Effects of contingent reward and instruction on oral reading performance at differing levels of passage difficulty

This study examined the effects of reinforcement contingencies designed to increase the performance of existing reading skills as well as the effects of instruction—modeling and practice—designed to increase skill level for oral reading fluency across three levels of reading materials. Results showed that a combination of contingencies, modeling, and practice was effective in producing substantial increases in reading fluency for all partic-ipants at their assigned grade levels. These results demonstrate one strategy for experi-mentally determining those instructional components that are required to increase oral reading rate. DESCRIPTORS: oral reading, skill and performance, task difficulty The analysis of functional relationships between instructional variables and oral reading rate has the potential for extending the application of behavior analysis to a high-incidence problem that is socially im-portant. Recent work within applied behav-ior analysis has demonstrated the utility of analyses of antecedent instructional variables (e.g., Daly & Martens, 1994). Previous lit-erature has also examined the effect of re-inforcing consequences on academic behav-iors (Pereira & Winton, 1991). Reinforced practice can contribute to developing fluen-cy and may also increase the performance of skills that are already in the individual’s rep-ertoire. The integration of instructional events that maximize current performance and events that produce acquisition of new skills into a single analysis of oral reading fluency may contribute to a more systematic approach to instructional decision making. The current study was designed to examine a strategy for assessing the separate and com-Correspondence should be directed to Georg