Researchers used alternating treatment designs to investigate the effects of listening-whilereading (LWR) and listening interventions on comprehension levels and rates in four middle school students with emotional disorders. During LWR, students were instructed to read passages silently along with experimenters. During the listening condition, we did not give students a printed copy of the passage but merely instructed them to listen as an experimenter read the passages aloud. The control condition consisted of students reading passages silently. After each condition, students answered 10 comprehension questions without referring back to the printed passage. Although neither intervention resulted in comprehension levels consistently superior to those of the silent reading control condition, LWR and listening resulted in higher rates of comprehension than the silent reading control condition across all four students. However, listening appeared to improve reading comprehension rates in only two students. These results suggest that LWR may be an efficient procedure for enhancing comprehension across content areas with groups of students who have heterogeneous reading skills. The discussion focuses on future applied research with students with disabilities.
In the current study, 42 secondary students (10 th , 11 th , and 12 th grade students) and 51 elementary students (4 th and 5 th grade students) read 400 word passages silently and aloud. During aloud reading, words correct per minute (WCPM) were recorded. After reading each passage, students answered 10 multiple-choice comprehension questions. Results showed comprehension was significantly higher when students read passages aloud, as opposed to silently. No interaction was found between comprehension and grade level (elementary versus secondary). Discussion is focused on theories of reading comprehension and applied implications for assessing comprehension following the administration of Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) reading probes.
Using an adapted alternating treatments design, this study compared the effects of two intervention conditions on the reading fluency, comprehension, and comprehension rate of six high-school students reading below grade level. Students were repeatedly exposed to repeated reading (RR), repeated reading and vocabulary previewing (RR + VP), and no intervention control conditions. Dependent variables were assessed at the end of experimental sessions by using practiced passages. Both interventions had positive effects on reading performance as compared to the control condition. Results indicated that the RR + VP condition led to the greatest improvements in reading fluency for all participants. The RR + VP condition led to the highest reading comprehension levels for three participants, and the RR + VP and RR conditions resulted in similar comprehension levels for the other three participants. For five participants, reading comprehension rate was greatest under the RR + VP condition. Discussion focuses on future directions for research on reading interventions for high-school students. C 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Reading comprehension rate (RCR) is a direct measure of reading skills that may be useful in formatively evaluating students reading beyond the fourth-grade level. To investigate the concurrent validity of RCR, we correlated RCR, reading comprehension level (RCL), and words correct per minute (WC/M) with the Broad Reading Cluster Scores of the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ-III ACH ) across 88 students in 4th, 5th, and 10th grades. Results showed that aloud-RCR was significantly correlated with the WJ-III ACH scores for 4th-grade (r ϭ .90; n ϭ 22), 5th-grade (r ϭ .87; n ϭ 29), and 10th-grade (r ϭ .65; n ϭ 37) students. Regression analysis specified a one-predictor model for 4th-grade students (aloud-RCR), a twopredictor model for 5th-grade students (WC/M and aloud-RCR), and a one-predictor model for 10th-grade students (WC/M). Discussion focuses on directions for future research and applied issues related to RCR probe passage development.
Much research has validated procedures to enhance reading fluency in children and adolescents, but more is needed to determine whether such procedures work with adults who have deficits in reading skills. A within‐subjects design was used to evaluate and compare the effects of listening while reading (LWR) and repeated readings (RR) on reading fluency in adults reading at about fourth‐ or fifth‐grade level. Results confirmed previous studies with children and adolescents that showed LWR and RR did increase reading fluency, but neither was more effective than the other. This study suggests that the opportunity to read with LWR caused the adult participants' increases in rereading fluency. Although adults and adolescents had similar responses to LWR and RR interventions, the adults' reading fluency appeared to increase more. This finding supports the need for more studies on whether strategies that have been empirically validated with children produce similar effects in adults.
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