Reading fluency in the middle and secondary grades
Keywords:
Reading fluency, Adolescent literacy, Secondary literacy, Prosody, Accumaticity, English language learners, International literacyAbstract
In this article we discuss the specifics of reading fluency and provide suggestions for identifying when
reading is fluent and when it is not. We then discuss the important role that reading fluency plays in
the attainment of literacy achievement and briefly review research results that highlight the
relationship between fluency and comprehension. This is followed by a discussion of reading fluency
and comprehension data gathered by one of the authors in India that highlight the possibilities for the
acquisition of fluent reading in those learning English as a second language. Following a review of
strategies to assist middle and secondary teachers with the development of fluent reading in their
students, we conclude with a discussion of word study strategies that promote syllabic and
morphemic analysis. Such strategies aid readers in the development of word automaticity and
encourage the development of fluent reading.
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References
Aarts, R., & Verhoeven, L. (1999). Literacy attainment in a second language submersion context.
Applied Psycholinguistics, 20, 377-393.
Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read. Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Anthony, J. L., Williams, J. M., Aghara, G. G., Dunkelberger, B. N., & Mukherjee, A. D. (2010). Assessment
of individual differences in phonological representation. Reading & Writing: An Interdisciplinary
Journal, 23(8), 969-994. DOI: 10.1007/s11145-009-9185-7.
Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2012). Words their way (5th ed.). Boston:
Pearson.
Daane, M.C., Campbell, J. R., Grigg, W. S., Goodman, M. J., & Oranje, A. (2005). Fourth-grade students
reading aloud: NAEP 2002 special study of oral reading. Washington, D. C.: U.S. Department of
Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Frazier, L., Carlton, K., & Clifton, C. (2006). Prosodic phrasing is central to language comprehension.
Trends in Cognitive Science, 10(6), 244-249.
Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., & Hosp, M, K., & Jenkins, J. R. (2001). Oral reading fluency as an indicator of
reading competence: A theoretical, empirical, and historical analysis. Scientific Studies of Reading,
5(3), 239-256.
Gambrell, L. B. (1978). Getting started with sustained silent reading and keeping it going. Reading
Teacher, 32, 328-331.
Hasbrouck, J., & Tindal, G. A. (2006). Oral reading fluency norms: A valuable assessment tool for
reading teachers. The Reading Teacher, 59(7), 636-644.
Interagency Committee on Learning Disabilities (1987). Learning disabilities: A report to the U. S.
congress. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office.
Jenkins, J. R., Fuchs, L. S., Espin, C., van den Broek, P., & Deno, S. L. (2003). Sources of individual
differences in reading comprehension and reading fluency. Journal of Educational Psychology,
95(4), 719-729.
Kuhn, M.R., & Stahl, S.A. (2003). Fluency: A review of developmental and remedial practices. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 95(1), 3-21.
Lee-Daniels, S. L., & Murray, B. A. (2000). DEAR me: What does it take to get my students reading?
Reading Teacher, 54, 154-155.
Logan, G. D. (1988). Toward an instance theory of automatization. Psychological Review, 95(4), 492-527.
Lovett, M. W., & Steinbach, K. A. (1997). The effectiveness of remedial programs for reading disabled
children of different ages: Does the benefit decrease for older children? Learning Disability
Quarterly, 20, 189-210.
Low, P., & Siegel, L. S. (2005). A comparison of the cognitive processes underlying reading
comprehension in native and ESL speakers. Written Language and Literacy, 8,207-231.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2000). Report of the National Reading
Panel: Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on
reading and its implications for reading instruction. (NIH Pub. No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U. S.
Government Printing Office.
Paige, D. D. (2008). An evaluation of whole-class choral reading using science text on oral reading fluency
in struggling adolescents. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Memphis.
Paige, D. D. (2011). Engaging struggling adolescent readers through situational interest: A model
proposing the relationships among extrinsic motivation, oral reading fluency, comprehension, and
academic achievement. Reading Psychology, 32(5), 395-425.
Paige, D. D. (2011). 16 minutes with “eyes-on-text” can make a difference: Whole-class choral reading
as an adolescent reading strategy. Reading Horizons, 51(1), 1-20.
Paige, D. D., & Magpuri-Lavell, T. (2011). Unpacking adolescent literacy skills in a high-poverty, urban
high school. In T. Morrison, L. Martin, M. Boggs, & S. Szabo, (Eds.), Literacy promises: The thirty-third
yearbook, a double peer reviewed publication of the Association of Literacy Educators and Researcher:
Vol. 33, (pp. 219-236). Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers: Corpus Christi, TX.
Paige, D. D., Magpuri-Lavell, T., Dinkins, E., & Rasinski, T. V. (2014). Accumaticity and prosody: Smooth
reading partners with comprehension. In preparation.
