1

The Effect of Repeated Reading strategy on 4th grade

students Reading Fluency
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Table of Content
1. Abstract................................................................................................................................3
2. Introduction..........................................................................................................................4
3. Literature Review.................................................................................................................5
i. The Nature of the Reading Process.........................................................................5
ii. The Importance of Fluency in Reading...................................................................5
iii. Definition of Repeated Reading Strategy................................................................6
iv. The Importance of Context for RR Strategy...........................................................7
v. Repeated Reading’s Working Mechanism..............................................................7
vi. The Correlation of Sight Words to Reading Fluency..............................................9
vii. The Importance of the Ongoing Progress Monitoring Data....................................9
viii. Steps of Ongoing Progress Monitoring Procedures................................................9
ix. Conditions of Ongoing Progress Monitoring Procedures......................................11
4. Study Purpose.....................................................................................................................12
5. Major research question......................................................................................................12
6. Participants in Brief............................................................................................................12
7. Actions we will take...........................................................................................................13
8. Timetable ...........................................................................................................................20
9. Data Sources.......................................................................................................................20
10. Data Collection Tools.........................................................................................................20
11. Data Analysis......................................................................................................................22
12. Critical Ethical Issues.........................................................................................................22
13. Significance........................................................................................................................23
14. References..........................................................................................................................24
15. Appendixes.........................................................................................................................26
i. Appendix A...........................................................................................................26
ii. Appendix B...........................................................................................................27
iii. Appendix C...........................................................................................................28
iv. Appendix D...........................................................................................................29
v. Appendix E...........................................................................................................30
vi. Appendix F............................................................................................................31
vii. Appendix G...........................................................................................................3
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Abstract

This study examines the various effects of using the Repeated Reading strategy on the English
fourth-grade students’ fluency level. The participants are specifically selected based on some of
their characteristics and their fluency problems. They are students in Asma Bint Abu Bakr Primary
School for Girls in Qatar. The participants participating in this study are summed up to 10 female
students at the ages of 9-10 years. All the participants are from the same class and are taught by
the same teachers. They come from stable backgrounds but three of them are non-Qataris (one
Egyptian, one Sudanese, and one Pakistani). This study employs both qualitative and quantitative
data collection methods, whereas the teacher uses a pre- and post-reading test, an observation
checklist, and an interview with each of the ten student’s parents to collect information about their
reading fluency improvement. The pre- and post-test that will be conducted is known as the
ongoing progress monitoring oral fluency test. The collected data will be analyzed using Excel
Software and will be presented in graphs to show the difference in improvement between the three
readings of each passage used in the implementation phase.
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Introduction
Reading is essential for children, particularly those who are learning a second or a foreign
language(SL/FL) . Humans need language as a means of communication in this world and for them
to utilize language correctly, they need to comprehend the meanings of words, phrases and
sentences. Most of these language parts are in written form, for example, the events in a storyline
and the labels used in grocery stores, they all require reading. Therefore, reading is a critical skill
for children to acquire and learn. Making children read stories will make them interested in the
language, and hence their language skills can be improved.
Fluency is one of the most crucial skills in reading. It can be stated as reading with good speed,
accuracy, and the exact expression of words. Fluency shows the efficiency of the reader. A good
reader will implement strategies while reading a text or a passage. Additionally, a good reader also
knows what expression to show while reading a certain context and how it will influence his
listeners. In comparison, poor readers are not able to decode their words, and they are merely
dependent on reading without comprehending what they read. While, good readers know what
they read and what that information is about. These types of differences discriminate between a
good reader and a poor reader (Bendak, 2018)
For children who are in the fourth grade, they need to possess fluency in their second language as
well as when it comes to reading in a context. They should be focused on the context of information
and they can do that by following some specific systematic approaches. Second language learning
can be a prolonged process, or the learner can be slow learning the language. Bendak (2018) shows
in his research that slow learners need special attention from the teacher to perform better. An
important factor that affects the learning of students is higher expectations and standards. Even
those students who are supposed to learn a second language are expected to present higher standard
language skills, particularly in readings, while they are still learning. Therefore, they are not able
to meet such high standards and show a good performance at times. This problem can be resolved
by employing some teaching skill. Also, by sincere and long-term investment from both the teacher
and students. To elucidate, the teacher can help the students by giving them effective strategies,
such as repeated reading strategy.
There are various ways to improve students’ reading skills and abilities and the most effective
strategy for that is repeated reading. With the help of repeated reading, a learner can encounter the
 5

