciate fully how words work in context, instruction must balance authentic reading and writing with word study.  In word study, one does not just teach words, one teaches students processes and strategies for examining and thinking about the words they read and write.  This knowledge, in turn, is applied to new words students encounter when asked to read text and complete writing assignments (Bear & Templeton, 1998).

 

                     However, children who receive early literacy experiences in the home benefit greatly. Early literacy experiences are indirectly related to phonemic awareness, and storybook exposure is indirectly related to  advancement in reading comprehension (Senechal, 2006).

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Fluency in Reading:

 

                    Reading fluency is characterized by smooth, easy, and automatic reading.  The word "prosody" is often associated with fluent reading. Prosody is fluent reading that approximates the sound patterns, pitch, and expressiveness of natural speech.  When developing automated, fluent reading, students learn to use both phrasing cues and graphic features to learn how to put words together in phrases that convey meaning (Vacca et al., 2006).  Fluent reading comprises three elements: accuracy, rate, and prosody. Accurate reading of connected text at a conversational rate with appropriate prosody or expression equals fluency (Hudson, Mercer, & Lane, as cited in Hudson, Lane & Pullen, 2005).  A fluent reader can maintain this performance for long periods of time, can retain the skill after long periods of no practice, and can generalize across the text. A fluent reader is also not easily distracted and reads in a effortless, flowing manner (Hudson, Lane, & Pullen).  The most important reason to focus instruction on fluency is its strong tie to comprehension.  Without accurate word reading, the reader will have no access to the author’s intended meaning. Inaccurate word reading can lead to misinterpretations of the text. Poor automaticity in word reading or slow, laborious movement through the text taxes the reader’s capacity to construct ongoing meaning of the author’s purpose (Hudson, Lane, & Pullen).

 

                      Automaticity is effortless processing of information.  This process is in fact “automatic” and requires little mental attention.  Sight words are recognized with automaticity (Harris and Hodges, 1995).  Beginning readers need to develop immediate word recognition or automaticity so that the majority of their mental effort is focused on comprehending text.  There is limited capacity of attention and working memory in cognitive processing, and that learning one aspect of reading (word identification) to a criterion of automaticity frees the processing space for higher order thinking (comprehension) (LaBerge & Samuels as cited in Hudson, Lane & Pullen, 2005).

 

                      Readers need to be able to identify sight words also known as high frequency words   (as, the, and, at, and to) instantly. If readers are unable to do this, they are unlikely to become fluent readers (Pikulski & Chard, 2005). Stumbling over words constitutes one of the main setbacks on the way to fluency.  It remains in the best interest of the student to become familiar with words they are likely to encounter in reading.  One approach to building familiarity with vocabulary is the use of word walls. Word walls are used to display high frequency vocabulary in the classroom, where the words are highly visible at all times.  The students are invited to participate in the decision of choosing words to put on the words walls and eliminating words as well (Allington, 2001)

 

                      Average and above average-level readers continue to add new words to their vocabulary through reading practice almost everyday.  This continued reading practice adds to their reading fluency Struggling readers need some assistance in this area. Through intense interventions and practice, the struggling reader can regain lost ground in the area of fluency (Torgesen & Hudson, 2006). This being said, children who do not practice reading will never become proficient at reading. For the most part, struggling readers only read what is required of them because reading is so difficult for them. Thus, they avoid reading as much as possible (Allington, 2001).  Educators need to find opportunities to make reading more enjoyable and successful.

 

                      Repeated oral readings can assist struggling readers with the reinforcement of fluency.  Repeated readings increase fluency by having children reread a short meaningful passage several times until satisfactory levels of word-recognition accuracy, speed, and comprehension are achieved (Palumbo & Willcutt, 2006).  Reader’s Theatre will also help to develop reading fluency.  When using Reader’s Theatre,  students work in groups to rehearse and perform a brief play before the class.  Performing can be exciting, and the drive to present well may be a powerful force behind mastering fluency in reading and speech, motivating both struggling and proficient readers (Griffith & Rasinski, 2004).  One of the most beneficial ways to become fluent in reading is to continue reading. With continued reading, the child not only increases fluency but his or her word recognition increases as well (Kuhn, 2005).  Students should read approximately thirty minutes each night for continued practice and consistency (Linan-Thompson, & Hickman-Davis, 2002). Readers are most comfortable and fluent when reading what they have seen before or what they know most about.  When venturing beyond these areas, they must rely on word attack skills and prior knowledge.

 

            The National Institute for Literacy (2001) states the following: 

                  Fluency is not a stage of development at which readers can read all the words quickly and easily at all times.  Fluency changes depending on what readers are reading, their familiarity with the words, and the amount of their practice with reading text.  Even very skilled readers may read in a slow laborious manner when reading texts with many unfamiliar words (as cited in Hollenbeck, 2006 p5).

 

                   Using their background knowledge, readers compare what they read to what they know to construct and/or confirm meaningful interpretations of text (Anderson, 2004; Pressley, 2000).  Background knowledge allows the reader to form inferences to either predict future events in text or interpret ambiguous vocabulary and information (Anderson; Pressley).  Pressley reported that skilled readers make relevant inferences using prior knowledge only when necessary to understand text; where as less skilled readers tend to make irrelevant connections impeding successful comprehension of text. Since background knowledge can strongly influence interpretation and comprehension of words and sentences, it is important for teachers to either activate children’s background knowledge of a subject or provide direct instruction of words and concepts to build background knowledge prior to and during reading for the  reader to form successful interpretations  (Bransford, 2004; Nagy & Scott, 2000; Pressley).  

 

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