Fluency Building Research Articles

Creating an Adaptable Literacy Tutoring System for Elementary-Age Students in New York City Foster Care

ABSTRACT The researchers present a case study of an ongoing literacy tutoring program for elementary-age students in foster care. The first two authors collaborated with the education program at The New York Foundling, and created a multi-component, data-based program modification to guide tutors to virtually assess and teach core literacy skills. The program combined explicit instruction, fluency building, and ongoing critique of student needs through formative assessments. Students in foster care face significant challenges and begin tutoring with complex stories. The researchers found that using a dynamic approach in tutoring allowed the majority of students in foster care enrolled to make growth in literacy skills during the COVID-19 pandemic. The experimental design was a single-group, pre-to-posttest design with intermittent, repeated measures. Tutors provided detailed responses to a usability survey to assist in better understanding the complex nature of working with this population. Future directions for the program and implications for working with this vulnerable population were discussed.

Fluency development through freewriting and transfer to other more structured tasks

This study investigated the effect of consistent freewriting practice on written fluency development. Thirty-nine first-year university students completed 70 10-minute freewriting activities over the course of an academic semester. Written fluency, measured as words produced per minute (wpm), increased from a mean of 19.5 wpm to 30.1 wpm over a period of 15 weeks. Further analysis revealed statistically significant gains over two-week intervals. The participants also wrote three timed TOEFL-style essays at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester to see whether fluency gains transferred to more structured contexts. The results showed a statistically significant increase in written output on the timed essays, along with an increase in holistic scores. Findings indicate that consistent freewriting can result in rapid and statistically significant fluency gains that carry over to other more structured contexts. In addition, the improved scores on the timed essays suggest increased fluency may allow learners to attend to other aspects of writing, improving the global quality of the text. A detailed description of the fluency building activity and discussion of results are provided.

A systematic review of the impact of precision teaching and fluency-building on teaching children diagnosed with autism

Precision teaching (PT) is a holistic system that allows the monitoring of behaviour change on a specially designed Standard Celeration Chart (SCC). In instructional settings, precision teachers aim for fluent responding (i.e., accuracy and speed) from their learners. Thus PT, in these settings, includes fluency-building (FB) strategies. FB strategies can be used without graphing the learner's performance on the SCC. Behavioural fluency is linked to high skills retention, endurance, stability, and generalisation to other skills and environments. A systematic literature review was carried out of PT methodology for skill acquisition of children diagnosed with autism. A systematic literature review of fluency-building procedures used in the process of skill acquisition of children diagnosed with autism was also performed. Reichow, Volkmar, and Cicchetti's (2008) assessment tool was used to establish the empirical validity of the 13 studies identified in this review. Results suggest that while there is emerging evidence for the positive outcomes, the evidence base is rather small. The implications for the use of PT and fluency-building procedures to support individuals diagnosed with autism are discussed.

The optimal learning strategy depends on learning goals and processes: Retrieval practice versus worked examples.

Testing (having students recall material) and worked examples (having students study a completed problem) are both recommended as effective methods for improving learning. The two strategies rely on different underlying cognitive processes and thus may strengthen different types of learning in different ways. Across three experiments, we examine the efficacy of retrieval practice and worked examples for different learning goals and identify the factors that determine when each strategy is more effective. The optimal learning strategy depends on both the kind of knowledge being learned (stable facts vs. flexible procedures) and the learning processes involved (schema induction vs. memory and fluency building). When students’ goal was to remember the text of a worked example, repeated testing was more effective than repeated studying after a 1-week delay. However, when students’ goal was to learn a novel math procedure, the optimal learning strategy depended on the retention interval and nature of the materials. When long-term retention was not crucial (i.e., on an immediate test), repeated studying was more optimal than repeated testing, regardless of the nature of materials. When long-term retention was crucial (i.e., on a 1-week delayed test), repeated testing was as effective as repeated studying with nonidentical learning problems (that may enhance schema induction), but more effective than repeated studying with identical learning problems (that may enhance fluency building). Testing and worked examples are both effective ways to learn flexible procedures, but they do so through different mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

児童の漢字の読みスキルの保持・耐久性・応用に及ぼす流暢性指導の効果の実験的検討

児童の漢字の読みスキルの保持・耐久性・応用に及ぼす流暢性指導の効果の実験的検討

Improving the Generalization of Computer-Based Math Fluency Building Through the Use of Sufficient Stimulus Exemplars

