Skill Sequence: Letter recognition decoding sight words fluency comprehension According to Swanson and Vaughn (2010), students

ents with learning disabilities such as Oberon tend to struggle with reading fluency because they struggle with quickly retrieving phonological information, which in turn limits their ability to decode words. Therefore, learning fluency is contingent upon possessing the foundational skills such as phonemic awareness and sight word vocabulary. Because of this skill sequence, and because the skill of reading fluency must be learned in concert with the related reading skills of decoding, sight words, and comprehension, this instructional program will include elements to address each of these areas. The student will have regular practice in not only fluency passages, but also decoding, sight word recognition, and reading comprehension. Context for instruction: Assessment and instruction will take place in the special education room every day for approximately 60 minutes, from 12:30-1:30. Oberon will work on a one-on-one basis with Mr. Wright. Instructional materials will include the Corrective Reading workbook and guidebook, Reading A-Z fluency passages, and Dolch sight words. Program Objective: When reading a 2nd grade level passage in the resource room during one-on-one reading instruction, Oberon will read at a rate of at least 85 WPM with an accuracy of at least 94%. Generalization: Oberons apprehension of a reading fluency skill will directly, positively, and immediately affect his reading comprehension. He will be able to improve his reading across environments and with a multitude of materials. Because reading is a natural and persistent element of many environments, a variety of strategies will be used in order to implement generalization. One strategy will be the trapping method of introducing naturally maintaining contingencies. As Oberon is required to read in a variety of environments, including his resource room, the general education room, and community and domestic environments, he will begin to improve his comprehension of written texts. This will generate naturally occurring positive reinforcers that Oberon will be able to control, such as improved academic performance, self-confidence, and personal enjoyment in reading. Another strategy that will be used to encourage generalization will be a combination of programming common stimuli and training sufficient exemplars. Although the Corrective Reading curriculum will form the foundation of this instructional program, a variety of texts will be used in order to encourage generalization. These include non-fiction books (What Is A Dog?), fiction books (Dinosaur Cove), newspaper articles, and fluency reading passages. The concept will be to teach Oberon to

use his decoding and vocabulary skills in order to improve his fluency in a variety of high-interest readings by having him identify what is common in all of them.1 Rationale: The rationale behind teaching this skill is to improve Oberons reading fluency so that he may improve in all other areas of reading as well. As illustrated by the above skill sequence, fluency is a necessary foundational step in order for a student to be able to improve his or her reading comprehension, and reading comprehension is necessary in order for a student to be able to progress from the stage of learning to read (apprehension) to reading to learn (generalization). In addition, it is necessary for Oberon to acquire these essential reading skills as quickly as possible, so that he may progress into middle school with his general education peers and continue to be meaningfully included in as many general education settings as possible. Assessment Procedures: Assessment will take place every Friday during reading instruction in the resource room. Oberon will read from a preselected fluency passage from Reading A to Z. He will read the entire passage, and Mr. Wright will record words read per minute and errors per minute using a running record. Once Oberon has met his objective of 65 WPM with an accuracy of at least 94% for three consecutive weekly assessments, he will advance to the next level of fluency passage. If he his already at his target level of a 2nd grade passage, then he will remain on the passage until he achieves his objective of reading it three consecutive times at a rate of 85 WPM with an accuracy of at least 94%. Data Collection: Mr. Wright will keep the running records for each of Oberons assessments as permanent placement records and will file them in Oberons reading folder that will be kept in the resource room. In addition, Oberon will graph the results of each assessment. This chart will also be kept in Oberons reading folder. Mr. Wright will transcribe these results into an Excel spreadsheet at the end of each month. Assessment Schedule: Assessment will take place every Friday during reading instruction in the resource room. Instructional Procedures: Reading Fluency (Reading A-Z): These activities will have Oberon practice his reading fluency reading short passages at Level F (1st grade). He will perform these activities four times per week, reading the entire passage once independently (cold read), once reading choral with Mr. Wright, and then a third time independently (hot read). Mr. Wright will time these sessions and keep a running record of any errors made. These activities will take 10 minutes each day, with Friday reserved for assessment.
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He has already begun to generalize in this way. During the reading of Dinosaur Cove, he will often stop after decoding a word such as because or around and remark that he had seen that word elsewhere, i.e., on his sight word list.

