Neil J. Anderson, professor of Linguistics and English Language at Brigham Young University, recently presented at the Reading Horizons distributor seminar in Salt Lake City, Utah. He shared some interesting information about how English Language Learners (ELLs) benefit from systematic phonics instruction. Two of the reasons he cited include the following:

1) reading fluency increases as students learn to decode words; and

2) oral reading improves when students can decode words correctly.

Reading fluency, as defined by Neil Anderson, is "reading at an appropriate rate with adequate comprehension" (Anderson, 2008, p. 3). This definition of reading fluency is important as teachers consider what an "appropriate reading rate" is for their students. Remember that reading at a quick pace (an "appropriate rate") without comprehending what is being read is not fluent reading. Additionally, reading super slowly and understanding everything being read ("adequate comprehension") likewise is not fluent reading. The balance between the two--reading rate and comprehension--is important to fluency.

So what constitutes an "appropriate rate"? During the presentation, Anderson referenced national averages for optimal silent and oral reading rates by grade level (Hasbrouck & Tindal, 2006). Since several distributors were interested in having access to this information, I thought I would include the information in this blog post below:

Silent Reading Rates

1st grade: 80 wpm

2nd grade: 115 wpm

3rd grade: 138 wpm

4th grade: 158 wpm

5th grade: 173 wpm

6th grade: 185 wpm

7th grade: 195 wpm

8th grade: 204 wpm

9th grade: 214 wpm

10th grade: 224 wpm

11th grade: 237 wpm

12th grade: 250 wpm

College or University: 280 wpm


Oral Reading Rates

1st grade: 53 wpm

2nd grade: 89 wpm

3rd grade: 107 wpm

4th grade: 123 wpm

5th grade: 139 wpm

6th grade: 150 wpm

7th grade: 150 wpm

8th grade: 151 wpm

Notice that oral reading rates beyond the 8th grade level are not listed. This is due to the fact that when we read aloud, we generally do not read faster than what we can read at an 8th grade reading level.

These silent and oral reading rates can be used as a guideline when discerning appropriate reading rates for students. Adjustments to these reading rates could be made to accommodate English Language Learners and students with reading difficulties.

References:

Anderson, N. J. (2008). Practical English language teaching: Reading. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Hasbrouck, J., & Tindal, G. A. (2006). Oral reading fluency norms: A valuable assessment tool for teaching teachers. The Reading Teacher, 59, 636-644.

Thank you all for your participation in “v5 in 5 Days.” I was very impressed by the comments and wish we could award a Software License to every participant. Reading the comments was very rewarding after seeing the hard work everyone in this office has put into this product release. To hear such positive feedback was truly gratifying.

I’d also like to thank our participants and all teachers for their efforts in helping struggling readers. It’s amazing to think that everyone who commented works with this problem daily. It’s a problem that is often neglected or ignored in mainstream society yet from my experiences with Reading Horizons, I have become very aware of society’s need to promote literacy. I’m excited for one of our participants to receive a Software License and look forward to it helping the students exposed to it. I hope all of our participants will be able to work with this program and see its impact on struggling readers.  Thanks again for your participation!

And the winner is....!

For 26 years Reading Horizons has helped struggling readers of every age and every background. Now with the release of the NEW Reading Horizons v5 software, this program has the strength to help even more students learn to read! This post is a continuation of a 5 day post series focusing on 5 different features of the new Reading Horizons v5 software.

Day 1: Lessons
Day 2: Library
Day 3: Pronunciation Proficiency Tool
Day 4: Vocabulary Tool
Day 5: Administration System

The new Reading Horizons v5 software's greatest improvement centers around its efforts to create a more student-focused reading program. Several of the options available in the Administration System help the software fulfill this goal.

The Administration System allows teachers and administrators to set student tracks which determine the entry level and speed students will go through the program. There are three default tracks that teachers can assign: emerging, basic, or accelerated. These defaults help teachers and administrators ensure a proper fit with student ability and program curriculum.

This screen shows the Student list in the Administration system

Another way the Administration System helps ensure the program caters to student needs is through the assessment function. Through the Administration System teachers and administrators can test the skills of students to determine entry level and progress. These assessments also help teachers catch the areas that students need additional help with in order to improve their reading skills.

 
Aside from assisting instructors in creating a more student focused program, the Administration System also helps instructors maintain the program and run reports to track group and student progress. The Administration System makes it easy for teachers to add students to the system as well as assign them to groups.

This is an example of the Lesson Reports available in the Administration System

The Administration System strives to make the program more user-friendly for teachers and administrators, and more student-focused for those striving to grasp the fundamentals of reading.

Question

In order to be entered into a drawing for a free giveaway at the end of the week, answer the following question in the comment section of this blog, answering the question on each separate post will provide you with additional chances to win (up to 5):

In this post several features of the Administration System of Reading Horizons v5 were explained. From reading this post, what do you think of Reading Horizons approach to make the Administration System and the entire program more student-focused?

Thank you for your participation in “v5 in 5 Days.” The winner will be announced Monday morning on the blog through a video-taped drawing. Subscribe to Reading Horizons RSS Feed to recieve additional information and updates from Reading Horizons blog.

For 26 years Reading Horizons has helped struggling readers of every age and every background. Now with the release of the NEW Reading Horizons v5 software, this program has the strength to help even more students learn to read! This post is a continuation of a 5 day post series focusing on 5 different features of the new Reading Horizons v5 software.