same words at other times, and hence his/her practice helps to pronounce a word correctly. The
most common method used by teachers and students is reading a passage or paragraph till there is
no error occurrence, and the reading has reached a satisfactory level. This helps the learner to learn
a language, even a second language, more efficiently.
This action research investigated the effectiveness of repeated reading in improving the fluency in
the learning of a second language by fourth-grade students in Qatar.
Literature Review
The Nature of the Reading Process

The National Reading Panel (2020) announced that the reading process consists of five main
components: phonemic awareness, vocabulary, phonics, fluency and comprehension. These five
aspects to the reading procedure are associated with one another which manifests the importance
of each item to accomplish successful reading (see Goldenberg, 2008; Nation, 1993). Meyer and
Felton (1999) define reading fluency as the ability to read instinctively, quickly and consistently;
without exerting much effort. However, some part of the reading process requires some conscious
awareness to the reading method such as decoding( p284).

The Importance of Fluency in Reading

Fluency consists of various features such as; reading rate, prosody and focus on punctuation.
These features are interconnected with one another. As a result, the written text turns into a lively
and rich source of information. Readers who can read faster; as in recognize words easier than
others, will have more time to comprehend the text at hand rather than try to identify new or hard
words in the provided material. Some studies show that reading the same text repeatedly impacts
students’ reading rate positively. One of the results of these studies is Allington and Biemiller’s
finding that students who read poorly are the ones who spend less time reading in school. In
addition, good readers are exposed to a larger number of words than poor readers (Adams, 1990).

LaBerge and Samuels (1974) were one of the first researchers to propose the presence of a direct
connection between reading comprehension and reading fluency. According to them, automaticity
has a critical role in the process of reading learning. There must be a raise in the automaticity of
the readers while identifying word units and converting them into comprehensible words. Also, in
the process of linking words with one another and transforming them into comprehensible words
 6

for the reader. Therefore, the readers’ automaticity must be adequate for them to reach the needed
level of comprehension of a text or a passage. If the readers’ level of fluency is enough, then their
memories will function better in terms of concentrating on the meanings of words or sentences.
Consequently, the readers’ comprehension will increase. In contrast, readers who lack reading
fluency will burden their memory, and their ability to learn other skills will be negatively affected
(LaBerge & Samuels, 1974). However, the assessments designed to measure the readers’
automaticity, and to measure its role in acquiring reading skills are scarce in number
(Schwanenflugel et al., 2006).

The previous findings show the importance of employing some interventions that will help develop
the student’s oral reading fluency in ESL classrooms. The chosen intervention technique is known
as the Repeated Reading (RR) strategy.

Definition of Repeated Reading Strategy

Repeated Reading (RR) is a good strategy to be used with learners who are facing difficulties and
need improvement when it comes to their reading fluency. Furthermore, RR strategy is a strategy
that is deemed to be more appropriate for beginner learners. Because RR strategy helps them
master the right intonation, identify words and develop fast-paced reading (Cohen, 2011).
Furthermore, RR enhances the reader’s decoding skills which are put into action, when the reader
is exposed to the text. However, the effectiveness of RR as a strategy depends on the overlapping
relationship between words in the reading material (Therrien, 2004) but studies could not prove it
by any empirical evidence due to the lack of reading materials used in them. In addition, RR
strategy enables readers to acquire beyond the basic reading skills and use their linguistic structures
while reading any other text. This shows that RR affects one’s reading across other disciples as
well, since the reader will recognize some word combinations better and will be able to correlate
words with one another within a context. More importantly, RR increases the learners’ background
knowledge because without having knowledge about certain topics comprehension will not be
achieved. the more the reader comprehends from the read material, the better his reading fluency
gets.

