Sample of the Oral Reading section: Multisensory Reading Program Level 3
- The Oral Reading section has been developed to increase students’ ability to rapidly and accurately decode text. The text has been divided into eye span lengths to encourage students to look at chunks of text and move away from a word by word focus. A fluent oral reader decodes the text ahead of the words that are being spoken. To develop this skill, you are asked to place a cardboard strip above the line being read and to cover the line completely once the student says the second last word.Each passage includes vocabulary from the corresponding column of words being learned (i.e. Passage 1 = Column 1). Using the same words provides additional practice in the learning and retention process as well as further developing students’ understanding of the words by placing them in context.
- Students are required to complete one oral reading exercise each day. The student:
- Reads through the passage backwards so the focus is on decoding.
- Together work out unknown words.
- Underline unknown words.
- Practise reading the underlined words.
- The student reads the passage until the time goal is met. The time is recorded in the boxes to the side. Meeting time goals assists in the development of processing speed which results in increases in students’ ability to read fluently and accurately.
- After time target is reached, the student rereads passage silently (without timing) to ensure there is full comprehension of the text. Effective reading requires understanding as well as decoding. Thus you are required to ask students two or three comprehension questions about the passage to assess their understanding. Students should be encouraged to refer back to the text to both find and justify their answer and to answer using full sentences (e.g., Question: What did Raymond feed his pet snake? Answer: Raymond fed his pet snake cake and lemonade).In addition, each passage contains one sentence that doesn’t address the same subject matter as the other sentences. Identifying the sentence that does not belong encourages students to move beyond a basic understanding of the text and to make inferential judgements.
- In the final task students are required to identify whether the underlined word is a verb, noun, adverb, adjective, etc. and find meaningful substitute words (these words do not have to have the same meaning but just make sense from a grammatical perspective). This exercise is designed to develop students’ understanding of the grammatical structure of English.
There is a long history of research showing the benefits of repeated reading for improving fluency (and often comprehension) for students with reading difficulties (e.g., Vadasy & Sanders, 2008, Sukhram, 2008). In fact, meta-analyses conducted by Lee and Yoon (2015) and Stevens et al. (2017) showed repeated reading remains the most effective intervention of improving reading fluency, especially for students with reading difficulties.
References
Lee, J., & Yoon, S. (2015). The effects of repeated reading on reading fluency for students with reading disabilities; A meta-analysis. Journal of Learning Disability. 50 (2), 213 – 224.
Stevens, E.A., Melodee A. Walker, M.A., & Vaughn, S. (2017). The effects of reading fluency interventions on the reading fluency and reading comprehension performance of elementary students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 50(5), 576–590.
Sukhram, D. (2008). The effects of oral repeated reading with and without corrective feedback on the fluency and comprehension of narrative and expository text for struggling readers. Ph.D., University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign.
Vadasy, P., & Sanders, E. (2008). Benefits of repeated reading intervention for low-achieving fourth and fifth grade students, Remedial and Special Education, 29 (4) 235-250
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