Effects of Repeated Reading with a Reader's Theater Approach on First Graders' Reading Fluency, Comprehension, and Prosody

Reading fluency is a critical skill to acquire to advance reading achievement in elementary grades and beyond. The purpose of this study was to determine how a reading fluency intervention using repeated reading methods influences first graders’ oral reading fluency, prosody, and comprehension. Participants were 21 students from a first-grade classroom (n = 9 male, 12 female) in a suburban school. The study was based on action research with the teacher engaging in educational practices and reflection. Students took part in a fluency intervention using Reader’s Theater scripts from the adopted curriculum at the school. Assessments examined accuracy, prosody, retelling, comprehension, and reading motivation. Analysis was based on paired-sample t-tests. Results found that students’ reading rate and accuracy increased significantly, as well as their responses to retelling. Students’ prosody, responses to comprehension questions, and motivation did not show significant effects.