The Importance of Context for RR Strategy

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Therrien & Kubina (2007) presented proof in their study that presents an important fact, which is
that reading words in a specific text is more efficient than reading words on their own. To give
more details, when the student reads contextual words, they tend to make lesser errors and mistake,
and meet the criterion set by the teacher faster than expected and on various occasions. This means
that the student will demonstrate continuous improvement due to contextualized reading.
Contrarily, students are less likely to meet set criteria, at the right pace and time, if they read words
that are from out of the context. Furthermore, students are more likely to reach the specified
number of CWPM (= correct words per minute) in reading tests if they are faced with
contextualized words, as in having an available provided text for reading rather than separate
words with no clear connection in between. Readers of context can even achieve higher CWPM
scores than expected. On the other hand, readers of out of- context material will more likely
achieve lower CWPM word reading scores. This supports what was mentioned about reading
automaticity in previous resources (refers back to LaBerge & Samuels, 1974 )

Repeated Reading’s Working Mechanism

For a teacher to utilize a strategy in her classes, she needs firstly to know how this strategy works.
Based on Therrien’s (2004) definition of repeated reading, it is re-reading a text for a pre-decided
number of times. The number of times a text should be read for can also be decided based on
whether the student meet the required criterion or not. Furthermore, RR interventions are usually
implemented as a multi-faceted process that includes various interdependent elements. Usually,
RR entails a pupil re-reading a particular passage loudly to a teacher or a peer tutor. The teacher
may decide to model the way the students are supposed to read the passages; as in show them how
the strategy works and give them instructions before actually starting. Some teachers may think
that allowing a peer tutor to model the strategy would be best while others would prefer to join
their students in unison reading (Richards, 2000; Therrien & Kubina, 2006). During or after the
oral reading, the students will be provided with corrective feedback by either the peer tutor or the
teacher, and the number of words read accurately; without committing any mistake per minute will
be documented. One of the repeated reading strategy’s objectives is for the pupil to meet a pre-set
criterion of words read impeccably during a one-minute experimental test; a trial. As a result, RR
includes numerous techniques for tracking student’s development in reading. It can also supply
the teacher with oral production feedback regarding her/his students (Lo et al., 2011).
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When applying the RR strategy, the instructor will constantly help the student to pronounce the
words that were difficult or when the student hesitates for more than 5 seconds. Additionally, while
following this strategy to improve the learner’s reading fluency in English, the instructor should
use test passages with no more than 200 words to avoid boredom (Marano, 2017)

RR leads students to fluently read passages they have read multiple number of times using RR
strategy or new passages they are seeing for the first time; never practiced reading them before.
Many recent views propound that RR improves students’ fluency with average to immense effect
sizes on passages that have been practiced on before while using RR for students with or without
disabilities (Chard, Vaughn, & Tyler, 2002; Meyer & Felton, 1999; Morgan & Sideridis, 2006;
NICHHD, 2000; Therrien, 2004; Therrien, Wickstrom, & Jones, 2006; Wexler, Vaughn, Edmonds,
& Reutebuch, 2008) but had less effects on new passages that the students have never read before
(Ardoin, Eckert, & Cole, 2008; Therrien). It is important to point out that the students will apply
the knowledge they gained on how to read texts to various new texts later on (Lo et al., 2011).

The Phase of employing repeated reading is comprised of rereading a brief, substantive paragraph
multiple times before the level of satisfaction is achieved. Then the process can be repeated with
a different passage. Rereading comprises of on-going and repetitive experiences with the text,
driven by a clear mission. Throughout the process segments of the texts can be re-examined and
reviewed. Reading back is the most successful form of reading, particularly of foreign language
texts, since it allows learners the ability to re-think messages and see details they did not notice in
the initial reading. Since the primary aim of repetitive reading is to create fluency, it is useful to
be able to describe fluency in ways that are tangible and measurable. Although both Precision in
word recognition and speed in reading are essential components of fluency, pace has been stressed
for the purpose of building fluency. Repeated readings may be performed both with and without
audio assistance. If audio assistance is used, the student can read the passage quietly while listening
to the tape captured over the earphones. After a number of rereading, audio assistance is no longer
required, and the student completes the passage without any assistance (Samuels, 1997, p.377)

