Variations in Directions and Overt Timing on Oral Reading Accuracy, Fluency, and Prosody

Abstract

.The purpose of this research was to examine whether variation in directions and timer visibility affect performance on curriculum based measure of oral reading (CBM-R) probes. Third-grade students (N = 72) were assigned to conditions in which directions emphasized children doing their best reading, their fastest reading, their most accurate reading, or their most expressive reading. In addition, students were assigned to either a condition in which the stopwatch was hidden or a condition was overtly timed. Results from 4 (directions) by 2 (timer visibility) factorial analyses of variance revealed no statistically significant differences across conditions in the number of reading errors made, the number of words read correctly per minute, or how expressively the students read. Furthermore, experimental conditions did not produce differential relations between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension scores. In contrast to several recent studies, results indicate that students are relatively impervious to variation in curriculum-based measure of oral reading directions and timer visibility.