Despite recent findings that show fluency deficits in developmental readers, the field of developmental reading remains remiss in fluency instruction. This article provides a summary intended to increase college reading teachers'... more
Despite recent findings that show fluency deficits in developmental readers, the field of developmental reading remains remiss in fluency instruction. This article provides a summary intended to increase college reading teachers' understanding of reading fluency and fluency instruction. In addition, included are the step-by-step procedures of fluency interventions (Repeated Readings and Wide Reading) conducted by the author with developmental readers.
Recent investigations challenge the construct validity of sustained silent reading tests. Performance of two groups of post-secondary students (e.g. struggling and nonstruggling) on a sustained silent reading test and two types of cloze... more
Recent investigations challenge the construct validity of sustained silent reading tests. Performance of two groups of post-secondary students (e.g. struggling and nonstruggling) on a sustained silent reading test and two types of cloze test (i.e. maze and open-ended) was compared in order to identify the test format that contributes greater variance in reading comprehension. One hundred participants were recruited from students enrolled in a preparatory course for a high-stakes statewide reading examination. Our results suggest that all three measures have good concurrent validity. There was no evidence that open-ended cloze performance was more related to verbal ability than any other reading measure. Maze performance did the best job at discriminating between our struggling and non-struggling readers. Implications for reading comprehension assessment in post secondary-aged adults are discussed.
Effects of wide reading and repeated readings were examined on struggling college readers' silent reading rate and reading comprehension relative to a vocabulary study control condition. Randomly assigned to a condition, community college... more
Effects of wide reading and repeated readings were examined on struggling college readers' silent reading rate and reading comprehension relative to a vocabulary study control condition. Randomly assigned to a condition, community college students (N = 30) completed 25-min sessions individually in class three times a week for three weeks. Significant gains were made by wide reading (Cohen's d = 1.05) and repeated readings (Cohen's d = 0.72) in silent reading rate. No other effects were significant. Repeated readings appeared to encourage skimming whereas wide reading appeared to encourage careful processing of print. Instructional implications and future directions are discussed.
