Repeated Reading with Goal Setting for Reading Fluency @ Iowa Reading Research

@IAReading

Repeated Reading with Goal Setting for Reading Fluency

Iowa Reading Research: 2.05.2019 by Leah Zimmermann, M.Ed. Research Coordinator, Iowa Reading Research Center & Deborah K. Reed, Ph.D. Director, Iowa Reading Research Center

Reading fluency, the ability to read at an appropriate rate and with accuracy and proper expression, is essential to reading comprehension. When students read fluently, they can devote their limited cognitive resources to making meaning from text, rather than recognizing individual words. Therefore, it is important for teachers to implement research-based reading fluency instruction to improve students’ skills.

Reading fluency instruction can take many forms, but it often involves having students read orally so teachers can hear how students are processing the text. Repeated Reading is one type of reading fluency instruction that has evidence of effectiveness at improving the oral reading fluency of elementary students and secondary students. Moreover, students with learning disabilities and those with emotional and behavioral disorders have also benefited from this type of instruction. This is important because these populations are more likely to struggle with reading fluency than their typical peers.

During Repeated Reading, students orally read a single passage multiple times in order to reach a certain accuracy rate or criterion, or to complete a prescribed number of readings. For example, students might be instructed to repeatedly read a passage until reaching 130 words correct per minute (WCPM). Another teacher might instruct students to complete three readings of the passage. When students repeatedly read the same text, they practice actively processing print, which may improve their ability to read automatically, with little effort spent on word recognition. In addition, students receive multiple exposures to new words and practice reading those new words in different types of sentences and paragraphs.

Key Components of Repeated Reading Instruction

Researchers have identified several key components of Repeated Reading instruction.

The first is error correction, in which students receive feedback on words mispronounced during oral reading and practice the correct pronunciations. Error correction benefits oral reading fluency by helping students rehearse and refine pronunciations, which may improve the ability to recognize the practiced words in new texts.

A second beneficial component of repeated reading is peer mediation, in which students work together in pairs or small groups to complete instructional assignments. In Repeated Reading, students read together and serve as more immediate sources of error correction than when a single teacher provides feedback to individual students. When students work with their peers, they are more engaged in fluency practice activities and report increased satisfaction with the assignments. 

Finally, student goal setting is a Repeated Reading component that is associated with immediate gains in reading rate and accuracy, as well as sustained improvement over time. Goal setting may help students self-monitor their reading and identify useful strategies that benefit their reading performance. During reading fluency practice, goal setting typically involves students quantifying a goal, such as “I will read 120 WCPM on my third reading of the passage.”

Although goal setting is important, it should be based on accurate information and realistic expectations. In recent research, some students responsible for serving as fluency coaches to their peers consistently recorded inaccurate reading rate and accuracy data. Given that even trained adults struggle to identify student errors on fluency assessments, students’ mistakes are unsurprising. In addition, focusing on the number of words read correctly may communicate to students that the speed of their reading is more important than the quality of their reading. Rather than establishing a goal based on questionable reading data or an inappropriate understanding of fluency, we recommend that students be taught to identify positive behaviors and reading strategies on which to focus during reading fluency practice.

Repeated Reading: Introductory Lesson

READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 15

Reading Level: difficult to read.

Reader's Age: College graduate