Computers have become an important piece of technology in classrooms for implementing academic interventions. Often, students’ responses to these interventions are used to help make important educational decisions. Therefore, it is important to consider the effect of these interventions across multiple contexts. For example, previous research has demonstrated that when students practice math fact fluency on the computers gains did not generalize to paper–pencil performance. The current study extended this research by examining the effect of multiple stimulus exemplars on the generalization of computer-based math practice to paper–pencil performance. A total of 57 second-grade students completed fluency drills only on the computer, computer mixed with paper–pencil or with only paper–pencil. Pretest–posttest performance was evaluated using a 3 × 2 doubly multivariate repeated-measures ANOVA, with follow-up univariate analysis to determine whether the interaction between time and treatment type was similar across matched and unmatched treatment modalities. Results from previous research were replicated with a lack of generalization across modalities, but the addition of multiple stimulus exemplars resulted in increased generalization for those students receiving a mix of computer and paper–pencil practice.

The effect of topic selection on writing fluency among Japanese high school students

Written fluency and fluency building activities have been shown to promote linguistic choice and student voice development, increased ability to express ideas using complex grammatical structures and greater intrinsic motivation in English language learners. Since the 1970’s, process-oriented writing has been emphasized, yielding an amplified focus on meaning of student content over linguistic form precision. Current research of writing fluency must delve deeper into questions of student ownership of topic and the outcomes for low-risk activities that support fluency practice and encourage confidence building in students. The purpose of this replication study is to further explore previous findings on the effects of topic selection on writing fluency for high school English as foreign language learners. Building off of the work of Bonzo (2008), this study focused on a timed, non-graded writing activity administered to groups of Japanese engineering students in three departments: mechanical, electrical, and global engineering. The six subsequent samples for each participating student were analyzed using online text-analysis for total and unique word counts, providing data used to perform a t-test. Responses to bi-lingual student questionnaires, with prompts on self-perceived written English ability, self-efficacy and strategies for success while writing, provided additional insight into the facets of fluency. The results of these writing sessions offer both confirmation of and contrast to Bonzo’s original work, demonstrate increased student meaning making, and support the use of free writing activities in English language classrooms as a means by which student written fluency may be improved.

Randomized Evaluation of a Supplemental Grade-Wide Mathematics Intervention

A randomized controlled trial was used to evaluate the effects of a supplemental mathematics intervention that emphasized fluency building for computations and procedures. All fourth- and fifth-grade English-speaking students from a single school district who were participating in general education mathematics instruction and had a 2009 year-end accountability score were included in the study ( N = 537). Assignment to intervention or control conditions occurred at the classroom level with roughly half of classes being assigned to intervention and half being assigned to control conditions within each school. Outcome measures included the 2009 year-end statewide accountability measure in mathematics as well as three computation curriculum-based measurement probes of mathematics administered on three occasions during the school year. Implementation integrity data were collected in intervention classrooms via direct observation, teacher surveys, and monitoring of permanent products. Multilevel linear modeling (MLM) analysis was used to evaluate the effect of the intervention on student mathematics outcomes for all students and for students who were low performing at baseline. Intervention effects were detected at both grade levels (but not on all outcome measures). MLM was also used to evaluate the mediating effect of intervention implementation integrity on intervention effects. The integrity with which the intervention was implemented in intervention classrooms predicted end-of-year standardized measures of mathematics achievement and growth on curriculum-based measures. Implications for mathematics instruction in general and mathematics intervention within response to intervention models are discussed.

Homework in Secondary Classrooms: Making It Relevant and Respectful

In this article, the authors focus on homework as an adjunct for learning in secondary school classrooms. Four types of students are profiled, with detail on how the students respond to homework assignments when they do not understand the content. The authors then review three changes in homework practices that can engage students, including fluency building, spiral review, and extension learning.

