New literature

Thanks to a classmate, I discovered an interesting article about fluency and comprehension. The title is The "RAP" on Reading Comprehension and the link is below.

The intro of the article describes some of the feelings that I had that inspired me to conduct research on the relationship between fluency and comprehension. I have worked with many students that can read fluently, but have no idea what they read. One of the most interesting students in my focal group reads between 110-130 words per minute, but can only retell one or two details. It amazes me! My hopes are for my research to improve the RTI program. Ideally, I will be able to use the findings of my research to advocate for more effective use assessment data to identify the needs of students and match students with appropriate interventions. 

The main purpose of the article is to introduce a reading strategy, but the intro grabbed my attention and gave me a little energy boost about my research topic.

Here is a little excerpt from the article: 

In many cases, early intervention in reading instruction focuses primarily on foundational reading skills, such as decoding. These foundational skills allow the reader to read fluently (i.e., with speed and accuracy; National Reading Panel, 2000). However, with much of the focus on fluency, reading comprehen- sion may be overlooked. It's true that reading fluency is necessary for comprehension. Students who are able to decode and recognize words effortlessly are able to devote more of their cognitive resources to reading comprehension. As a result, readers who are fluent are more likely to have better comprehension skills (Fuchs, Fuchs, Hosp, & Jenkins, 2001).This link between fluency and comprehension can lead teachers to assume that if students can read fluently they should also be able to comprehend what they read. For many students, this assumption is correct; however, there are students who are fluent readers who experience difficulties with reading comprehension. Up to 10% of students are fluent readers who struggle to understand what they read (Meisinger, Bradley, Schwanenflugel, Kuhn, & Morris, 2009; Shankweiler, Lundquist, Dreyer, & Dickinson, 1996). These students are able to successfully decode text in spe- cific content areas, such as sciences and social studies, but are unable to process and comprehend what they read (Caccamise &Snyder, 2005).  

Hagaman, J. L., Luschen, K., & Reid, R. (2010). The "RAP" on Reading Comprehension. TEACHING Exceptional Children,  

       43(1), 22-29.

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