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Review of related literature and studies about reading comprehension skills
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Literacy, fluency and reading comprehension all play a crucial role in determining how learners acquire skills within the classroom. This paper will review a number of scholarly literatures that give more details about fluency and reading comprehension. Over a long period of time, the ability of a learner to read educational materials fluently has been taken as the most thorough learning method through which the learner can acquire literacy. Kuhn, Schwanenflugel and Meisinger (2010) argue that reading fluency should not only focus on automatic word recognition as a way to assess the ability of a learner (p. 231). The authors argue that there should be other methods to assess reading fluency through prosody, which can influence the rhythm of spoken language. Automatic word recognition helps a learner to read with speed, limited effort, with autonomy and without having to be conscious. All these attributes make the reading fluency of a learner to improve. Dewitz, Jones and Leahy (2009) state that comprehension reading instructions in classrooms does not always meet the standards that have been set by educational experts (p. 107). The comprehension programs adopted do not provide learners the time to practice what they are learning through the comprehension because learners are given too much material to learn. Learners are at a disadvantage because they may probably not complete the core curriculum topics as outlined in the study guide. The programs cover a lot more topics than before, which make instructors to rush learners through the curriculum before a clear assessment of learners’ internalization of what they are taught is done. Rasinski (1999) states that one of the most effective ways to assess a learner’s reading abili... ... middle of paper ... ...uency. Reading Research Quarterly, 45 (2), 230-251. Nichols, W. D., Rupley,W. H., & Rasinski, T. (2009). Fluency in learning to read for meaning: Going beyond repeated readings. Literacy Research and Instruction, 48, 1-13. Pikulski, J., & Chard, D. (2005). Fluency: Bridge between decoding and reading comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 58(6), 510-520. Rasinski, T., & Hoffman, J. (2003). Oral reading in the school literacy program. Reading Research Quarterly, 38(4), 510-522. Rasinski, T. (2000). Speed does matter in reading. The Reading Teacher, 54(2), 146- 152. Rasinski, T. (1999). Reading first: Fluency is fundamental. Scholastic Instructor, 113(4), 15-20. Slavin, R., Cheung, A., Groff, C., & Lake, C. (2008). Effective reading programs for middle and high schools: A best-evidence synthesis. Reading Research Quarterly, 43(3), 290-322.
Fountas, I., C., & Pinnel, G. S., (2009). When readers struggle: Teaching that works. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
...ding Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction(NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
In Watson, Fore & Boon, the authors take in consideration the early problems of early decoding for reading fluency. When teaching beginning readers, oral deco...
Instructing students how to read had been a primary focus in education since 2000 when the National Reading Panel came out with their report; Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. The report identified the foundational skills needed to become a successful reader; Phonemic awareness, alphabetic principal, fluency, concepts of print, vocabulary development, comprehension. Without these reading skills, one would struggle to be independent in our society. Learning to read sight words helps with both fluency and vocabulary development.
Reading Methods and Learning Disabilities. (1998, April). Learning Disabilities Association Newsbrief, 38(4). Retrieved December 18, 2013
The National Reading Panel identifies alphabetics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension as four literacy essentials. These fundamentals are what make up readers, without these skills students’ cannot progress in reading. In order for each individual student to thrive teachers must diagnose and implement appropriate reading content. There are many ways to assess each student in the classroom. A favored methodology among classroom teachers is Informal Reading Inventory.
Every child deserves a positive, safe, nurturing, and stimulating learning environment where they will grow academically, socially, emotionally, and physically. My role as an educator is to provide my students with this type of environment as well as an education that will help them succeed academically and become life long learners. It is the responsibility of a literacy educator to provide students with this type of environment, but also to provide instruction that will help students become successful readers and writers. There are numerous programs and philosophies about literacy and reading. Through years of experience and research, one begins to develop their own creative approach on teaching these skills. After looking at different programs and seeing the positive and negatives of each, an integrated and balanced approach of literacy seems to be the best way to teach the differing needs of each student.
According to Irwin (as cited in Tompkins, 2015), comprehension is “a reader’s process of using prior experiences and the author’s text to construct meaning that’s useful to that reader for a specific purpose” (p. 215). “Comprehension is a creative, multifaceted process in which children engage with and think about the text” (Tompkins, 2015, p. 214). Readers use four levels of thinking literal, inferential, critical, and evaluative as they comprehend. The lowest level is literal comprehension. At this level readers identify the big ideas, sequence details, notice similarities as well as differences, and identify explicitly stated reasons. The highest level is evaluative and at this level readers integrate their own knowledge with the information presented in the text.
A child having trouble reading may have trouble in one or two important skills needed for reading. The child may be struggling with the language comprehension or with the word recognition strand of Holly Scarborough’s reading model (17). According to Scarborough, (17) word recognition is broken down into three skills “phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition”. The skills are then broken down into small skills such as alphabetic principle, phonological awareness, and sound-spelling correspondences (Scarborough 17).
That is the goal of being a fluent reader. Mrs. Baughman uses the components of a story to teach comprehension. The components of the story are the setting, the plot, the conflict, and the resolution. If students can easily pick out the answers for the components of a story then their comprehension is growing. Another way to teach comprehension is by using graphic organizers like Venn-diagrams, story maps, and cause and effect charts. Teachers can also ask questions to make sure students understand the text. Not only does the teacher need to ask questions, but so do the students. If a student can ask questions, and with guidance answer it themselves they understand the material. The same goes with summarizing texts. A good way to check comprehension is to see how well the students summarized the texts. Doing so, can show if they really understand the material or they are just reading without thinking about it. Group work is a good way for students to share their thoughts on texts and help explain it to others in an easier way. If students do not comprehend text then their reading skills for the future will not be good. Teaching comprehension is not by just asking questions. There are many ways to check it that give a better view on how students are
Over the past decade there have been many changes to the way teachers have taught comprehension to students. Back in 1998 it was believed by teachers that the more students read the better they would be able to comprehend, at the time there were not any effective way teachers were able to teach students comprehension. Research has become influential in the changes of how teachers have been teaching students reading comprehension (Morrow, Gambrell & Pressley, 2003, p. 112). There are many different types of methods for reading comprehension that can be taught to students effectively and it is important as educators that we try to use many of these different methods so our students will be able to understand what they are reading and it will hopefully encourage our students to enjoy and want to read but this should start as soon as students begin to read.
Jennings, J. H., Caldwell, J. S., & Lerner, J. L. (2010). Reading Problems Assessment and
Fluent readers can recognise words and at the same time comprehend the meaning. They do not need to work on decoding the text so they can focus on the meaning of the text. This is the point that “Learning to Read” becomes “Reading to Learn” (Konza, 2010). Once the student has developed an understanding of phonemic awareness, knowledge of the alphabet and understands the context, they can fluency read a story providing it contains simple language structures (Konza, 2016). Fluency will continue to develop as the students vocabulary expands.
...dent ability to retain the information they have read. When a student is a fluent reader they can read in a timely manner and with accuracy. When a child can stop at periods and begin sentences where there is a capital letter they are using fluency. Also if they can place emphasis on a sentence give the punctuation mark. Fluency helps in reading because the reader should be able to tell what a word is and know what it means. If a student rereads a story they can practice fluency and become better at it. A teacher can also be the guidance and model when developing a fluent reader. If the teacher does the demonstrating, a student could follow along and eventually learn to become fluent. Fluency can be developed in reading once a student has caught on to phonics, phonemic awareness, oral language, vocabulary, and comprehension.( Learning Point Associates, 2004, pg 18)
readers: A perspective for research and intervention ―[Electronic version]. Scientific Studies of Reading, 11(4), 289-312.