Examining the Effects of Integrating Anxiety Management Instruction Within a Reading Intervention for Upper Elementary Students With Reading Difficulties

We present findings from the first cohort of third- and fourth-grade students with reading difficulties (128 students from 31 classrooms) who participated in a 2-year intervention examining the effects of a reading intervention with and without anxiety management. Using a randomized controlled trial, students were assigned to one of three conditions: (a) small-group reading intervention with anxiety management instruction (RANX), (b) small-group reading intervention with math fact practice (RMATH), and (c) business-as-usual (BAU) comparison condition (no researcher provided treatment). Personnel from the research team provided participants in the RANX and RMATH the same reading intervention with the variation in the two treatments being whether the same amount of time per lesson was allocated to anxiety management (RANX) or practicing math facts (RMATH). Students in the RANX significantly outperformed students in the BAU on reading comprehension (effect size [ES] = 1.22) and students in the RMATH outperformed BAU on reading comprehension (ES = 0.77). Groups did not differ significantly on other reading outcomes. Reading anxiety moderated the main effect of the RANX intervention on Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE) word reading when contrasted against the BAU group indicating a significant difference favoring RANX where treatment’s effect decreased by 0.94 units (about 1 point on the outcome) on word reading for each additional point increase in reading anxiety.

Fostering Independence While Teaching Students With or at Risk for Reading Disabilities

The Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) model for instructional delivery is well supported by research evidence and is often identified as a critical element of instruction for students with learning difficulties. However, there are challenges associated with effectively releasing responsibility to students. This may be especially true during instruction for primary-grade students with or at risk for learning disabilities. In general, educators want to provide a high level of support to young, struggling students in order to ensure that they feel successful and bolster their confidence. However, too much support means that students are not provided with opportunities for independent practice or independent mastery of content being taught. This article describes the GRR model of instruction and provides specific guidance and resources to support special education teachers in implementing the GRR model during small-group reading instruction in primary-grade classrooms, with a particular emphasis on facilitating group and independent practice.

Whole Class or Small Group Fluency Instruction: A Tutorial of Four Effective Approaches

Four scientifically validated approaches to fluency instruction (Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction, Wide Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction, Fluency-Oriented Oral Reading, and Wide Fluency-Oriented Oral Reading) are reviewed. Two for the whole class and two for small groups. Key components of fluency, automaticity, and prosody are defined, and their contribution to reading comprehension is discussed. Automaticity contributes through its freeing up of attention to attend to meaning, and prosody contributes through its addressing of pacing and expression that, in turn, reflect textual meaning. Four principles for effective fluency instruction are also presented: Modeling, extensive opportunities for practice, the use of scaffolding, and the incorporation of prosodic elements. The four instructional approaches presented in this article are based on two different strategies for integrating extensive opportunities to read: Repeated versus wide reading. All four approaches use challenging texts, or texts at the upper end of the learners’ zone of proximal development, thus providing learners with access to a broader range of vocabulary and concepts than would be the case if they read only instructional level texts. All four also provided highly effective procedures for either whole-class or small-group reading instruction. The goal of this summary is to provide readers with effective approaches for classroom instruction.

A small group intervention for older primary school-aged low-progress readers: Further evidence for efficacy

The aim of the present study was to determine the efficacy of a small-group reading instruction program that was delivered over two school terms to Australian students in Years 3 through 6. A large cohort (n = 239) of primary school children was assessed on their literacy skills before and after receiving ‘MacqLit’, a phonics-based program designed for older struggling readers. Parametric and nonparametric difference tests were used to compare results at pre- and postintervention time points. Statistically significant improvements with large effect sizes were observed on all raw score measures of word reading, nonword reading, passage reading and spelling. Statistically significant improvements were also observed on standard score measures of nonword reading and passage reading, suggesting the gains were greater than what might be expected to have resulted from typical classroom instruction. The results indicate that older middle primary school-aged students may benefit from phonics-based, small-group reading instruction.