Reading Topics

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Nonsense Words and Reading Fluency | Research

Teaching nonsense words, testing nonsense words to measure reading fluency, and using nonsense words to determine a student's reading readiness is nonsense in my opinion. Finding qualitative or quantitative research on the efficacy and merits of using nonsense words to determine reading potential/ability/fluency, or to measure reading "preparedness" comprehension as some have stipulated is nigh impossible.

English is littered with a vast collection of irregularities that are kryptonite to anyone who struggles with reading. Why add more testing to an area that is saturated with grossly over touted and poorly researched pedagogical theories. We can invent so many useless ways to test students and make them feel stupid! Why?

Maybe when we are done parsing, testing, reinventing, manipulating, decomposing, reconstituting, reforming the reading process, students will start reading for enjoyment and stop preparing to take another DUMB reading assessment. Sean


A very short list of White Papers on the use of nonsense words and reading fluency! I excluded article by organizations promoting the Nonsense Word Fluency tests (AimsWeb/DIBELS)!
RUNNING HEAD: Nonsense Words and Reading Fluency 

Relationship Between Nonsense Word Fluency Benchmark Scores and Oral Reading Fluency 
Benchmark Scores 

Abstract 
 Teachers are spending ample time teaching and testing nonsense words in the 
classroom to teach students how to read, however many first graders are not meeting the fluency 
benchmark at the end of first grade. This action research project was conducted to see if there 
was a connection between nonsense word reading ability and oral reading fluency. Data was 
collected from Nonsense Word Fluency tests and Oral Reading Fluency tests from the AimsWeb 
assessment instrument. There were ten students who participated in this study. A survey was also 
administered to find out the beliefs and perceptions of teachers and parents about the teaching 
and testing of nonsense words to teach students how to read. The conclusion from this action 
research is that there is not enough data to come to a decision and that more research needs to be 
conducted. 


The Inception of nonsense words? 



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