Dr. Timothy Rasinski: His views on fluency & the art and science of the teaching of reading- An interview conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito

Here are a few facts about Tim taken from his biography on his website

• Timothy Rasinski is a professor of literacy education at Kent State University
• He is the director of its award-winning reading clinic. He has written over 200 articles and has authored, co-authored or edited over 50 books on curriculum programs in reading education.
• His research on reading has been cited by the National Reading Panel and has been published in many professional journals.
• He was the first author of the fluency chapter for the Handbook of Reading Research.
• He was the co-editor of The Reading Teacher & Journal of Literacy Research.
• In 2010, Dr. Rasinski was elected into the International Reading Hall of Fame.

I was very excited when Dr. Tim Rasinski agreed to this interview. He answers the five questions listed below. What I like most about Tim’s ideas is that they are both research-based and involve engaging authentic ways to teach.  His word ladders are a fun way to do word work that gives children a good handle on orthographic information.  His activities to teach prefixes, suffixes and roots are engaging and informative. They also build the background children need to develop a large vocabulary. The time-stamped questions below allow you to jump to whatever question you care to study.  Tim views the teaching of reading as both art and science. I must agree.

At the end of the blog, there are links to Tim’s sites.  There is also a link to the Missouri Literacy webpage.  MLA is hosting a webinar by Tim on February 23. His topic is Comprehension. The webinar is free to all.  Once you are on the MLA site, follow the links to register.  See you there.

The time-stamped questions are below. A link to the video interview follows them.  (BTW- I experienced a bit of technical difficulty that resulted in the questions being a little hard to hear. I’m sorry for that inconvenience; please bear with that very small part of the video)

1.  Why does fluency seem to be such a difficult to understand reading competency? 05:00

2. Is there one instructional strategy you would recommend for teaching/promoting fluency? 10:42

3. You’re also big into word study, especially word roots.  Can you tell more about that? 19:25

4. What about your word ladders – It’s a word game, but do they really help kids learn about how words work? 26:06

5. You’ve recently written about the art of teaching reading. What do you mean by that and why is it important?  31:06

Link to Tim’s Website: http://www.timrasinski.com/

Be sure to check out the resources section- it includes commercial resources, e.g., The Megabook of Fluency. He also provides a lot of free educational material to download.

Follow Tim on Twitter- @TimRasinski1

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Tim provides free samples of his various commercial materials.  These posts have become immensely popular on Twitter!

For more helpful information you can also follow Tim’s Megabook of Fluency co-author Melissa Cheesman Smith on Twitter- @MCheesmanSmith

BE SURE TO VISIT THE MISSOURI LITERACY ASSOCIATION WEBSITE TO SIGN UP FOR TIM’S COMPREHENSION WEBINAR ON FEBRUARY 23! WHILE THERE YOU CAN ALSO LISTEN TO 3 PREVIOUS WEBINARS TIM HAS DONE FOR MLA.

https://mla31.wildapricot.org/

Interview copyright 2021 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely the author’s view and do not necessarily reflect any other person or organization’s views.

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