Impact of Repeated Reading on Reading Fluency,
Reading Comprehension, and Reading Attitudes
of Eighth-Grade Students
Vickki R. Carter
Valdosta State University
An action research project submitted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements of the Education Specialist Degree
in Exemplary Teaching at Valdosta State University.
ABSTRACT: This study examined the impact of repeated reading on reading
fluency, reading comprehension, and reading attitudes in eighth-grade students (N
= 15). Regular education students were taught expository writing and guided
reading using a novel for 4 ½ weeks. Repeated reading of grade-level passages for
the first 10-15 minutes of class was then added to the curriculum. The AIMSweb
R-CBM, AIMSweb Maze CBM, and an attitude survey were used to assess
student performance. Statistically significant gains were made during the repeated
reading intervention in comprehension (M = 25.53, p = *0.01). Improvements,
though not statistically significant, were made in reading fluency (M = 132, p =
0.17) and in students’ attitudes toward reading (p = 0.30).
Today’s society is like no other in history. Information is available at the touch of a key
or the click of a mouse in the matter of a split second. However, is it really that simple? The act
of reading information from the computer monitor requires two simple tasks: decoding words
and comprehending the text. This notion seems as easy as placing one foot in front of the other
and walking from one room to the next. However, schools are filled with students who can call,
or decode words beautifully but simply do not understand what they read. Comprehension is
missing. According to the results of the 2007 National Association for Educational Progress
(NAEP), Georgia’s average score was 259 and the nation’s public schools average score was
261. (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2007, Table 1). Critical to the quality
education that children and adolescents seek is the ability to read and comprehend a variety of
texts. However, the educational requirements do not simply stop at comprehension. Students
must be able to respond thoughtfully to a text using inference as well as text-based response and
critical response (Applegate, Applegate, & Modla, 2009).
A key component of reading comprehension that researchers say is missing, especially
in middle and high schools, is reading fluency (Applegate et al., 2009; Rasinski et al., 2005;
Strong, Wehby, Falk, & Lane, 2004). Reading fluency is made up of three key elements:
accuracy, rate, and prosody. Students should be able to read words accurately at a rate of a
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normal conversation with appropriate prosody, or expression, in order to gain meaning from a
given text (Applegate et al., 2009).
Based on information from several studies (Faver, 2008; Rasinski et al., 2005; Strong et
al., 2004; Winn et al., 2006; Yurick et al., 2006), which outline the various formats for repeated
reading (RR), RR is one of the most practical interventions to use with a variety of age ranges.
In his book, The Fluent Reader: Oral Reading Strategies for Building Word Recognition,
Fluency, and Comprehension (2003), Rasinski described RR as a powerful tool that, when
practiced regularly and in interesting ways, lead to vast improvements in students’ word
recognition, fluency, and comprehension. He also implied that RR is not used nearly enough in
elementary and middle-grade classrooms. Rasinski made an analogy comparing repeated reading
to basketball players practicing foul and jump shots on a daily basis or a pianist practicing scales
to become a more proficient musician. Therefore, according to Rasinski, a reader who can
automatically decode words can read with greater speed, accuracy, and comprehension.
The purpose of this study was to test the impact of the RR strategy on the reading
fluency, reading comprehension, and reading attitudes of eighth-grade students at a middle
school in Southeast Georgia.
Methods
Participants in this study lived in a small, rural town in Southeast Georgia. According to
the school improvement plan, the community is among Georgia’s poorest with a per capita
yearly income of $22,031. The population of the county was approximately 17,900 and growing
at a rate of approximately 14% from April 2000 through April 2008. At the end of the 2007-2008
school year, 766 students were enrolled in this middle school. The White population made up
83% of the total school population with the African-American population at 10%, the Hispanic
population at 4%, and 3% other. The school improvement plan also reported that one of the
factors impacting the community was that approximately 30% of the adult population had less
than a high school education, and only approximately 16% of the adult population had some
college education.
Eighth-grade students in an Extended Learning Time (ELT) class, including 7 males and
8 females, participated in this study. All students were assigned to the teacher-researcher’s class
by administrators at the beginning of the school year based on low CRCT scores in Reading from
the previous school year and/or low scores on either a reading curriculum-based measurement
(R-CBM) or a comprehension curriculum-based measurement (Maze CBM) (AIMSweb Progress
Monitoring and RTI System, 2008). None of the students in this convenience sample had an
Individual Education Plan (IEP).
Intervention
Because of the availability of only one group, a within-group/ time-series design was
used with students in teacher-researcher’s ELT class, which met for approximately 1 hour each
day. The control phase of the study took place during the first 4 ½ weeks of school. During this
phase, students participated in expository writing instruction and group reading with discussion
of Out of the Dust, a poem/novel by Karen Hesse, written at a grade-level equivalent of 5.1
(Scholastic, 2009). At the beginning and end of this phase, the teacher-researcher and the
school’s Response to Intervention (RTI) coordinator administered the R-CBM, the Maze-CBM,
and the Reading Attitudes Survey (Appendix A). The results were used as baseline data.
