Hi John, Thank you for this posting. It helps to uncover more of what's currently happening with reading instruction. Elisa Waingort Calgary, Canada
I think both Mr. Rasinski and Ms. Waingort are "right" in their comments on the importance of fluency. S. J. Samuels was on the NRP, and at the Chicago IRA he stated that fluency was taken up by the NRP in large part because he was on the panel...and that others on the panel did fight for their own interests. Mr. Samuels also stated that if he would have known what was going to happen with fluency instruction is classrooms as a result, it would have been better Fluency had not been considered at all. Strong words. And, to think that it wasn't too many years ago that Tim Shanahan described fluency as the "neglected," or "forgotten" tool, or something close to those terms. Perhaps what Mr. Rasinski noted about Stahl's last study holds part of the key-"a significant number of students were struggling readers." In our profession we repeatedly take hold of something that works for one group of students and generalize it as "good" for all readers. And, we can't be happy with practicing fluent reading in moderation--sharing a poem or song each day in class in a meaningful enjoyable way, either, as mentioned in recent postings. (That's not "direct" enough teaching for many.) In recent years it was phonemic awareness (Richard Allington described it as the "false crisis"). The work of just a few researchers, often with very small numbers of struggling readers fueled that crisis, and often just citing each other's work. All of a sudden even children who were reading "fluently" needed to focus on letter ID and letter sounds...breaking the reading process back down to its least meaningful parts. I remember reading Connie Juel trying to bail out when her work was being cited so much- in ways not necessarily how she viewed her own results. Of course most recent is the DIBELS work, borne out of special education and foisted upon the Reading First schools. Now in this city we have whole schools (not just reading first schools, not schools full of struggling readers--yet anyway) charting how many words and sounds they are reading each month-and other garbage. And, holding whole school assemblies to celebrate. What do these kids think "reading" is? How can they make the adults (reading teachers, teachers, principals, parents school board members) in their lives more happy? Just read more words, more letters, and more sounds-- and read them faster. What's the "new" crisis? Middle school kids who can read but are choosing not to read. How can we blame them? What's the other not so new crisis? Soaring high school drop-out rates...Some of our reading leaders look at the NAEP scores and say we're just not doing enough at the higher levels, as if that's all the answer..willing to accept that core reading programs and DIBELS for our struggling readers is the answer because state leaders "say" it's working??? Just keep the money flowing-into the right pockets. Just wait until this group of struggling readers in those Reading First schools reach middle school/high school age after YEARS of being DIBELed in the name of reading instruction. I am very afraid we haven't seen anything in how high drop-out rates will go yet. And, we as a profession will have done nothing about it. John Delich Springfield, IL
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