Oral+Reading+Fluency+Methods

Most reading fluency interventions for at-risk learners involve having the student read aloud. For promoting fluency, Vaughn and Bos recommend the following guidelines for teacher-directed previewing of books to be read aloud.
 * 1) Select a book or story that is close to the student's instructional reading level (approximately 90 percent accuracy level.)
 * 2) Introduce the book or story to the student and review potentially difficult words.
 * 3) Read the story to the student at a conversational rate (120 to 140 words per minute) or at a rate consistent with the fluency standards for the students age or maturity.
 * 4) Pair the student with a student partner and have the students take turns reading with the better reader reading first.
 * 5) Have the students review difficult words.
 * 6) Use a fluency measure to monitor the progress of each student frequently.

Neurological Impress Method

 * Developed to teach reading to students with severe reading disabilities
 * Methods consist of joint oral reading at a rapid pace by the student and the teacher.
 * Based on the theory that students can learn by hearing their own voice and someone else's voice jointly reading the same material
 * The student is seated slightly in front of the teacher, and the teacher's voice is directed into the student's ear at a close range and no preparation of the material before the joint reading needed.
 * First the teacher should read slightly louder and faster than the student, who should be encouraged to maintain the pace and not worry about mistakes
 * As the student becomes capable of leading the oral reading, the teacher can speak more softly and read slightly slower,and the student's finger can point to the reading.
 * Instruction begins at a level slightly below what the student can successfully read.
 * **The basic goal is for the student to attain fluent reading automatically** and the neurological impress method emphasizes rapid decoding and can be used with students who spend too much time sounding out words and do not read fluently.

Repeated Readings

 * Most young children thoroughly enjoy having the same books read to them repeatedly.
 * A student becomes very familiar with the text, and the student's memory becomes a great aid to his or her reading.
 * The student reads the story enough to become fluent and confident when reading it.
 * Repeated readings enable the student to identify some unknown words with the help of memory and the flow of the story.
 * Requires the student to reread a short, meaningful passage several times until a satisfactory level of fluency (for students beyond third grade, 100 correct words per minute with two errors) is reached. The procedure then is repeated with a new passage.
 * Repeated readings thus emphasize reading rate on a single passage rather than single words, and identification of words in context must be fast as well as accurate.
 * 1) Use repeated readings consistently (four or five times weekly) to increase the reading level, fluency, and comprehension of students who experience difficulty learning to read.
 * 2) Use reading materials that are in the student's instructional range (90 percent accuracy).
 * 3) Have the student read passages until the target fluency rate is achieved (three to five times).
 * 4) Allow multiple readings or practice readings prior to timing the reading to improve fluency.
 * 5) Provide adult feedback and guidance during readings.
 * 6) Use decodable or predictable text as much as possible.
 * 7) Review difficult words prior to timing the reading.
 * 8) Model fluent reading.
 * 9) Use goal setting, graph the student's progress, and share the graph with the student.
 * **Repeated readings significantly improve students' word recognition, fluency, and comprehension.**
 * Can be used in a variety of learning arrangements, such as small group instruction such as choral reading, peer reading with pairs, and learning centers.
 * Comprehension practice can be provided through activities involving the cloze and maze procedure ( reading the passage and filling in the blanks for omitted words with the words that can complete phrases or sentences correctly.)

Recorded Repeated Readings
Teaching Students with Learning Problems, 8th Edition, Cecil D. Mercer; Ann R. Mercer; Paige C. Pullen (2011)
 * Student can listen to the stories while simultaneously reading the text, or the student can simply follow the printed text while listening to the audio recorded book. The read-along procedure is repeated until the student can read the story alone.
 * 1) Select interesting books or passages within the student's instructional range( 90 percent accuracy).
 * 2) Audiotape the passage with a quality recorder using a conversational rate with proper phrasing and expression. Record cues on the tape to help the student keep his or her place. For example, allow 10 seconds of blank tape in the beginning, remind the student to use strategies, use a signal cue for turning the page, announce the page number for each page, and instruct the student to put a finger on the first word on the page prior to beginning to read.
 * 3) Record about 10 minutes on each side of the tape, and label each side of the tape with the title of the book and the page numbers.
 * 4) Store each tape and corresponding book in a clear plastic bag.
 * 5) Have students make a reading folder to include forms on which the student can record information on books read.
 * 6) Consider the use of computer software to offer another method for repeated readings, For example, Wiggleworks (produced by Scholastic) provides opportunities for the student to listen to recorded stories and read along with the recording, and it also enables the student to record his or her own reading.
 * The tape recorded repeated readings method yields the best results out of the three methods.