The experimental phase of the study took place during weeks 4 ½ through 9 of the school
year. During this phase, students continued participation in expository writing instruction and
participated in a group reading and discussion of the novel My Brother Sam is Dead by James
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Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, which is written at a 5.7 grade-level equivalent
(Scholastic, 2009). The students spent the first 10 to 15 minutes of class participating in RR. At
the completion of the 4½ week intervention phase, the teacher-researcher and the school’s RTI
coordinator administered the R-CBM, the Maze-CBM, and the Reading Attitudes Survey
(Appendix A).
At the beginning of each ELT class period, students were responsible for obtaining their
repeated reading folders from the designated shelf in the classroom. Each folder included a table
for students to record fluency rates each week (Appendix B) and two eighth-grade level reading
passages for use during the week. Two new reading passages were added each week. On the first
day of each week, the teacher introduced a new passage by reading it aloud to students as they
read along silently from their copy. Next, students paired up, taking turns reading the same
passage aloud at least twice to each other. During this time, the teacher-researcher and ESOL
teacher monitored each pair of students while making field notes in a journal. On the second day
of each week, students went back to the same partner, taking turns reading aloud the day 1
passage to one another at least three times. Again, the teacher-researcher and ESOL teacher
monitored students while making field notes. The same process for days 1 and 2 was followed
with a different passage for days 3 and 4.
On day 5 of each week, each student selected his or her favorite passage from the week.
After reading the passage aloud to the same partner one time, students conducted a mock RCBM on one another and recorded their own scores on the table located inside their RR folders.
Students had been previously trained by the teacher-researcher to conduct an R-CBM. At the end
of the 4 ½ week experimental phase, the teacher-researcher and the RTI Coordinator conducted
the AIMSweb R-CBM and the Maze CBM as posttests for each participant. The Reading
Attitudes Survey was also conducted at the end of the 4 ½ week experimental phase.
Results
During the time of year of administration, eighth-graders’ scores on the R-CBM should
average 143 words correct per minute, and scores on the Maze-CBM should average 20 items
correct (AIMSweb Progress Monitoring and RTI System, 2008).
Table 1
Comparison of R-CBM and Maze CBM Mean Gains from Control and Intervention Phases
Control
Outcomes
R-CBM
Mean
Gain
8.33
Maze CBM
2.06
Intervention
SD
SD
N
t-value
p
12.30
Mean
Gain
9.80
10.54
15
-0.35
0.36
5.31
7.13
5.24
15
-2.63
0.01*
* p < .05.
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Mean gains and standard deviations along with t-test results from the control phase and
intervention phase are given in Table 1. Although the gains in reading fluency were higher with
the intervention than with no intervention, the results were not statistically significant (p > .05)
over this period of time. In reading comprehension, the gains under the intervention were
significantly higher (p < .05) than the gains under no intervention.
The Reading Attitudes Survey was given to students prior to the repeated reading
intervention and after the repeated reading intervention. After the intervention, students’ attitudes
toward reading shifted positively in six areas of the eight measured on the survey. Student
responses on the survey were similar on most survey items, indicating that there was not a
significant shift in most students’ attitudes toward reading. There were two survey items where
the responses were more positive than before the intervention, and where the differences
approached significance. Those two items related to the excitement experienced when the
teacher recommended a good book (Question 1) and getting so involved in reading a book it was
difficult to put it down (Question 4). Although overall improvements in attitude toward reading
were not statistically significant (p > .05), a more positive shift was reported regarding
confidence in comprehension when reading alone (Question 6) and in attitudes toward reading at
home (Question 8). Field notes were also used for data collection during the intervention phase.
Students were randomly observed by the teacher and the ESOL teacher during repeated reading
sessions.
Discussion
The RR intervention was beneficial to the students. The results of the current study are
consistent with the findings from the Winn study (Winn et al., 2006) with adult subjects whose
results were statistically significant. However, the Winn study differed from the current research
in that it took place over a period of 5 months, as contrasted with a 4 ½ week intervention period.
In addition, the current study reflected improvement similar to the Strong study (Strong et al.,
2004) in which subjects utilized the repeated reading intervention along with an empirically valid
reading program for a period of 5 weeks.
Although conducted over a 4 month period in contrast to the 4 ½ week period of the
current study, the results from the Yurick study (Yurick et al., 2006) are also consistent with the
current study in the areas of reading fluency and reading comprehension. Findings from both
studies are supported by conclusions from the Yurick study (2006) in which researchers noted
that because students were able to focus more attention on reading and give less attention to
decoding, they were able to gain more meaning from the text.