Paige, D. D., Rasinski, T. V., &Magpuri-Lavell, 2012). Is fluent expressive reading important for high
school readers? Journal of Adult and Adolescent Literacy, 56(1), 67-76.
Paige, D. D., Rasinski, T. V., Magpuri-Lavell, T., & Smith, G. S. (2014). Interpreting the relationships
among prosody, automaticity, accuracy, and silent reading comprehension in secondary students.
Journal of Literacy Research,
Paige, D. D., Spagnoli, V., & Wood, H. (2013). Literacy acquisition in Indian students: A descriptive study
of reading achievement in one English medium school. World Journal of Education, 3(2), 11-23.
doi:10.5430/wje.v3n2p11
Pinnell, G. S., Pikulski, J. J., Wixon, K. K., Campbell, J. R., Gough, P. B., & Beatty. A. S. (1995). Listening to
children read aloud. Washington, D.C.: Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S.
Department of Education.
Perfetti, C. A. (1985). Reading ability. New York: Oxford Press.
Rasinski, T. V., & Padak, N. C. (2005). Fluency beyond the primary grades: Helping adolescent struggling
readers. Voices From the Middle, 13(1), 34-41.
Rasinski, T. V., Padak, N. D., McKeon, C. A., Wilfong, L. G., Friedauer, J. A., & Heim, P. (2005). Is reading
fluency a key for successful high school reading? Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 49(1), 22-27.
Rasinski, T. V., Reutzel, R., Chard, D. & Linan-Thompson, S. (2011). Reading fluency. In M. L., Kamil, P. D.
Pearson, E. B. Moje, & P. Afflerbach (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research (Vol., 4), pp. 296-319.
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Raynor, K., Pollatsek, A., Ashby, J., & Clifton Jr., C. (2012). Psychology of reading (2nd ed.). New York:
Psychology Press.
Samuels, S. J. (2007). The DIBELS tests: Is speed of barking at print what we mean by reading fluency?
Reading Research Quarterly, 42(4), 563-566.
Scammacca, N., Roberts, G., Vaughn, S., Edmonds, N., Wexler, J., Reutebuch, C. K., & Torgeson, J. (2007).
Reading interventions for struggling readers: A meta-analysis with implications for practice.
Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.
Schnatschneider, C., Buck, J., Torgesen, J. K., Wagner, R. K., Hassler, L., Hecht, S., et al. (2004). A
multivariate study of factors that contribute to individual differences in performance on the Florida
Comprehensive Reading Test (Technical Report No. 5). Tallahassee: Florida Center for Reading
Research.
Schwanenflugel, P. J., Meisinger, E. B., Wisenbaker, J. M., Kuhn, M. R., Strauss, G. P., & Morris, R. D.
(2006). Becoming a fluent and automatic reader in the early elementary years. Reading Research
Quarterly, 41(4), 496-522.
Shankweiler, D., Crain, S., Brady, S., & Macarruso, P. (1992). Identifying the causes of reading disabilities.
In D. S. Gough, L. C. Ehri, & R. Treiman (Eds.), Reading acquisition (pp.
275-305). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Shankweiler, D., Crain, S., Katz, L., Fowler, A. E., Liberman, A. M., Brady, S. A., et al. (1995). Cognitive
profiles of reading-disabled children: Comparison of language skills in phonology, morphology,
and syntax. Psychological Science, 6(3), 149-156.
Shaywitz, S. E., Fletcher, J. M., & Shaywitz, B. A. (1994). Issues in the definition and classification of
attention deficit disorder. Topics in Language Disorder, 14(2), 1-25.
Stecker, S. K., Roser, N. L., & Martinez, M. G. (1998). Understanding oral reading fluency. In T. Shanahan
& F.V. Rodriquez-Brown (Eds.) 47th yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp. 295-310).
Chicago: National Reading Conference.
Topping, K. J. (2005). Trends in peer learning. Educational Psychology, 25(6), 631-645.
Topping, K. J. (2006). Building reading fluency: Cognitive, behavioral, and socioemotional factors and
the role of peer-mediated learning. In S. J. Samuels & A. E. Farstrup (Eds.), What research has to say
about fluency instruction (pp. 106-129). Newark, NH: International Reading Association.
Torgesen, J. K., Wagner, R. K., Rashotte, C. A., Burgess, S., & Hecht, S. (1997). Contributions of
phonological awareness and rapid automatic naming to the growth of word-reading skills in
second- to fifth-grade children. Scientific Studies of Reading, 1(2), 161-185.
Torgesen, J., Wagner, R. K., Rashotte, C. A., Rose, E., Lindamood, P., Conway, T., & Garvan, C. (1999).
Preventing reading failure in children with phonological processing difficulties: Group and
individual responses to instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 579-593.
