The Effects of Repeated Reading on Grade-Level Fluency Growth and Proficiency in First Grade

Abstract

Throughout the country, students were identified as, “at risk” due to their lack of fluency proficiency on the Formative Assessment for Teachers (FAST). Students who did not attain grade-level fluency suffered from comprehending text, which negatively affected the process of reading to learn. Teachers actively explored fluency-building activities to continue to meet the needs of the “at risk” early childhood reading population. According to the fall 2016 FAST assessment, 26.9% of students within the building were not proficient. Due to the significance of students attaining grade-level fluency proficiency, this study investigated if implementing repeated reading instruction aided first-grade students in obtaining a significantly greater increase in word growth in grade-level reading. Repeated reading instruction utilized teacher modeling, partner reading, and independent reading in this study. The research design was an experimental design in which students were selected to participate in the experimental and control groups randomly. Twenty first-grade students were involved in this study with 10 students selected randomly from each classroom. The experimental group utilized the treatment, repeated reading instruction. The control group continued to receive small group guided reading instruction and the language arts curriculum as established by the school district. It was predicted that if repeated reading instruction was utilized daily for eight weeks, participants in the experimental group would obtain a significantly greater increase in word growth than the control condition in grade-level reading. The results of this study confirmed the prediction and showed a statistically significant difference in obtaining a greater increase in word growth in first-grade level reading..