The Effects of Poetry on Reading Fluency in Second Grade Students

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether second grade students at Brooklyn Park Elementary School in Anne Arundel County Public Schools who were taking part in direct instruction of poetry reading would significantly increase their reading fluency based upon the oral reading fluency and retell fluency measures of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills assessment. In this quasi-experimental study, the independent variable was direct instruction of poetry reading and the dependent variable was students’ performance on the DIBELS oral reading fluency and retell fluency assessments. The hypothesis of this study was supported. An analysis of the results obtained from the three administrations of the DIBELS oral reading fluency measure and the retell fluency measure do suggest that there were statistically significant differences in the performance of second grade students at Brooklyn Park Elementary School who received direct instruction of poetry reading.