Effects of fluency oriented instruction on reading achievement and motivation among struggling readers in first class in Irish primary schools
ix LIST OF TABLES x LIST OF FIGURES xii 1 PROLOGUE. 1 2 INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT FOR THE STUDY 5 2.1 Policy in the U.S.A. 6 2.2 Policy in the United Kingdom 8 2.3 Policy in the Irish Context 10 2.3.1 Reading standards in Ireland 10 2.3.2 Literacy achievement in disadvantaged schools 11 2.3.3 National Strategy to Improve Literacy and Numeracy (2011 2020) 12 2.3.4 Oral Reading Fluency and the English Language Curriculum 13 2.4 Statement of the Problem 14 2.5 Rationale for the Study 16 2.5.1 Rationale for fluency oriented instruction 16 2.5.2 Fluency oriented instruction and struggling readers 17 2.6 Focus of the Study 18 2.7 The Professional Significance of the Study 20 2.8 Organisation of the Thesis 21 3 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 24 3.1 Theories of reading instruction 25 3.1.1 The 'bottom up' model 25 3.1.2 The 'top down' model 26 3.1.3 The interactive model. 28 3.1.4 The transactional model 29