After several years of having a goal on our 7th graders IEP of “increase reading fluency”, I insisted that the school decide on method of measuring her reading fluency now and then again in a year and see if she is making any progress. She is spending inordinate amounts of time on her homework because she works so slowly though she has excellent comprehension skills. I suggested they administer the GORT. When they sent the results home, her reading rate score was at the 2%, 3.7 GE. Now the school wants to discredit those results saying she scored at the 50% on the comprehension score and above average on several other comprehension tests given and this does not accurately measure her reading rate. Any ideas?
Re: Gray Oral Reading Test
My dd scored very low in rate and accuracy on the GORT (but very high on tests of reading comprehension). In her case, the slow rate and accuracy were due in large part to undiagnosed functional vision problems. She needed 8 months of vision therapy followed up with cognitive training (we did PACE, http://www.learninginfo.com) to develop her visual processing skills to the point where she could read text at a normal rate.
I would advise taking your dd to a developmental optometrist for evaluation. You can find more information about functional vision problems at http://www.childrensvision.com, and developmental optometrists in your area at http://www.covd.org.
While I wouldn’t let the school off the hook, my bet is they don’t know what to do to increase your dd’s reading speed. Great Leaps is one of the few programs available to them for this kind of problem (and they may not have heard of it). Website is http://www.greatleaps.com.
Mary
Re: Gray Oral Reading Test
I would smilingly?, cheerfully commend them on her accuracy and comprehension improvements and then ask what they will do for the fluency issue. Bring some articles from the LD in Depth section of this site- there is one by Phyllis Fischer that addresses this specifically, along with stuff about Great Leaps and Read Naturally (also on this site I think) for suggestions. Her comrehension will gradually decrease if the fluency issue is not addressed. The GORT is a very good test with pretty high validity- they are confused:)
Robin
Re: Gray Oral Reading Test
Without reading speed approaching conversation rates, good intonation, and a background (life experience) with the materials there can be no fluency and only the most limited literal comprehension.,
Comprehension is not the same thing as speed. Your daughter reads slow. The question is her speed increasing. My son has fluency goals on his IEP that are words per minute. I guess I would focus on that rather than where she is in relationship to other kids.
Fluency goals are one of the easiest to write—because easy to quanitify. One thing the school has used with my son is the Great Leaps Program which is designed to improve fluency.
Beth