Young, A., & Bowers, P. (1995). Individual difference and text difficulty determinants of reading fluency
and expressiveness. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 60, 428-454.
Zutell, J., & Rasinski, T. V. (1991). Training teachers to attend to their students’ oral reading fluency.
Theory into Practice, 30(3), 211-217.
Applied Psycholinguistics, 20, 377-393.
Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read. Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Anthony, J. L., Williams, J. M., Aghara, G. G., Dunkelberger, B. N., & Mukherjee, A. D. (2010). Assessment
of individual differences in phonological representation. Reading & Writing: An Interdisciplinary
Journal, 23(8), 969-994. DOI: 10.1007/s11145-009-9185-7.
Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2012). Words their way (5th ed.). Boston:
Pearson.
Daane, M.C., Campbell, J. R., Grigg, W. S., Goodman, M. J., & Oranje, A. (2005). Fourth-grade students
reading aloud: NAEP 2002 special study of oral reading. Washington, D. C.: U.S. Department of
Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Frazier, L., Carlton, K., & Clifton, C. (2006). Prosodic phrasing is central to language comprehension.
Trends in Cognitive Science, 10(6), 244-249.
Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., & Hosp, M, K., & Jenkins, J. R. (2001). Oral reading fluency as an indicator of
reading competence: A theoretical, empirical, and historical analysis. Scientific Studies of Reading,
5(3), 239-256.
Gambrell, L. B. (1978). Getting started with sustained silent reading and keeping it going. Reading
Teacher, 32, 328-331.
Hasbrouck, J., & Tindal, G. A. (2006). Oral reading fluency norms: A valuable assessment tool for
reading teachers. The Reading Teacher, 59(7), 636-644.
Interagency Committee on Learning Disabilities (1987). Learning disabilities: A report to the U. S.
congress. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office.
Jenkins, J. R., Fuchs, L. S., Espin, C., van den Broek, P., & Deno, S. L. (2003). Sources of individual
differences in reading comprehension and reading fluency. Journal of Educational Psychology,
95(4), 719-729.
Kuhn, M.R., & Stahl, S.A. (2003). Fluency: A review of developmental and remedial practices. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 95(1), 3-21.
Lee-Daniels, S. L., & Murray, B. A. (2000). DEAR me: What does it take to get my students reading?
Reading Teacher, 54, 154-155.
Logan, G. D. (1988). Toward an instance theory of automatization. Psychological Review, 95(4), 492-527.
Lovett, M. W., & Steinbach, K. A. (1997). The effectiveness of remedial programs for reading disabled
children of different ages: Does the benefit decrease for older children? Learning Disability
Quarterly, 20, 189-210.
Low, P., & Siegel, L. S. (2005). A comparison of the cognitive processes underlying reading
comprehension in native and ESL speakers. Written Language and Literacy, 8,207-231.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2000). Report of the National Reading
Panel: Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on
reading and its implications for reading instruction. (NIH Pub. No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U. S.
Government Printing Office.
Paige, D. D. (2008). An evaluation of whole-class choral reading using science text on oral reading fluency
in struggling adolescents. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Memphis.
Paige, D. D. (2011). Engaging struggling adolescent readers through situational interest: A model
proposing the relationships among extrinsic motivation, oral reading fluency, comprehension, and
academic achievement. Reading Psychology, 32(5), 395-425.
Paige, D. D. (2011). 16 minutes with “eyes-on-text” can make a difference: Whole-class choral reading
as an adolescent reading strategy. Reading Horizons, 51(1), 1-20.
Paige, D. D., & Magpuri-Lavell, T. (2011). Unpacking adolescent literacy skills in a high-poverty, urban
high school. In T. Morrison, L. Martin, M. Boggs, & S. Szabo, (Eds.), Literacy promises: The thirty-third
yearbook, a double peer reviewed publication of the Association of Literacy Educators and Researcher:
Vol. 33, (pp. 219-236). Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers: Corpus Christi, TX.
Paige, D. D., Magpuri-Lavell, T., Dinkins, E., & Rasinski, T. V. (2014). Accumaticity and prosody: Smooth
reading partners with comprehension. In preparation.
Paige, D. D., Rasinski, T. V., &Magpuri-Lavell, 2012). Is fluent expressive reading important for high
school readers? Journal of Adult and Adolescent Literacy, 56(1), 67-76.
Paige, D. D., Rasinski, T. V., Magpuri-Lavell, T., & Smith, G. S. (2014). Interpreting the relationships
among prosody, automaticity, accuracy, and silent reading comprehension in secondary students.
