INCREASING READING COMPREHENSION OF ELEMENTARY STUDENTS THROUGH FLUENCY-

BASED INTERVENTIONS

The authors of this action research project report used fluency-based oral reading interventions
to help students improve their reading comprehension. From Monday, August 27 through Friday,
December 7, 2007, six kids in grade three, six students in grade five, and six students in grade
six took part in the study. Researchers discovered that impairments in any aspect of oral
reading fluency were linked to reading comprehension issues in the targeted reading groups. To
document evidence, the teacher researchers employed the following tools: Oral Reading Fluency
(ORF) on the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), which revealed that 50
percent of kids at Site A and 83 percent of students at Site B were below the standard score for
oral reading fluency. 61 percent of pupils chose the erroneous title for the comprehension-
based exam (Choose-A-Title).

According to the results of the student poll, 17 percent of students answered "nearly never"
when asked "I think others like my reading." Students' difficulties with accuracy, pace, and
prosody highlighted flaws that hampered meaning processing. Three 20-minute weekly
sessions were implemented, with one session devoted to reader's theater activities such as
choral reading, echo reading, and poetry, and two sessions devoted to partner reading, in which
student pairs engaged in repeated oral reading and silent reading while listening to oral reading
being modeled. Teachers should model fluent reading by demonstrating proper rate and
accuracy. Fluency can be improved through reading and rereading exercises such as reading
with a model reader, choral reading, reader's theater, and partner reading (Vaughn & Linan-
Thompson, 2004).

Students showed greater awareness of the three characteristics of oral reading fluency:
accuracy, pace, and prosody as a result of the interventions. While participating in paired
reading and cooperative learning groups, students practiced self-monitoring these
characteristics. The post-test data demonstrated that students' positive responses to "I read
with expression and feeling" had decreased. On pre- documentation, 33% of students said
"almost always," while 28% said "almost always" on post- documentation. The percentage of
people who say they "generally" has dropped from 50% to 44%. Students responded best to
interventions like choral poetry reading and reader's theater, which entailed repeated reading in
the form of practice followed by performance. Students showed enthusiasm for the exercises
while also becoming more realistic in their self-evaluation.

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