The Correlation of Sight Words to Reading Fluency

Students who know the sight words and have learned them will be confident readers and trust their
reading skills and will less likely reach the frustration level in reading, since knowing the sight
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words reduces the learner’s frustration (Yaw, 2012). Once the learner becomes fully confident in
his reading, he can afterwards become a good reader(Hayes, 2016). Sight words are the basic level
of reading that is needed to read phrases and sentences and full passages (Hayes, 2016)

The Importance of the Ongoing Progress Monitoring Data

Educational systems fundamentally depend on a number of process and assessment is one of them.
there are no educational institutes that do not assess their students on what they learned because
of how important assessment is as a teaching success indicator. Additionally, it permits the teacher
to learn about her student’s strengths and weakness. For teachers to assess their students, they need
assessment tools to assess based on. Teachers will give instructions according to the assessment
method they choose to employ in their classrooms. The progress monitoring method is posed as a
warning to teachers regarding their student’s low progress rate; the students are not progress
according to the criterion. For instance, progress monitoring is a suitable assessment tool for
teacher who are targeting students who are performing below satisfactory level. As well as teachers
who aim at monitoring the continuous progress of students while using instructional interventions
that are based on researches (e.g., L. S. Fuchs & Fuchs, 2007).

Steps of Ongoing Progress Monitoring Procedures

Teachers need to follow certain steps while assessing their students oral reading fluency in any
reading test, and the same goes for the ongoing progress monitoring procedure. The existence of a
clear blueprint will ensure that there are no mistakes committed and that the usage of the
assessment method is easier. This test consists of five main parts. Firstly, the teacher will need to
select assessment materials. Secondly, she will “evaluate technical features”, and thirdly she will
“administer and score measures”. Finally, she will “use data for goal setting, and judge
instructional effectiveness” (Stecker et. al. 2008).

In the first step (select assessment material), the teacher has to evaluate the student’s production
based on material that aligns with the learning outcomes or material that teaches the targeted skill.
Additionally, the teacher has to choose material for the progress monitoring that will help measures
the student’s proficiency in general; as in accumulatively (Stecker et. al. 2008). The number of
correct words read per minute (CWPM) are considered automatically as the student’s overall
reading achievement detector (Deno, 1985, 1992).
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The teacher must classify the students’ CWPM measure for judging fluency as one of the
following: immediate recognition of word, word recognition after displaying hesitation, and not
being able to recognize the word at all. If a word is recognized without any mispronunciation but
not within 1 min, the teacher records it as recognized after some hesitation. However, if it is
recognized and pronounced correctly before the 60 sec are up the teacher marks it as automatic
recognition. Lastly, if the any word is mispronounced or unidentified, then it is going to be
recorded as unrecognized (Jennings et al., 2014).

Teachers can still measure the progress in the student’s oral reading fluency at the grade or
instructional level. Even at the beginning of the term, when students read passages slowly. Because
the assessed skills or abilities in reading remain the same in terms of complexity and they display
the end-goal material. It is natural for students to not perform well at the beginning of the school
year in progress-monitoring. To clarify, Teachers need to illustrate to students that progress-
monitoring tests do not measure what they already learned but what they are supposed to have
learned at the end of the school year. One of the most salient features of progress-monitoring is
assessing students based on the end goal material. Repeating the test over the school year can show
such results; how near is the student to the end-result.

In the second step (evaluate technical features), the measuring tools require high accuracy and
credibility as it will after the teacher’s decision-making process later on. The measures need to be
flexible as in accept student change. Scoring higher is a sign that the students improving.
Contrarily, scoring the same or less than before indicates that the learner is regressing or that his
learning skills changed. The following justifies why teachers must use tools that are proven to be
scientifically effective(Stecker et. al. 2008).

