Building Reading Fluency in a Disabled Middle School Reader

1. Who is Luke?
     Luke is an eighth grade boy who was tutored by a graduate student.  He lacks fluency and speed, had a history of Seizure Disorder, and was also diagnosed with having ADD.  He was a courteous and cooperative student, but struggled with reading and writing.  He was reading on a first grade level when entering the fifth grade and was placed in a reading program to help him make gains.  He made slow progress through his years at school and then started the instructional intervention in the summer of 2008.

2. Describe briefly the intervention used to addressed Luke’s problems in reading.
     Luke would listen to a chapter on tape and then stop the tape and reread the page. Luke would read the passage of text to his tutor who would make notes.The next part of the lesson was guided reading. Part three of the lesson would be repeated readings where Luke would read a 300 word passage from a book that he had read during guided reading.The last part of the lesson would be read aloud.

3. The main finding of this study is that the child improved his reading rate by 25 words per minute over the course of the intervention. This same gain eluded Luke’s isolated word reading rate (as measured with Word Recognition in Isolation–WRI). How do the authors explain this discrepancy?
     The main finding of this study is that the child improved his reading rate by 25 words per minute over the course of the intervention. This same gain eluded Luke’s isolated word reading rate (as measured with Word Recognition in Isolation–WRI). How do the authors explain this discrepancy? See their discussion on phrasing in the Commentary section.

4. Do you see any connections to our previous readings (e.g., Adams, 2004; Ehri & Wilce, 1979; Perfetti & Hogaboam, 1975, etc)?
     The connections I see are the building of word knowledge and word recognition from the younger years as being fundamental in the later years of learning. If this child had been helped with tutoring from day one of his struggles, he would be much farther along in his learning processes. These types of learning and tutoring strategies we have read about and learned about are crucial for many kids who struggle with reading and learning difficulties, whether they be because of a mental delay, physical delay, or learning disability.