Mingqian Zhang
SPED 671
05/14/18
Critical Review of Six Minute Solution Program
The Six Minute Solution designed by Adams N Gail and Brown M Sheron was first published in 2003 by Sopris West Educational Services. It is a researched-validated intervention that helps teacher improve reading fluency of students from K-9 by pairing students with same-level peers for reading, monitoring, and feedback. During the intervention students receive concentrated practice on phonetic elements, high frequency words, and short passage reading.
Paired reading is the major focus of the Six Minute Solution program since it requires students work in pairs either in small groups or a whole classroom setting to practice reading repeatedly. Assessments
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will first be conducted to determine an instructional reading level, followed by teacher training students in the paired reading procedure. Once students become familiar with the paired reading procedure, it takes only six to ten minutes on average each day occurring four to five times per week. The program is also very flexible in its implementation, meaning that it can be used in a variety of settings. For example, students have the ability to work in pairs in small groups or in a whole classroom setting with teacher-directed or student-directed activities. According to the Instruction Manuals of Six Minute Solution, it consists of assessments of letter-sound knowledge, phonetic elements, high-frequency words, and graded oral reading fluency passages (Adams & Brown, 2007). Students’ oral reading fluency rate and instructional reading level are assessed separately by reading a Practice Passage and using the San Diego Assessment so that students can be grouped appropriately based on both their oral reading fluency rates and instructional reading levels. More specifically, a student’s instructional reading level is determined by using one of the following measure: word recognition test, a silent reading test or a passage placement accuracy test at which a student can read with 91% - 96% accuracy. Students who have significant reading problems may need a more extensive assessment in order to determine the severity of their reading problems. As students work in pairs, they participate as partner 1 and partner 2. For example, during the intervention, each student has his or her own fluency folder that contains two copies of either the fluency sheet or practice passage in plastic sleeves, fluency graph, and a marker. The content of the folder of a student is solely determined by assessments, meaning that the fluency sheet can contain phonetic elements, high-frequency vocabularies, or short passages. Six Minute Solution program offers three levels of instructional manuals: Primary, Intermediate, and Secondary. The manuals contain all the information for users to conduct assessments and implement the practice procedures. They contain information on assessments, managing materials, training students in establishing partnership, and expectations from students. They also contain information on the fluency building sheets, which consists of letter/sound elements, phonetic elements, automatic words, decodable short-vowel and long-vowel stories, and practice passages. In addition, the instruction decisions made by teachers are based on the fluency graphs so that teachers can provide adequate accommodations for the students. For example, if a student is observed to having difficulty reading a fluency sheet or passage and his reading fluency rate is below minimal fluency goal of that reading material based on the fluency graph, the teacher can assign a fluency sheet or practice passage that is one grade level below the current on to the student. When applying the Six Minute Solution, students first need to review their new fluency building sheets or their practice passages. They will read and underline unknown words without being timed. During the meantime, the teacher assists students to ensure that they are able to identify unknown words. Then, then the teacher will set the timer and say, “It is fluency time.” Partner 1 reads the fluency sheet or passage, and continue reading for 1 minute. During the first 1 minute, partner 2 listens, marks reading errors and stopping point on his fluency sheet or passage. When time is up, partner 2 need to give partner 1 feedback on the number of words partner 1 read, the number of errors, and the procedure of error-correction. While partner 2 is giving feedback, partner 1 needs to record the numbers on the record sheet. Finally, two partners switch their roles so that it’s partner 2’s turn to read the same passage and partner 1’s turn to record and give feedback. The fluency building sheets or passages are different each week, students usually receive a new fluency building sheet or passage in the beginning of a week and use the same fluency building sheet or passage to practice for the rest of the week. At the end of a week, students will turn in their fluency building sheet or passage in order to receive a new one. There are also research studies that report positive outcomes of the Six Minute Solution for students. For example, there was an action research conducted to determine the effects of the implementation of the Six Minute Solution on students’ oral reading fluency scores (Hanzal, 2013). The results show that using the program, the Six Minute Solution has a positive effect on increased oral reading fluency scores. Based on student surveys, students also found the program motivating and beneficial to individual progress. Another research compared the effectiveness of two reading intervention programs, Read Naturally and The Six Minute Solution, on reading fluency achievement (Martin, Elfreth & Feng, 2014). The results show that both programs were beneficial to the students for increasing reading fluency and either program can help to deter future learning disabilities in reading. In conclusion, I would recommend the Six Minute Solution program to teachers because the program can be used with the entire class on a daily basis with its well-organized and user-friendly materials.
As students take the responsibility of keeping track of their progress while they continue to encounter more challenging text during school year, they can see their own improvement as well.
