The Effects of “Reading Buddies” on Reading Fluency, Comprehension and Reading Attitudes in Special Education Students
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2013-05
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Masters of Education
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Abstract
This study evaluated the effects of a Buddy Reading program on the reading fluency and comprehension of Special Education students, as well as its effect on self-ratings of their reading skills and attitudes. Special Education students were placed in two groups. Each of the students in the first group was assigned a Regular Education student partner or “Reading Buddy” with whom to read aloud on a daily basis. Students in the second group were given the same text to read each day, but were not assigned Reading Buddies. Prior to and after the Reading Buddy intervention, which lasted 15 days, data were collected on all participating students’ reading fluency and comprehension using selected portions of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). A survey also was also administered at both times to assess students’ feelings about reading and their reading skills.
Post intervention results indicated all groups experienced gains in reading fluency. Gains also were noted in retell scores for the Regular Education students. Minor gains were seen in retell for students without buddies, while there was a decrease in retell mean scores for Special Education students with buddies. Students’ mean self-ratings for attitude toward reading and reading ability also increased for the students in the Reading Buddy groups, but they did not increase for the Special Education student group without buddies.
Overall, results indicated that the use of cooperative reading opportunities can be beneficial to both Regular and Special Education students. Use of the Buddy Reading intervention yielded overall positive results in reading fluency, comprehension, self-rated reading attitudes, and reading ability. However, these benefits must be interpreted with caution, as the differences in gains in fluency and retell scores were not statistically significant across any of the three
conditions. These results suggest that the students who did not have a Reading Buddy made comparable gains in reading skills.