Rereading Fluency: Process, Practice, and Policy

by Bess Altwerger

Rereading Fluency is an important and timely book. The authors do not just criticize current policies and practices but offer alternatives for improving the quality of reading assessment and instruction. Richard L. Allington Has your school spent tens of thousands or more dollars on fluency-based reading assessment programs? If so, you might be getting less for your investment than you think. Did you know? Challenging commonly held notions of the effectiveness and importance of fluency, Rereading Fluency provides the vital information any teacher or administrator needs to determine the most effective way to help students read well. Combining a careful review of prior research with findings from their own thorough analysis of more than 120 second grade readers, Bess Altwerger, Nancy Jordan, and Nancy Rankie Shelton detail why, as a measure of reading success, fluency can fall flat. Using a multischool, multiprogram study, they compare the effects of commercial, phonics-based programs and noncommercial literature-based programs on students fluency and overall proficiency. The results will surprise Altwerger, Jordan, and Shelton dont just dismantle the arguments for considering fluency a key component of reading, they come through with specific critiques of DIBELS and offer better ways to assess reading (effective and efficient, not just fluent) that can improve instruction, assessment, and the success of young readers. Whether your school is about to mandate a commercial reading program or a standardized fluency assessment, or it is trying to get out from under one, make Rereading Fluency ,and make your powerful, research-based ally in the battle for improved assessment and instruction.

Genres: Professional Development

136 pages, Paperback

First published October 17, 2007

Reviews

[Jim Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an extremely useful resource for evaluating the teaching of reading from the perspective of the science of literacy. The authors both quote the published research and report on their own research to make the point that those of us in the literacy profession have largely misunderstood the value of fluency in our attempts to make sure we have the best approaches possible to teaching all students to read adequately. The book should be required reading in all literacy-training programs.

[ResearchOnDIBELS]

Chapter 8 of this book, "What does DIBELS tell us about readers" uses research on reading fluency to analyze the validity of DIBELS. The study by Altwerger, Jordan, and Shelton (2007) found high differences between words read correct per minute on DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) and authentic literature. The most variation was found in the high group, which the researchers suggest can mask comprehension difficulty when ORF scores are substantially higher than when reading authentic literature.

The study also found high variance on words read correct per minute on multiple DIBELS ORF readings, which raises a concern with the official DIBELS procedure of using the middle score of three passages when testing ORF.

[o · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the most boring books I've ever read. It took something I found formerly interesting and turned it into pure ennui. Didn't finish the book and somehow managed to complete the accompanying assignment, so clearly I didn't miss much.