Once Oberon has read the target passage at a rate of 65 WPM with an accuracy of at least 94% for three consecutive trials, then he will progress to the next level of difficulty of reading passage. Word Attack Lessons (Corrective Reading): Four days a week, Monday through Thursday, Oberon will complete one lesson from the Corrective Reading curriculum. He will work with Mr. Wright on a one-on-one basis. Mr. Wright will read from the provided script while Oberon follows along and completes the activities in his workbook. This portion of the lesson will take 15-20 minutes each day. Sight word practice: Oberon will read from a list of 46 sight words from the Dolch sight word list three times per week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. He will first read the words independently, while Mr. Wright times him and keeps a running record of his errors. Oberon and Mr. Wright will then read in a choral fashion, followed by Oberons reading them a third time independently. This portion of the lesson should take 5-10 minutes each day. Friday will be reserved for assessment. Once Oberon has completed this task three consecutive times, we will progress to the next grade-level of sight words. Reading Book: Oberon will read from an appropriate text of his choosing that is at an instructional reading level. He will read twice per week, on Tuesday and Thursday, with Mr. Wright for 15 minutes per session. Data Collection: Mr. Wright will keep a permanent placement record for each of Oberons running records, and place them Oberons reading folder, which will be placed in class. Reinforcement (type and schedule): Constant and consistent positive verbal reinforcement will be provided. In addition, Oberon will be able to obtain tangible reinforcers in the form of The Treasure Box. Each week, he will have a Weekly Work Schedule (see attached) that will reflect the weekly lesson plans. If, by the end of the lesson on Friday, he has successfully completed all of the predetermined lesson components (i.e., Word Attack/decoding lessons, sight word practices, reading comprehension or writing activities, Smartboard activities, and reading fluency activities) Maintenance: Maintenance of this skill will be dependent upon Oberon continuing to read naturally in a variety of environments. One of the long-term goals of this program is to allow Oberon to read independently in a manner that is functional and meaningful. As described in the skill sequence, fluency is learned alongside comprehension and decoding. When Oberon achieves his fluency objectives, then his reading comprehension will improve. This will create a symbiotic relationship between the two skills, and, as long as Oberon continues to be provided with reading opportunities, then his fluency will be maintained.

Instructional Program Reflection Results: Baseline data trend was decreasing slightly. There was significant, observable improvement in Oberons reading fluency during the course of the program, although he did not achieve the programs stated objective. When isolated for passage reading difficulty, the data trend shows a steady, 2-word per week increase in reading rate. Oberon quickly achieved the criterion for raising his reading level from DRA level 14 to 16. His reading speed at 16 has been erratic yet trending upwards. He exceeded the WCPM criterion for two of his last three probes, but has yet to do so in three consecutive probes to justify the next level increase. Data trends under instructional conditions showed consistent improvement between a Cold Read and a Hot Read, and consistent improvement when presented with the same text over multiple days.

Discussion: I believe that this program was moderately effective, and I would recommend it or a slightly altered version of it. The data shows that the program resulted in a drastic and immediate up-turn in reading speed, followed by a longer, more erratic increase. Despite not reaching the programs stated objective, Oberon is reading texts more quickly and efficiently at a higher difficulty level than he was in February. The only parts of the lesson that remained unchanged were the regular Corrective Reading decoding lessons and the Reading A to Z fluency lessons. Regular sight word lessons stopped after Oberon successfully passed the third grade Dolch word list. The component of the lesson that changed consistently was comprehension. After the reading books, planned activities included multiple forms of writing and SmartBoard Activities. Three components and variables that contributed to the success of the program were using high-interest, student-driven activities, having very few behavioral problems, and having regular implementation of the fluency and decoding lessons. Varying our activities and allowing Oberon to make decisions about what the lessons would look like maintained his interest over a long period of time and helped him to make connections between the boring parts of the lesson, i.e., the decoding and fluency lessons, and the natural reinforcers of being a better reader. Regardless, though, Oberon showed both patience and diligence in working over a long-period of time at an activity that is difficult and often frustrating for him. Conducting regular, intensive decoding and fluency lessons targeted the students greatest reading needs, and I believe were highly effective. Three components and variables that limited the learning process were student attendance, scheduling, and time management during the lessons. Oberon is frequently absent from school, and this would often occur during days when

assessment had been planned. In addition, frequent planned days off from school limited his progress on occasion. Time management before and during instruction could have accelerated learning by guaranteeing that all components of the lesson plan were addressed every day, thereby not leaving gaps in the instruction. I would recommend the program again. I think that it could be more effective in a small group setting of 3-4 students at similar reading levels. I would want to find a more effective way of integrating the regular fluency and decoding lessons with the long-term independent enrichment projects. Although I believe that the projects were beneficial, they often had a haphazard feel about them, and I did not have a clear plan for how each project would end and the next one begin.

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WPM Errors Linear(WPM)