The Effects of Readers Theater Intervention on Fluency Scores of Third Graders

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a Readers Theater intervention on the fluency scores of third graders. This quasi-experimental study measured the reading fluency scores of participants using a pre-assessment and a post-assessment from the oral reading fluency portion of Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills Assessment (DIBELS). There were fourteen participants in the study which included seven Caucasian males, four Caucasian females, one Caucasian male with an IEP, one Hispanic male and one African American female. The study took place over a ten week period and hypothesized that there would be no significant difference in fluency scores for students after participation in a reading intervention, as measured by the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills (DIBELS) assessment, of students who received repeated Readers Theater intervention over a ten week period when their results are compared with their performance on the reading fluency portion of DIBELS assessment that was administered at the beginning of the study. The results suggested that there were statistically significant differences overall in the performance of students on the DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency assessment. This study supports previous research on the effectiveness of implementing a repeated reading program in the classroom.