Day 1: Lessons
Day 2: Library
Day 3: Pronunciation Proficiency Tool
Day 4: Vocabulary Tool
Day 5: Administration System

Reading Horizons v5 software is effective for English Language Learners (ELL) because of the program design as well as the new Pronunciation Proficiency Tool. As previously discussed, Reading Horizons v5 software is effective in teaching the fundamentals of reading. The same fundamentals ELL students need to learn to be able to effectively learn to read.

Lesson and Passage Narrations

ELL students often need additional support when learning to read English because it is not their native language. To support these students Reading Horizons v5 provides narrations and texts of the Lesson Summaries in the student’s native language. These narrations help ELL students ensure they understand the key concepts taught in each lesson.

The following languages are currently available:

•    Mandarin Chinese
•    Japanese
•    Spanish
•    Haitian-Creole

This screen shot uses a Language translation (green area) to describe the material in the lesson

Also, the new v5 software provides English narrations of each reading passage in the Library portion of the software. This feature helps ELL students improve pronunciation and grasp the English language by hearing the narrator’s voice intonation and word stress throughout the passage.

PRONUNCIATION PROFICIENCY TOOL

To help ELL students adjust to the English language and improve their pronunciation, Reading Horizons has created the Pronunciation Proficiency Tool. This tool is an improvement from the ESL Say tool found in prior versions of the software.

Pronunciation Video Footage

The Pronunciation Proficiency Tool presents video footage of a mouth pronouncing each sound in the English language. These video clips provide ELL students with a visual to mimic when trying to grasp proper pronunciation. 

Tongue Animations

The Pronunciation Proficiency Tool also includes animated tongue placements. These animations show ELL students the movements their tongue should make in order to create the sounds of the English language.  

This is the visual which presents the tongue animations of the Pronunciation Proficiency Tool

Letter Formation Animations

To help students see how letters should be formed, the Pronunciation Proficiency Tool provides animated letter formations. 

Record and Compare Capabilities

As illustrated, the Pronunciation Proficiency Tool presents many features which help students see proper pronunciations, but the tool also allows ELL students to hear proper pronunciation.  The tool allows students to record their own pronunciation and compare it to a narrator’s pronunciation. This helps a student know if their pronunciation is accurate or if they still need improvement. This feature requires that students are equipped with a microphone. 

Video

This is video of Reading Horizons ESL Director, Heidi Hyte, and her thoughts on how Reading Horizons v5 can assist ELL students:

Question

Answer the following question in the comment section of this blog:

In the video clip Heidi Hyte discussed the Pronunciation Proficiency Tool and the benefits of the program design in assisting ELL students. From reading this post, which feature do you think will be most beneficial for ELL students?

Be sure to visit the blog again tomorrow to learn more about the Vocabulary section of Reading Horizons v5 software and to see a video clip from Reading Horizons Reading Specialist, Shantell Berrett.

This week I have been reviewing feedback from a member of our Curriculum Committee on a manual revision. Earlier today I emailed another member of the Curriculum Committee to get feedback on other materials. I was reminded of the fantastic people we have on our Curriculum Committee that support our vision and contribute to the development of new products and revisions of existing products based on their experience. The Curriculum Committee consists of a number of seasoned educators who advise us on curriculum changes to our software and direct instruction products. Our Curriculum Committee members are experienced users of Reading Horizons and Discover Intensive Phonics. Following are some quotes about our products and method from Curriculum Committee members.

From members of our Elementary Curriculum Committee:  

“I would recommend Reading Horizons to a professional peer because it is a research-based, high-quality program that helps children unlock the code to reading. It gives children the basic tools they need to be successful, lifelong readers. They learn to enjoy reading because the program makes reading an easy task.”

“As a result of using this phonics program daily, we see children using the phonetic skills they have been taught when they come to a word they don’t know. The testing on reading we have done at grade level has shown them higher than ever before. The children use their decoding skills to help them spell words. I rarely have more than three children who don’t get 100 percent on the spelling test. In using this program daily, the children’s printing skills and creative writing skills have improved greatly. As phonetic sounds are introduced with words, the children learn other meanings for words, and we use that in comprehension skills. Dictation of sentences has become a breeze because (the program teaches) punctuation along with the phonic skills. I have become an avid fan of Discover Intensive Phonics and would never go back to anything I taught before.”

From a member of our ESL/ESOL Curriculum Committee:  

“Discover Intensive Phonics’ unique, systematic method integrates a manageable set of word attack principles with an engaging, interactive software product that accommodates visual, audio, and kinesthetic learning styles. Reading Horizons’ Discover Intensive Phonics is the benchmark product in the field of ESL literacy development.”

From members of our Intermediate/Adult Curriculum Committee:

“The strength of this program is that it empowers people to read. It gives them skills and confidence (when they) successfully complete reading lessons. It’s very thorough and comprehensive with instructions and follow-through in the lessons. (When you are) a teacher, you know when something works; this works!”

“Not only has Reading Horizons proved successful across the range of reading levels, it also is effective with students whose reading difficulties stem from a variety of sources: lack of experience due to inadequate elementary education, intellectual deficits, and learning disabilities. The experience of making sense of language through systematically proving words (applying the phonetic rules) brings a sense of excitement and hope which encourages the sustained effort needed to be successful.”

For more information about the members of our Curriculum Committee, click here.