Factors that Influenced Implementation
During the first week of the intervention, 9 of the 15 participants were absent for a 2
days due to an outbreak of influenza in the school. During the third week of intervention, the
teacher-researcher was out of the classroom for one day for a meeting; however, the ESOL
teacher was present during class. The third factor was the fact that the hallways were being
decorated for homecoming activities during the final week of implementation and the day the
final R-CBM was administered, causing the teachers to note distractions among several students.
Findings from this study affirm the credibility of previous research studies in relation to
the positive impact of repeated reading on reading fluency and reading comprehension. The
practice of reading accurately through repeated reading allows students to improve their rate of
reading and word recognition skills causing them to spend less time decoding words. As a result,
students gain more meaning from the text. In addition, RR provides a viable, inexpensive
intervention to help students increase their fluency and comprehension without the purchase of
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an expensive program. Any text of any length can be used to practice repeated reading.
Despite the positive findings from this study, a few limitations should be addressed.
Because the participants were students of the researcher, teacher bias may have made an impact
on the students’ achievement. Other factors that could have influenced the results were the small
class size, the presence of two teachers, and the impact of reading instruction received at other
times of the day through language arts. The brevity of the study (4 ½ weeks) also limited the
results.
Clearly, further research is required to validate the findings of this study. Although the
use of repeated reading is well-documented in previous research literature, a larger sample of
eighth-grade students from various school settings and demographics would serve to further
evaluate the effectiveness of this strategy. Further research should be conducted on the repeated
reading strategy using a variety of text types and genres as opposed to the one-page
informational passages provided in this study.
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References
AIMSweb Progress Monitoring and RTI System (2008). Reading-CBM. Retrieved June 29,
2009, from http://www.aimsweb.com
Applegate, M. D., Applegate, A. J., & Modla, V. B. (2009). “She’s my best reader; She just
can’t comprehend”: Studying the relationship between fluency and comprehension.
Newark, DE: International Reading Association. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service
No. EJ833705)
Faver, S. (2008, December). Repeated reading of poetry can enhance reading fluency. Newark,
DE: International Reading Association. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
EJ820651)
National Center for Education Statistics (2007). The nation’s report card: Reading 2007 state
snapshot report [White paper]. Retrieved February 7, 2009, from
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/stt2007/2007497GA8.pdf
Rasinski, T. V. (2003). Repeated reading. In The fluent reader: Oral reading strategies for
building word recognition, fluency, and comprehension (pp. 75-100). New York:
Scholastic.
Rasinski, T. V., Padak, N. D., McKeon, C. A., Wilfong, L. G., Friedauer, J. A., & Heim, P.
(2005, September). Is reading fluency a key for successful high school reading? Newark,
DE: International Reading Association. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
EJ718844)
Scholastic (2009). My brother Sam is dead. Retrieved July 6, 2009, from
http://www2.scholastic.com
Scholastic (2009). Out of the dust. Retrieved July 6, 2009, from http://www2.scholastic.com
Strong, A. C., Wehby, J. H., Falk, K. B., & Lane, K. L. (2004). The impact of a structured
reading curriculum and repeated reading on the performance of junior high students with
emotional and behavioral disorders. Bethesda, MD: National Association of School
Psychologists. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ683549)
Winn, B. D., Skinner, C. H., Oliver, R., Hale, A. D., & Ziegler, M. (2006, November). The
effects of listening while reading and repeated reading on the reading fluency of adult
learners. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. EJ750751)
Yurick, A. L., Robinson, P. D., Cartledge, G., Lo, Y., & Evans, T. L. (2006, August). Using
peer-mediated repeated readings as a fluency-building activity for urban learners.
Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Press. (ERIC Document Reproduction
Service No. EJ744818)
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Appendix A
Reading Attitudes Survey
Thank you for your participation in this voluntary survey. Your completion of this survey lets me
know you agree to participate.
Using the following 1-5 scale, please circle the number that best
represents how you feel about the statement.
1
Strongly
Disagree
2
Disagree
3
Neutral
4
Agree
5
Strongly
Agree
1. I get excited when the teacher recommends a good
book.
1 2 3 4 5
2. I can read just as well as my classmates.
1 2 3 4 5
3. Knowing how to read well is important.
1 2 3 4 5
4. Once I start a book, I can’t put it down.
1 2 3 4 5
5. When my teacher asks me a question about what I have
read, I can give an accurate answer.
1 2 3 4 5
6. When I am reading by myself, I understand what I am
reading.
1 2 3 4 5
7. I like to read out loud in class.
1 2 3 4 5
8. Reading a book at home is something I like to do.
1 2 3 4 5
Appendix B
Student # ______
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Weekly Fluency Rates
Week #
WCPM
(Words Correct Per Minute)
Student Reflections
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Notes:
Appendix C
Teacher Field Notes
Action Research Field Notes
Week: _______
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
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Friday:
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