Repeated Readings

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Brief Overview

The guided repeated oral reading technique consists of three main components:

1. student practice reading a weekly passage
2. ongoing teacher feedback
3. biweekly progress monitoring

Typically, the student practices orally reading a passage for 1 week or until a predetermined criteria is met, such as an improvement in reading rate (Samuels, 1979; Therrien, 2004) or three successive improvements (Weinstein & Cooke, 1992).

Ongoing corrective teacher feedback is provided through teacher modeling, direct instruction, and positive comments or suggestions regarding reading with expression, sentence segmentation, and fluency.

Biweekly progress monitoring involves having students read material one grade level above their current level.

Many students with disabilities require specialized instructional interventions and frequent progress monitoring in reading. The guided repeated oral reading technique promotes oral reading fluency while providing a reliable data-based monitoring system.

This reading technique, an adaptation of repeated readings (Samuels, 1979), typically includes the following steps.

• Monday: Conduct the Cold Read . . . .The student is given a new weekly practice passage of about 50 to 200 words at his or her instructional level (level read with about 95% accuracy). The "cold read" is the first time the student views and orally reads the passage. After the student orally reads the passage within 1 minute, the teacher records the number of words read correctly and the number of errors. For example, if James read 54 words in 1 minute with 6 errors, subtract the error amount (6) from the total number of words read in one minute (54) to calculate the number of words he correctly read in one minute (48). Next, the teacher orally reads the passage to the student to provide a model that the student can imitate. Teacher modeling consists of
  
• attending to expression
• reading in phrases and clauses
• using a finger to follow along if needed
• reading at a slightly faster pace than the student
  
• (Meyer & Felton, 1999; National Reading Panel, 2001; Therrien, 2004).
  

• Finally, the student orally rereads the passage with assistance from the teacher. During this read, when the student comes to an unknown word, the teacher encourages the student to apply a known strategy. If the student does not know a word within 3 seconds, the teacher provides the word.
  

• Tuesday: Monitor Progress and Practice Weekly Passage to monitor progress, the student orally reads an unfamiliar passage one grade level above his or her instructional reading level. Therefore, teachers using this approach must have access to reading passages for student weekly practice as well as progress monitoring. For example, the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS; Good & Kaminski, 2005) can be used for biweekly reading and graphing using passages one grade level above the student's instructional level, and the Read Naturally program (Read Naturally, 2005) can be used to record cold and hot reads for passages at the student's instructional level.
  
• Following this read, the teacher records the student's data on a progress monitoring graph, Instructional decision making should include data analysis. Generally, the teacher can estimate one or two words gained for each week of instruction above the baseline (Scott & Weishaar, 2003). Fuchs (1989) recommended that instructional modifications are warranted when the student's performance falls below the aim line on three consecutive points (Mercer & Pullen, 2005).
• Also, the student also orally reads the weekly practice passage as a "good reader," with good expression and adequate speed and phrasing, and as a "fast reader" at a slightly faster pace. Repeatedly reading the same passage at a faster pace provides opportunities to embed the faster pace. The student may also chorally read the passage with a group of 3 to 5 students. Students are typically reminded to read along with their finger to avoid losing their place, carefully track the words, and group phrases.
• Wednesday: . . . . .Practice. Practice. Practice. The student practices orally reading the new passage at least twice, and the teacher provides immediate and corrective feedback.
  
• Thursday:. . . . Monitor Progress and Practice Weekly Passage. The process from Tuesday is repeated by having the student read a new (unfamiliar) passage from the progress monitoring curriculum. This data are also graphed. The student also orally reads the weekly passage at least twice, as a good reader and as a fast reader.
  
• Friday: . . . .Conduct the "Hot Read" The student reads the weekly passage aloud to the teacher, and the data are again recorded. Teachers should share the difference from the cold and hot read data with the student, as an increase in words per minute on the hot read is very motivating for students.
  
• Many programs, such as the Great Leaps Program (Great Leaps Reading, n.d.) and Jamestown Reading (Jamestown Education, n.d.) suggested graphing the student's reading data to provide a visual of success and to involve the student in noting improvements toward their reading goal (Dudley, 2005).

Also, this article describes a repeated reading/fluency lesson plan. It details how to make activities function with different levels within the classroom.

Here is a portion of the article:

Educators value the importance of reading fluency practice. High fluency scores are positively correlated with high comprehension scores. However, practicing repetitive reading passages with one-size fits all fluency recordings does not meet the diverse needs of your students. Instead, save some money on expensive fluency programs and truly differentiate your fluency instruction.

First of all, find multiple reading level fluency passages on the web or from your favorite educational bookstore. Assess fluency rates of your students at their instructional reading level (85-95% word accuracy). I suggest two-minute timings to insure accurate assessment. Then, form ability groups of 4–7 students based upon their reading levels and fluency scores on these assessments. Separate students who can’t cooperate or who will disrupt the class. (click here to read entire article!)