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 o ral reading fluency across three levels of reading materials. Results showe d that a combination of contingencies, modeling, and practice was effective in producing substantial increases in reading fluency for all participants at their assigned grade levels. These results demonstrate one strategy for experimentally determining those instructional components that are require d to increase oral reading rate.