Two Studies of Tier II Literacy Development: Throwing Sixth Graders a Lifeline

Abstract Two experimental studies at one urban middle school investigated the effects of the combination of Tier I and Tier II evidence-based reading instruction compared to Tier I alone on struggling sixth-grade readers (N = 109). All participants received free or reduced-price lunch, and 95% were considered English learners at some point in their school history. In both studies, Tier II intervention consisted of intensive instruction in word analysis, fluency building, comprehension, and vocabulary for 30 hours across 10 weeks. Results of both studies taken individually and combined indicated significant differences in favor of the intervention groups on oral reading fluency. The second study indicated significantly stronger performances for the intervention group on the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test—Revised (WRMT-R/NU) passage comprehension subtest. Tier II interventions and Response to Intervention (RTI) for older struggling readers are discussed related to educational implications and future research.

Reading Interventions for Students with Challenging Behavior: A Focus on Fluency

Students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders typically demonstrate low rates of responsiveness to reading interventions. This study examined the effect of implementing a multi-dimensional secondary intervention package on students’ oral reading fluency (ORF). Fluency building was added to accuracy instruction and behavioral support for 4 second-grade students with reading difficulties and behavioral challenges, and 5 students with reading difficulties only. Results indicated that all students benefited; however, 2 students with behavioral challenges responded at greater rates and 2 responded with similar rates of growth compared to students with reading risk alone. Students’ level of attention may have contributed to student responsiveness as students with higher levels of inattention were less responsive to the intervention. Limitations, direction for future research, and educational implementation are discussed.

Extending Research on a Math Fluency Building Intervention: Applying Taped Problems in a Second-Grade Classroom

A multiple-baseline, across-tasks design was used to extend research on the taped-problems (TP) intervention with an intact, rural, second-grade classroom. During TP sessions an audio recording paced the class through a series of 15 or 16 addition facts four times. Problems and answers were read and students were instructed to attempt to provide the answer before the recording. Time-delay procedures were incorporated by varying intervals between problems. Results showed sustained increases in fluency after TP was applied to each set of problems, and both the students and the teacher indicated the procedure was acceptable. Discussion focuses on the importance of preventing learning deficits by developing and validating basic-skill interventions that are effective, efficient, and can be applied on a classwide basis.

Developing math automaticity using a classwide fluency building procedure for middle school students: A preliminary study

AbstractTo investigate the influence of an innovative math fluency intervention, 36 middle‐school students were randomly assigned to either an experimental (the Detect, Practice, Repair [DPR]) or control condition (reading intervention). After covarying pretest scores, the DPR treatment produced a significantly higher (p = .016) adjusted mean (M) math score (M = 47.53, standard deviation [SD] = 3.26) for the intervention group when compared to the control group (M = 33.31, SD = 4.39). The intervention is described so that teachers and consulting school psychologists can implement the steps for individuals or groups (e.g., in a multitiered response to intervention model). © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Evaluation of a changing criterion intervention to increase fluent responding with an elementary age student with autism.

Fluent responding is an important aspect of instructional hierarchy (Martens & Witt, 2004). The instructional hierarchy involves several levels: acquisition, fluency, maintenance, generalization, and adaptation (in order from lowest to highest). The assumption of model is that a lower level goal needs to be attained before a higher level goal can be achieved. Regarding fluency, an individual must begin to demonstrate a accurately (acquisition) before she can respond fluently and individual must respond fluently before she can demonstrate retention of responding in absence of systematic practice (maintenance). At core of fluency is rate of responding (Eckert, Dunn, & Ardoin, 2006; Martens et al., 2007; Martens & Witt, 2004). During acquisition of a skill focus is on accurate responding, regardless of latency to respond. The goal of acquisition is to bring responding under appropriate stimulus control of instructions (Martens & Witt, 2004). After accurate responding is acquired next goal is to perform an acquired skill rapidly (p. 24). Fluency building has been applied to reading and math instruction (Codding, Eckert, Fanning, Shiyko, & Solomon, 2007; Hartnedy, Mozzoni, & Fahoum, 2005: Martens et al., 2006), although it can be applied to any acquired learning objective. One method of increasing fluent responding is to make rewards contingent on rapid responding. Noell and colleagues (1998) examined effects of contingent rewards on reading fluency and found that student's speed to reading increased when rewards were made contingent on an increase in correct words per minute from previous reading session. Similar results were found by Martens and colleagues (2007) who examined effects of contingencies on fluency. Specifically, these researchers provided students with a reading passage, some training on that passage, and a post-assessment reading passage. Rewards were contingent on a 50% increase in fluency from first to last reading assessment. The difficulty of reading passages was systematically increased so that students became more fluent with increasingly difficult reading passages. The changing criterion design (Cooper, Heron, Heward, 1987) is appropriate for systematically increasing difficulty of a subject matter by examining the effects of reinforcement or punishment contingencies as they are applied in a graduated or stepwise fashion to a single target behavior (p.219). Regarding fluency and contingent rewards, this design can be used to systematically increase number of fluent responses that are needed to obtain rewards, first by conducting a baseline of fluent responses and then making mean number of fluent responses first criterion for obtaining rewards during intervention. The criterion can be systematically increased until desired number of fluent responses is demonstrated. This design can be further strengthened by adding a baseline reversal so that causal statements can be made regarding effects of intervention on performance (Cooper et al., 1987). The current study examined effects of contingent rewards on building fluent responding in a student diagnosed with autism. The effects were evaluated using a changing criterion design whereby number of consecutive fluent responses needed to earn a reward was systematically increased based on student's performance. This intervention was conducted in a public school setting and implemented by a bachelor's level teacher's aide and supervised by a behavioral consultant attending a doctoral school psychology program. Method Participant, Setting, and Roles Frank was an 11 year old boy diagnosed with Autism, enrolled in a 4th grade at a public school. The student spent majority of his day in a substantially separate classroom next to 4th grade mainstream classroom. …

