Complex Text & Fluency with Dr. Jake Downs and Dr. Chase Young

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 245 from the Melissa and Lori Love Literacy Podcast – you can check out that episode here: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/read-like-us-building-fluency-through-repeated-reading/id1463219123?i=1000748503901

Make sure to check out the Literacy.io training on the Kat Framework for Comprehension this June!
-June 24-25 in East Lansing Michigan
-Individual registration available at: https://tamu.estore.flywire.com/products/cusp—the-reading-leagueliteracy10-participant-registration–412940
-Group registration available at: https://tamu.estore.flywire.com/products/cusp—the-reading-leagueliteracy10-group-participant-registration–412945
-More information available at literacy.io/contact

Show Notes
2:30 – What is Read Like Us?

• Overview of the five-step repeated reading protocol
• How it supports accuracy, automaticity, and prosody

4:10 – The Five Reads Explained

1. Listening passage preview
2. Echo reading
3. Choral reading
4. Partner reading
5. Performance/independent reading

6:00 – Implementation in Classrooms

• Can it work in whole group settings?
• Small group intervention applications
• Working with paraprofessionals and volunteers

10:00 – Maximizing Reading Time

• Why 90% of intervention time should be actual reading
• The workout approach to building fluency
• Ensuring students are actually reading (not just holding books)

12:53 – How Read Like Us Differs from Traditional Approaches

• More than just “read three times and check for speed”
• Building all three components of fluency simultaneously
• The role of modeling and scaffolding

15:00 – Gradual Release of Responsibility

• Transferring task responsibility to students
• Why rate/speed wasn’t emphasized in coaching
• Automaticity as the outcome, not the input

18:00 – Prosody and Comprehension

• Expression as an indicator of understanding
• Using the Rasinski multidimensional fluency rubric
• Rotating focus areas: expression, phrasing, smoothness, pace

20:00 – Study Results

• Fourth grade students: 16.5 WPM growth in 50 days
• Effect size of 0.9
• Improvements in accuracy, vocabulary, and comprehension measures

22:30 – Potential Comprehension Enhancement

• Adding a 10-word takeaway or gist statement
• Keeping it “fluency heavy, comprehension light”
• Future iterations of the protocol

25:30 – The Stacking Protocol Approach

• Learning from dissertation chair Dr. Kit Moore
• Combining multiple evidence-based practices
• Weaving the reading rope together

27:30 – Cost and Accessibility

• Read Like Us is free to implement
• Comparison with commercial tier-two interventions
• Open access article available

28:48 – Text Selection Philosophy

• The month-long process of curating 50 texts
• Using challenging and engaging content (100-200 words)
• Types included: giggle poetry, science facts, short stories with twists, weird state laws

30:30 – The “Challenging Text” Debate

• Using texts above grade level with proper scaffolding
• Addressing the 1960s neurological impress research
• Why modern research supports stretching students

33:17 – Texts Students Actually Want to Read

• Students asking to take intervention texts home
• Incorporating core reading program texts for continuity
• Balance between practical and engaging content

36:00 – Lexile Levels and Text Complexity

• Many texts in 6th-8th grade Lexile range for 3rd-4th graders
• Testing the hypothesis: Can struggling readers succeed in harder texts?
• Being “level agnostic” in text selection

39:00 – Rethinking Leveled Texts

• Limitations of the Lexile formula
• Starting with engaging content, not filter levels
• The scaffolding makes the difference, not the exact level

42:00 – Student Motivation and Text Choice

• Chase’s son reading adult-level joke books in first grade
• The power of “want to” over prescribed levels
• Teacher control vs. student self-selection

43:00 – Repeated Reading vs. Wide Reading

• Defining both approaches
• Why they shouldn’t be pitted against each other
• Read Like Us = repeated reading across wide array of texts

46:30 – Wide Reading and Teacher Control

• Students won’t achieve wide reading through self-selection alone
• The teacher’s role in exposing students to diverse genres
• Balancing instruction with student choice

48:00 – Benefits of Wide Reading

• Exposure to different language patterns across genres
• Informational vs. narrative text structures
• Building terrain navigation skills with various text types

49:00 – Getting Started with Read Like Us

• Start with tomorrow’s text
• Find the 200-300 word section with the most “oomph”
• Use what you already have in your classroom

50:21 – Closing

• Where to find the protocol and resources
• Final thoughts and wrap-up