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Reading Comprehension and Fluency

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Identify and implement the role of fluency in reading and comprehension. Please see attachments.

The primary purpose of reading is to gain meaning from connected text. Important for this purpose is that recognition of text becomes a fluent process. Fluency is considered to be composed of three components: accuracy, automaticity, and prosody (Kuhn & Stahl, 2003; National Reading Panel, 2000). Accuracy entails the correct identification of a word. Automaticity is the immediate recognition of words that bypass the decoding process. Finally, prosody is the ability of an individual to read while providing the appropriate expression
implied by the text (e.g., intonation, stress, and timing). Although accurate identification of words is necessary for the comprehension of connected text, results reported from the National Assessment of Education Progress, which focused on reading performance
during the fourth grade, showed that accuracy alone is not related to reading comprehension in a strong manner (Pinnell et al., 1995). Further, this same research identified a small number of children who demonstrated average levels of comprehension with relatively low levels of accuracy. Although these results failed to establish a strong relationship between accuracy and reading comprehension, without accurate word identification, comprehension of
connected text would not be possible. It appears, therefore, that accurate identification of words is necessary but not sufficient to foster comprehension of written text.

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Solution Summary

In answering this question we have to think about what happens for the child as he/she passes from emergent literacy to independent. Most early childhood programs put strong emphasis at first on decoding skills including phonological awareness and letter/word identification. However, we have to stop and think about whether this is really reading. One ability that has been linked to reading comprehension is early skills in oral language. There are conflicting analyses on this point though.

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In answering this question we have to think about what happens for the child as he/she passes from emergent literacy to independent. Most early childhood programs put strong emphasis at first on decoding skills including phonological awareness and letter/word identification. However, we have to stop and think about whether this is really reading. One ability that has been linked to reading comprehension is early skills in oral language. There are conflicting analyses on this point though.

For information related to fluency, I consulted the following study, The Relationship Between Different Measures of Oral Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension in Second-Grade Students Who Evidence Different Oral Reading Fluency Difficulties (Wise, Sevchik, Morris, Lovett, Wolf, Kuhn, Meisinger, and Schwanenflugel, 2010). The researchers define fluency as comprised of three components: accuracy, automaticity, and prosody (Kuhn & Stahl, 2003; National Reading Panel, 2000). Accuracy entails the correct identification of a word. Automaticity is the immediate recognition of words that bypass the ...

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