October 2009
Independent Study Confirms Efficacy of QuickReads-Based Intervention
"Supplemental Fluency Intervention and Determinants of Reading Outcomes" examines repeated reading intervention for students in grades 2 and 3 with low to moderate fluency skills
In a wide-ranging study of a QuickReads-based repeated reading intervention, funded by the U.S. Department of Education and published in the prestigious journal, Scientific Studies of Reading, Patricia F. Vadasy and Elizabeth A. Sanders of the Washington Research Institute in Seattle confirmed earlier findings that “the core QuickReads repeated reading instruction achieved significant improvements in fluency and comprehension.” Additionally they found that “paraeducators may be as effective as certified teachers in boosting students’ reading skills, in particular the fluency and comprehension skills that are the typical focus of repeated reading intervention,” although they note that “teachers were more effective than paraeducators in teaching word-level skills.”
Among other questions, the study specifically investigated the effects of text characteristics, noting and independently verifying the use of high-frequency and decodable words in QuickReads texts, which are based on author Elfrieda H. Hiebert’s Text Elements by Task (TExT) model of text difficulty.
“The QuickReads texts reflect an unusually high standard frequency value, and therefore this intervention exposed students to a large proportion of high-frequency words, in repeated occurrences across passages. This text feature may result in a high level of transfer to other grade-level texts, as is seen in our study’s fluency gains.”
Other questions in the study examined whether there is an advantage for students to be tutored by certified teachers compared with paraeducators and whether intervention fidelity uniquely related to individual differences in word reading, fluency and comprehension gains. Findings were based on a controlled study of approximately 200 students across 13 schools, with treatment students receiving supplemental tutoring of 30 minutes per day, 4 days per week for 15 weeks.
Vadasy, Patricia F. and Sanders, Elizabeth A. (2009) “Supplemental Fluency Intervention and Determinants of Reading Outcomes”, Scientific Studies of Reading, 13(5), 383–425
E4 Now Under Active Development — Free Prototype Lessons Available For Download
Exceptional Expressions for Everyday Events from TextProject helps students explore a web of vocabulary around simple words… great for interactive whiteboards but easy enough to use with a blackboard
First unveiled last year as part of Freddy Hiebert’s work on strategic vocabulary selection, E4 is based on a simple but powerful idea that students can learn a wide range of vocabulary through exposure to words related to common, everyday concepts. We previously published a few examples, but now the TextProject team is hard at work creating an entire series of lessons for possible future publication.
Free prototypes are available at the TextProject website. As of this newsletter’s publication date, 11 lessons are available exploring activities like Talking and Walking and descriptions such as Quiet and Loud, and we’re posting a new lesson every weekend. Lessons include common phrases, idioms, Spanish-English cognates and lots more. The new lessons (#5 and higher) are also available to download as PDFs.
The best way to become familiar with E4 is look at some of the lessons and download the PDF versions to see how they might be used in the classroom. The heart of each E4 lesson is the word web, which is provided in two versions, one filled-in and one blank. These may be projected using an interactive whiteboard or as overheads, or even redrawn on a blackboard. They may also be adapted for handouts.
Special for Newsletter Subscribers Only: No need to download each PDF separately when you can get them all together in a single zipped file. Click to download the Zip file
QuickReads is on Facebook
Become a fan of QuickReads on Facebook to connect with the community of QuickReads users and share ideas and tips
We have a vision of America’s kids gaining the skills they need to become leaders in a rapidly changing world, and we’re working to provide tools to help achieve that vision, like QuickReads and E4. But no tool can be effective without the attentive guidance and imagination of an engaged teacher. We know that there are many teachers out there who are using our tools and who share our vision. Undoubtedly they would benefit from getting to know each other and sharing their enthusiasm and ideas, if only there were some easy way to make it happen.
Thanks to the power and reach of Facebook, that time has finally arrived. We’ve put a QuickReads page on Facebook and asked Julie Petersen, a reading specialist and QuickReads fan who is also the President Elect of the Orange County (CA) Reading Association and founder of the forthcoming www.TWRCtank.com, to help get it up and running.
We hope to attract a critical mass of QuickReads users who can provide mutual support, share ideas and tips and generally be part of an active community working to help kids read better. If you’re not already a Facebook member, it’s a great reason to sign up.
Freddy Hiebert Resumes Blogging
Frankly Freddy goes monthly after a three-year hiatus
TextProject founder and QuickReads author Freddy Hiebert originally launched the Frankly Freddy blog in 2006 as part of a summer workshop she was presenting at the time. This fall, with new ideas and new connections, she has decided that the time is right to renew her commitment to the blog. In her Welcome back, Freddy post of September 11, she explains some of her thinking: “I’m finding that I’ve got a renewed energy for reading education. I’ve published two edited collections over the past two years and am in the process of writing a new one. In addition to these ideas, however, I’ve got some topics that I’m very interested in but am not yet ready to write about in a formal academic venue.”
Those who’ve had the opportunity to peruse her original 2006 posts know that her upcoming posts are likely to be insightful and thought-provoking. Welcome back, Freddy!
National Reading Conference 2009
Freddy Hiebert will make two appearances at this year’s NRC, which takes place December 2-5 in Albuquerque, NM. On December 3 from 1:15 to 2:45 pm, she’ll present “Toward a Comprehensive View of Early Literacy: Responses to the National Early Literacy Panel (NELP) Report” at a Program Chair Invited Session. Then, on December 5, from 10:15 to 11:45 am, she’ll present an integrative research review: “A Debate With Ourselves About the Contributions of Literacy Research to Practice and Policy.”
Visit the NRC Online website for complete information about this year’s gathering.