Testing the National Reading Panel’s Fluency Claims: A Study Examining Repeated Readings and Tracking the Nature of Miscues

Authors

Edward Lehner, CUNY Bronx Community CollegeFollow
John R. Ziegler, CUNY Bronx Community CollegeFollow

Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

Fall 11-19-2017

Abstract

The National Reading Panel’s (NRP; 2000) claim that reading fluency is the direct result of phonemic awareness skills seemed to set a research direction for numerous literacy scholars. As a result, much of the reading fluency research examined the construct from a particular perspective seemingly informed by the NRP. The summative results of a generation of fluency research have subsequently defined reading fluency as a principal and predicative construct in children’s reading potential. The current study examined how children develop reading fluency skills and reports data gathered from a New York City elementary school. Specifically, the present work tracked the nature of the reading miscues. The empirical data suggest that students make nearly as many semantic mistakes as phonics miscues, even after long periods of phonics instruction. This research underscores the complexity of fluency skill development process and that providing more phonics instruction does not always ameliorate fluency deficiencies.