Repeated Reading Fluency Strategies

Reading fluency is one of the most important skill to learn and has the greatest impact on reading. This study examines three strategies: modeling, repeated reading, and writing to improve reading fluency. The first strategy is Modeling. It is used to allow the student to observe and hear what a passage should sound like when the proper word recognition, inflection of the voice, and phrasing are used correctly. The second strategy is Repeated Reading where the student will reread the passage. This strategy was conducted using Choral Reading, Pair or Partner Reading, and Recorded Reading. The last strategy used was writing where the students would elaborate on passages recently read. This study focused on struggling readers, who scored below benchmark on a previously administered DIBELS assessment. Over the course of three the students were engaged in either a reading fluency activity which integrated one of the repeated reading strategies (choral reading, pair/partner reading, self-recording or writing). At the end of each week the student was given a post-assessment to for progress

monitoring. The results of the study show that through the use of these strategies the student reading fluency increased.

Reading Fluency
The purpose of this literature review is to investigate a way to improve first and second grader’s reading fluency. For this study the students were provided modeling, repeated reading in the form of paired reading, and self-recorded reading and then were asked to answer a writing prompt for each of the passages read. These activities were completed on per day, for three weeks. After three week the students were evaluated to see how their reading fluency had improved. Although there are five skills: phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary instruction, and reading comprehension that the National Reading Panel consider to be important to reading success, the one that has the largest impact on reading is reading fluency (Strickland, Boon, & Spencer, 2013).
Reading fluency is defined as reading text at grade level with accuracy, prosody (using the correct rate of words per minute), and expression. This skill is demonstrated by readers who have the ability to identify words in print automatically or effortlessly and these readers understand the necessity to use appropriate expression while reading aloud.
However, struggling readers often do not have the ability to decode words, comprehend what they read, or to read fluently. Struggling readers must rely heavily on decoding each word. Time spent decoding impacts how reading sounds. Struggling readers often spent too much time trying to decode or determine the word causing several seconds of dead space between the words. Time spent decoding or rather cognitive energy spent decoding can interfere with comprehension. Since comprehension is the main goal of reading, teachers should invest time and energy into developing reading fluency. (Kim, Bryant, Bryant, & Park, 2017).
Since reading fluency is one of the most important skill to learn and has the greatest impact on reading. The importance of this skill is shown by having its own standard in Arizona for first grade (1.RF.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension) and second grade (2.RF.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension). This teacher action research project investigated whether the integration of modeling, repeated readings, and writing supported reading fluency development.
Modeling
Modeling is a strategy often used by teachers to demonstrate a new concept by allowing the students to observe the concept being used in the correct way. For reading fluency, modeling is used to allow the student to observe and hear what a passage should sound like when the proper word recognition, inflection of the voice, and phrasing are used correctly. Modeling requires the reader to show a student the correct way to read the passage. It also is one of the most effective ways to increase a student’s reading fluency. The process allows for the student to see the skill they need to learn performed correctly. Through the modeling process the student learns what is expected of them (Malouf, Reisener, Gadke, Wimbish, & Frankel, 2014).
Modeling for reading fluency can be accomplished when a teacher or other student reads a passage to another student to improve reading fluency.

Fluency is modeled by reading the passage at the correct rate and rhythm. Expression is presented by ensuring to pause for a comma, stop for a period, change the voice to represent that a question is being ask for a question mark, and having excitement in the voice when there is an exclamation point. Additionally, some students might need to be directly told about punctuation and how punctuation impacts expression. For example, when they see a comma, they need to be told they should pause, or when they see a question mark, they need to change their voice to represent that a question is being ask. They need to be shown that the punctuation, and the written words, give feeling and show the reader what their voice should sound

