Using Reader’s Theatre to Improve Oral Reading Fluency

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2013-07

Department

Program

Masters of Education

Citation of Original Publication

Rights

Collection may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of Reader’s Theatre on the reading fluency achievement of first grade students. The mid-year/end of year oral reading fluency portion of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Learning Skills (DIBELS) was used as the pretest/posttest for this study. A treatment group, receiving Reader’s Theatre, and a control group were chosen based on similar pretest scores. Reader’s Theatre was administered for five weeks, while the control group received the normal small group reading instruction. While the results of the study demonstrated that the students in both groups showed gains in oral reading fluency, the control group significantly out-preformed the Reader’s Theatre group on the posttest. This study contains internal and external threats to validity. Research concerning best practices for reading fluency instruction should continue; fluency is needed for strong independent reading comprehension.