Use of Evidence-Based, Small-Group Reading Instruction for English Language Learners in Elementary Grades: Secondary-Tier Intervention

This experimental/comparison study of secondary-level, small-group instruction included 318 first- and second-grade students (170 ELL and 148 English-only) from six elementary schools. All schools served high numbers of ELL students with varying school SES in urban and suburban communities. Experimental schools implemented a three-tier model of intervention. In addition to primary-tier reading instruction, the second-tier, small-group experimental interventions included use of (a) evidence-based direct instruction reading curricula that explicitly targeted skills such as phonological/phonemic awareness, letter-sound recognition, alphabetic decoding, fluency building and comprehension skills; and (b) small groups of 3 to 6 students. Students at comparison schools were not exposed to a three-tier reading program but received (a) an ESL intervention using balanced literacy instruction with a focus on word study, group and individual story reading, and writing activities; and (b) small groups of 6 to 15 students. The ESL/balanced literacy intervention was generally in addition to primary reading instruction. Results indicated generally higher gains for ELL students enrolled in direct instruction interventions. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

A Reading Instruction Intervention Program for English-Language Learners Who Are Struggling Readers

We used a multiple baseline across students design to evaluate the effects of an intervention program consisting of vocabulary instruction, error correction, and fluency building on oral reading rate and comprehension of five English-language learners who were struggling readers in a primary school. During the first intervention condition (new passage each session), the first author (a) explained the meanings of new vocabulary words from the session's passage, used each vocabulary word in a sentence, and asked the learner to use each word in a sentence; (b) corrected oral reading errors during the learner's initial oral reading of the passage; (c) asked the learner to read the passage as fast as she or he could for three consecutive trials; and (d) asked five literal comprehension questions about the passage. The same procedures were used during the second intervention condition (same passage to criterion), except the same passage was used across sessions until the learner reached a predetermined number of words read correctly per minute. During the new passage each session condition, the oral reading rate of all five learners showed marked improvements over their performance during baseline. During the same passage to criterion condition, four of five learners reached the predetermined fluency criterion of 100 correct words per minute. The mean number of comprehension questions answered correctly per session was notably higher during both intervention conditions than during baseline.

Effects of a Reading Intervention for Kindergarten Students at Risk for Emotional Disturbance and Reading Deficits

Although students with or at risk for emotional disturbance present significant academic challenges, few researchers have studied the outcomes of interventions designed to improve the reading skills of this population. In this study we assessed the outcomes of a supplemental daily Direct Instruction reading curriculum, Reading Mastery I., and fluency building program, Great Leaps, on the reading skills of students at risk for emotional disturbance and reading deficits. Over a period of 7 months, 6 students received a supplementary reading intervention and 12 students (6 control at-risk and 6 norm-referencing students without disabilities) received their regular classroom instruction. Curriculum-based measures assessing early phonemic awareness and basic reading skills (i.e., letter sounds, blends, and high-frequency sight words) were collected biweekly to assess student performance. The results of this study revealed that at-risk students receiving the Direct Instruction curriculum intervention met or outperformed their control at-risk and norm-referencing peers in all three reading measures. Implications of these findings and areas of future research are discussed.