Reference
Adams, G. N., & Brown, S. (2007). The six-minute solution: a reading fluency program
(intermediate level) grades 3-6. Longmount, Colo.: Sopris West Educational Services. https://www.wou.edu/~brownbr/Classes/The_Six_Minute_Solution/1_Six%20Minute%20Solution_PrimaryLvl/1_SixMinSolutnPrLvl_ppi-103.pdf
Hanzal, A. (2013). Closing the reading fluency gap in six minutes. Masters of Arts in
Education Action Research Papers. 14.
https://sophia.stkate.edu/maed/14
Martin, C., Elfreth, J., Feng, J. (2014). Effect on reading fluency of struggling third grade
students: computer-assisted intervention versus teacher-guided intervention. Paper
Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/667b/6a8123e2454bba69a9f902f608b56af244b3.pdf
On the GORT-5, Jarrod’s average rate was one minute and 71 seconds or 131 seconds. Jarrod reads very slow and is focused too much and pronouncing the words correctly that he is not able to make meaning from the text. Although reading comprehension was his strongest skill area in the GORT-5, research on reading fluency, has shown that when students are able to read fluently, students are able to improve their comprehension. Jarrod will benefit from explicit instruction in reading rate, prosody and building confidence reading aloud.
This is a reading intervention classroom of six 3rd grade students ages 9-10. This intervention group focuses on phonics, fluency, and comprehension. The students were placed in this group based on the results of the DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency assessment. Students in this class lack basic decoding skills.
The Wilson Language program has a precise structure to function as an intervention and is able to assist second through twelfth grade struggling readers to learn the construction of words by directly instructing students to decode and encode confidently. Natalie Hill, a Wilson Language Program assessor, said, ‘“There is a frequent change of pace, students will see as well as hear, multiple opportunities for students to be engaged and participate in activities, extensive controlled text methods and materials to “see” critical word components, like vowels, digraphs, etc., stop “guessing habit”, reading and spelling taught simultaneously, hands on, multisensory methods, no glossy pictures”’ (Hi...
Fountas, I., C., & Pinnel, G. S., (2009). When readers struggle: Teaching that works. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Long-Term Trends in Student Reading Performance. Jan. 1, 1998. Web. The Web. The Web.
Slavin, R. E., Lake, C., Davis, S., & Maden, N. A. (2012). Effective Programs for Struggling Readers: A Best-Evidence Synthesis. Best Evidence Encyclopedia.
...udents, more research is needed to determine if specific factor were noted in all participants that would support the increase in reading fluency.
With such high numbers of adolescents falling below basic in reading, illiteracy is a battle that must be fought head on. The largest dilemma with the struggle is the number of variations that cause adolescents to become reluctant, unmotivated or struggling readers. Fortunately, a large number of strategies exist to encourage and strengthen readers of all ages, proving that adolescence is not a time to give up on faltering students. Rather, it is a time to evaluate and intervene in an effort to turn a reluctant reader into an avid one (or near enough). Ultimately, educators must learn to properly assess a student’s strengths and weaknesses (Curtis, 2009) and pair them with the proper intervention techniques. If one method does not work, countless others exist to take its place.
...ilding Reading Proficiency at the Secondary Level: A Guide to Resources." Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (2001): 1-150. ERIC-Education Resources Information Center. Web. 17 Feb 2011.
Solley, J. (2014, February 18). Literacy for the 21st century: fluency. [Presentation] Powerpoint presented during in-class lecture. Davie, FL.
...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.
Mrs. Hamm discussed that she actually uses three different programs to help teach language and literacy to her students. The first program, which is actually her favorite of the three programs, is called “Read Aloud Library”, the second program is called “Language for Learning” and the third program is called “Reading Mastery”. Mrs. Hamm discussed the programs as being very helpful tools in helping children develop their reading skills. Mrs. Hamm integrates literacy in her classroom in many different ways. In the different programs, the students read one book together in which they work on for the week by breaking down the chapters so that children can retell the story and learn th...
readers: A perspective for research and intervention ―[Electronic version]. Scientific Studies of Reading, 11(4), 289-312.
Two days a week in the morning, the children participate in a reading and writing block called “literacy and writing workshop.” The classroom is organized into five different levels with one group having one extra person; the levels are based on scoring of reading assessments. The groups are rotated so that each may spend 15 minutes cycles with either the teacher or Para-educator. The groups not with an instructor were to work on the “Daily-5” (explanation later) until their scheduled lesson. After the students finish their lesson, they are to fill the remainder of the workshop time working on “Daily-5.” This workshop is part of a regular routine. The students understand that after a reading a story with the teacher, they are verbally given a writing assignment. The assignment is usually to write a five sentence paragraph and color a picture related to the reading.
Macalister, J. (2010). Speed reading courses and their effect on reading authentic texts: A preliminary investigation. Reading in a Foreign Language, 22(1), 104.