like.
Repeated Reading
Repeated Reading is another strategy often used to increase reading fluency. In fact, Repeated Readings are the most common method to increase reading fluency in beginning readers and for students with a disability (Lee, & Yoon, 2017). The Repeated Reading process requires the student to repeatedly re-read an assigned passage after they have listened to either a fluent reader or an audio recording of a fluent reader read the passage (van Gorp, Segers, & Verhoeven, 2017). By actively engaging in repeated readings students have demonstrated an improvement in accuracy, automaticity and prosody (Hudson, Lane, & Pullen, 2005).
Repeated reading can be conducted in a variety of ways This includes Choral Reading, Pair or Partner Reading, and Recorded Reading. Choral Reading is when all the students read the same passage at the same time (Paige, 2011). Basically, the students are reading in unison. During this type of repeated reading, the teacher will also be reading as he or she is modeling accuracy, prosody, and expression the three skills that make one a successful reader. Choral Reading encourages students to improve upon fluency as they are given a chance to practice reading with accuracy, prosody, and expression (Paige, 2011).
Pair or Partner Reading is a Repeated Reading strategy which encourages students to work in pairs as they repeatedly read passages (Topping, 2014). During pair reading, students take turns reading. While one student is actively reading, the other student is following along and monitoring the other student’s reading (Mastropieri, Leinart, & Scruggs, 1999).
Paired repeated reading can be used for any level of reading and can also be used with any type of materials, even materials that may be above the readers reading level. This type of repeat reading works best when one person in the pair is at a higher reading level then the other. Paired readings have a greater output of reading fluency and have been proven to provide the reader with greater confidence, better self-correction as well as improved accuracy. Paired or Partnered Reading has also been shown help English Language Learners develop English skills. (Topping, 2014).
Self-Recording Repeated Readings allow the reader the ability to hear themselves read and self-identify their lack of automaticity, accuracy, and prosody. These repeat readings allow the student to have better understanding of what they have read. Struggling readers normally are monotone and without expression and will say inaccurate words that impact their understanding of what they have read (Hudson, Lane, & Pullen, 2005). A recording of self allows the student to hear this monotone voice and, as they listen to themselves read the passage, they can hear the mistakes they made as they follow along with the written word. This type of repeated reading can have a huge impact on the reader and can greatly improve their reading fluency (Hudson, Lane, & Pullen, 2005).
This Self-Recording Repeated Reading starts out with the student reading a passage as they record themselves. After recording themselves they listen as they track with their finger on the written passage. They are looking for the three keep factors of reading fluency as they do this. Those are accuracy, automaticity, and prosody. As they hear they own voice and how they read the passage, they become their own teacher or the partner and self-evaluate. This allows for them to see and correct their mistakes. Each time this Self-Recording Repeated Reading is completed their reading fluency rate increases (Ness, 2017).

Writing as a Strategy to Improve Reading
When students begin to think about or comprehend what they are reading, their fluency skills will also become greater (Lee, Schallert, 2016). One strategy requires a student to think about what they read, then write a retell or expand the ideas covered in the reading passages. Writing, when used as a strategy to increase reading fluency, can provide an opportunity for students to repeatedly use concepts and vocabulary from just read passages. Lee and Schallert (2016) found that writing about the text just read increase both word recognition and comprehension. They also found the use of writing tasks that require students to paraphrase, reorganize, integrate, or elaborate on passages recently read can lead to developing higher-level reading and thinking skills. Writing that requires the student to think about what they read can be an effective tool in improving a student reading fluency (Lee, & Schallert, 2016).
Progress Monitoring
To assess reading fluency, progress monitoring assessments are often used. Progress monitoring is a tool that is used to track growth or change instruction as needed. It can be provided to the students in a written form such as a test, or through observation (Filderman, & Toste, 2018). One such effective tool for measuring reading fluency is the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). DIBELS offers teachers and other reading evaluators an assessment tool to evaluate literacy skills first through sixth grade. The DIBELS assessment contains a variety of progress monitoring assessments, one of which can be used to assess Reading Fluency(ORF) (University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning, n.d.). The DIBELS ORF assessment requires students to read a grade level specific passage for one-minute. The examiner identifies the ORF by counting the number of correctly read words within that minute (Morris, Trathen, Perney, Gill, Schlagal, Ward, & Frye, 2017).
Summary
In summary this teacher Action Research Project will use three different strategies (modeling, repeated reading, and writing) to try to improve student reading fluency.