The six boxes™: A descendent of gilbert's behavior engineering model

Performance ImprovementVolume 37, Issue 6 p. 48-52 Article The six boxes™: A descendent of gilbert's behavior engineering model† Carl Binder Ph.D., Carl Binder Ph.D. Carl Binder, Ph.D., one of B.F. Skinner's last students at Harvard, was Associate Director of a university-affiliated research center during the 1970s. He started his first consulting firm in 1982, Precision Teaching and Management Systems, Inc., where he commercialized his research as the Fluency Building instructional and assessment methodology. He continued to develop fluency-based instructional methods in his second company, Product Knowledge Systems, Inc., where he pioneered key concepts and processes in what is now known as “knowledge management” and developed the research-based Product Knowledge Architecture for sales and marketing organizations. Carl recently moved from Boston to Santa Rosa, California, to partner with Cynthia A. Riha, forming Binder Riha Associates and producing a son. He has shifted the focus of his business from delivering large performance technology projects to providing strategic performance consulting and delivering workshops, tool sets, and other ways of enabling his clients to do it themselves. You can contact Carl by email: CarlBinder@aol.com, via his company's web site: www.binder-riha.com or by phone: (707)578-7850Search for more papers by this author Carl Binder Ph.D., Carl Binder Ph.D. Carl Binder, Ph.D., one of B.F. Skinner's last students at Harvard, was Associate Director of a university-affiliated research center during the 1970s. He started his first consulting firm in 1982, Precision Teaching and Management Systems, Inc., where he commercialized his research as the Fluency Building instructional and assessment methodology. He continued to develop fluency-based instructional methods in his second company, Product Knowledge Systems, Inc., where he pioneered key concepts and processes in what is now known as “knowledge management” and developed the research-based Product Knowledge Architecture for sales and marketing organizations. Carl recently moved from Boston to Santa Rosa, California, to partner with Cynthia A. Riha, forming Binder Riha Associates and producing a son. He has shifted the focus of his business from delivering large performance technology projects to providing strategic performance consulting and delivering workshops, tool sets, and other ways of enabling his clients to do it themselves. You can contact Carl by email: CarlBinder@aol.com, via his company's web site: www.binder-riha.com or by phone: (707)578-7850Search for more papers by this author First published: 07 February 2007 https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.4140370612Citations: 31 † Six Boxes™ is a trademark of Binder Riha Associates, Santa Rosa, California. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume37, Issue6July/August 1998Pages 48-52 RelatedInformation

On Terms and Procedures: Fluency

Fluency is a metaphor for flowing, effortless, well-practiced, and accurate performance. Current practice in fluency building involves increasing the frequency of free-operant performances. Free-operant performance is defined as continuous responding in the presence of discriminative stimuli that are either varied or not varied from response to response. Free-operant performance is also distinguished from discrete-trial performance. Frequency-building procedures are also described, including defining the learning channel and stimulus control topography of a component performance (called a pinpoint), selecting an appropriate timing period, and displaying stimuli so that no performance ceilings occur. During frequency building, frequencies of pinpoints are continuously charted on standard celeration charts. Frequencies are increased to empirically derived performance standards, or aims, that predict retention, endurance, stability, application, and adduction of performance. Frequency is also described as a dimension of performance, not simply its measurement. Frequency building is described as possibly facilitating contingency adduction.

Fostering Multiple Repertoires in Undergraduate Behavior Analysis Students

Eight techniques used by the author in teaching an introductory applied behavior analysis course are described: (a) a detailed study guide, (b) frequent tests, (c) composition of practice test questions, (d) in-class study groups, (e) fluency building with a computerized flash-card program, (f) bonus marks for participation during question-and-answer sessions, (g) student presentations that summarize and analyze recently published research, and (h) in-class behavior analysis of comic strips. Together, these techniques require an extensive amount of work by students. Nevertheless, students overwhelmingly prefer this approach to the traditional lecture-midterm-final format, and most earn an A as their final course grade.