Journal of Literacy Research,
Paige, D. D., Spagnoli, V., & Wood, H. (2013). Literacy acquisition in Indian students: A descriptive study
of reading achievement in one English medium school. World Journal of Education, 3(2), 11-23.
doi:10.5430/wje.v3n2p11
Pinnell, G. S., Pikulski, J. J., Wixon, K. K., Campbell, J. R., Gough, P. B., & Beatty. A. S. (1995). Listening to
children read aloud. Washington, D.C.: Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S.
Department of Education.
Perfetti, C. A. (1985). Reading ability. New York: Oxford Press.
Rasinski, T. V., & Padak, N. C. (2005). Fluency beyond the primary grades: Helping adolescent struggling
readers. Voices From the Middle, 13(1), 34-41.
Rasinski, T. V., Padak, N. D., McKeon, C. A., Wilfong, L. G., Friedauer, J. A., & Heim, P. (2005). Is reading
fluency a key for successful high school reading? Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 49(1), 22-27.
Rasinski, T. V., Reutzel, R., Chard, D. & Linan-Thompson, S. (2011). Reading fluency. In M. L., Kamil, P. D.
Pearson, E. B. Moje, & P. Afflerbach (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research (Vol., 4), pp. 296-319.
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Raynor, K., Pollatsek, A., Ashby, J., & Clifton Jr., C. (2012). Psychology of reading (2nd ed.). New York:
Psychology Press.
Samuels, S. J. (2007). The DIBELS tests: Is speed of barking at print what we mean by reading fluency?
Reading Research Quarterly, 42(4), 563-566.
Scammacca, N., Roberts, G., Vaughn, S., Edmonds, N., Wexler, J., Reutebuch, C. K., & Torgeson, J. (2007).
Reading interventions for struggling readers: A meta-analysis with implications for practice.
Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.
Schnatschneider, C., Buck, J., Torgesen, J. K., Wagner, R. K., Hassler, L., Hecht, S., et al. (2004). A
multivariate study of factors that contribute to individual differences in performance on the Florida
Comprehensive Reading Test (Technical Report No. 5). Tallahassee: Florida Center for Reading
Research.
Schwanenflugel, P. J., Meisinger, E. B., Wisenbaker, J. M., Kuhn, M. R., Strauss, G. P., & Morris, R. D.
(2006). Becoming a fluent and automatic reader in the early elementary years. Reading Research
Quarterly, 41(4), 496-522.
Shankweiler, D., Crain, S., Brady, S., & Macarruso, P. (1992). Identifying the causes of reading disabilities.
In D. S. Gough, L. C. Ehri, & R. Treiman (Eds.), Reading acquisition (pp.
275-305). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Shankweiler, D., Crain, S., Katz, L., Fowler, A. E., Liberman, A. M., Brady, S. A., et al. (1995). Cognitive
profiles of reading-disabled children: Comparison of language skills in phonology, morphology,
and syntax. Psychological Science, 6(3), 149-156.
Shaywitz, S. E., Fletcher, J. M., & Shaywitz, B. A. (1994). Issues in the definition and classification of
attention deficit disorder. Topics in Language Disorder, 14(2), 1-25.
Stecker, S. K., Roser, N. L., & Martinez, M. G. (1998). Understanding oral reading fluency. In T. Shanahan
& F.V. Rodriquez-Brown (Eds.) 47th yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp. 295-310).
Chicago: National Reading Conference.
Topping, K. J. (2005). Trends in peer learning. Educational Psychology, 25(6), 631-645.
Topping, K. J. (2006). Building reading fluency: Cognitive, behavioral, and socioemotional factors and
the role of peer-mediated learning. In S. J. Samuels & A. E. Farstrup (Eds.), What research has to say
about fluency instruction (pp. 106-129). Newark, NH: International Reading Association.
Torgesen, J. K., Wagner, R. K., Rashotte, C. A., Burgess, S., & Hecht, S. (1997). Contributions of
phonological awareness and rapid automatic naming to the growth of word-reading skills in
second- to fifth-grade children. Scientific Studies of Reading, 1(2), 161-185.
Torgesen, J., Wagner, R. K., Rashotte, C. A., Rose, E., Lindamood, P., Conway, T., & Garvan, C. (1999).
Preventing reading failure in children with phonological processing difficulties: Group and
individual responses to instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 579-593.
Young, A., & Bowers, P. (1995). Individual difference and text difficulty determinants of reading fluency
and expressiveness. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 60, 428-454.
Zutell, J., & Rasinski, T. V. (1991). Training teachers to attend to their students’ oral reading fluency.
Theory into Practice, 30(3), 211-217.
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Published
2017-08-09
How to Cite
Paige, D. D., & Magpuri-Lavell, T. (2017). Reading fluency in the middle and secondary grades. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 7(1), 83–96. Retrieved from https://www.iejee.com/index.php/IEJEE/article/view/66
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