In the third step (administrate and score measures), comparing scores of students over time is one
of the fundamental features of progress monitoring. Therefore, educators must follow the
standardized processes while administrating and scoring measures. The teacher listens to the
student’s reading in goal-level material for 60 sec and evaluate his word by word reading of the
passage and marks down the errors the student makes throughout his reading. Wrong
pronunciation, transposition, substitutions and omissions are regarded as reading errors and should
be marked that way during the assessment. The student has only three seconds to figure out a new
or hard word before they teacher reads it for him. The teacher voices out loud the total of the words
 11

read in the timed progress-monitoring to the student. If the student’s level is highly unsatisfactory,
then the teacher can give him alternate texts once or twice a week and write down the student’s
progress (Stecker et. al. 2008).

In the fourth step (use data for goal setting), after collecting different scores on the goal-level
material the teacher may use the median as the learner’s present performance information. After
determining the level of performance use the scores, she got to set a long-term goal or the rate of
the growth she expects from her students weekly or yearly(Stecker et. al. 2008).

In the fifth step (judge instructional effectiveness), the teacher determines if the student is
progressing on a satisfactory level or not. Here the teacher is the using the overall data to determine
if there should be change in her instructions based on the student’s level, which is a main aspect
in the progress-monitory procedure(Stecker et. al. 2008).

Conditions of Ongoing Progress Monitoring Procedures

Teachers should not waste time in giving instructions regarding the progress monitoring
procedures instead of investing her efforts in following out the critical steps of the procedure.
Success to follow out the steps of the procedure means that the measuring process will be short,
fast and easy to score. Ensuring that the measuring process runs smoothly is one of the main
conditions of this procedure. Furthermore, teachers should carry out this procedure at least monthly
to receive sufficient progressive and monitored information. After representing the scores of the
students in graphs, the teacher should try to read what the date is trying to tell her about her
student’s progression. The teacher needs to figure out if the student’s progress rate is slow or
appropriate to the pace, she set her criterion on. In using this assessment procedure, teachers will
have to make some decision-making regarding the tools or materials they will use. Regardless of
the decisions they make, their decisions need to be made after doing their research about the whole
process (Stecker et. al. 2008).

Study Purpose:

The most widely used plans for improving 4th grade students reading fluency of the English
language is the use of repeated reading strategy. This approach aims to teach 4th grade students to
improve fluency in reading. It is well-suited in developing the student’s reading because there is
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no immediate and final assessment for his/her reading performance. Contrarily, it allows students
to re-read passages and perfect their fluency till there is no mistake occurrence or there is
prominent improvement in their production of these written texts. In this action research, the
effectiveness of repeated reading in increasing fluency will be explored in the 4th grade English
learning classrooms.

Major Research Questions

what effect does the repeated reading strategy have on students’ reading fluency in the fourth grade
English classes?
Participants in Brief

Participants are female students in Asma Bint Abu Bakr Primary School for Girls. Participants are
10 girls from the fourth grade and their ages are between 9 to 10 years old. All participants study
in the same class and have the same teachers for all subjects. Each class in the fourth grade contains
23 students. All the participants are Qatari, except three students (one Egyptian, one Sudanese,
and one Pakistani). All the chosen students to participate in this study speak English as a second
language, while 9 of the students speak Arabic as a first language except the Pakistani student who
speaks Urdu as a first language. All the chosen students do not have disabilities or disorders. All
participants come from a household that has both parents present. None of their parents are
divorced or separated. the teachers who are conducting the study taught there as a teacher assistant
for the past three years. We chose those participants because they share many important
characteristics such as they don’t read in confidence and lack knowledge about sight words their
lack of sight words knowledge. Moreover, we chose them because they study in the same school
and class and are taught by the same teachers. additionally, they are all facing reading difficulties
in various distinct ways except participant J who is considered to be a proficient reader.
Participant A: She always is missing lines while reading. Besides, she has no focus on reading,
which will affect her comprehension negatively. And as we said before comprehension is related
to fluency.
Participant B: she has a difficulty in pronouncing short vowels and she always tries to stretch them
out like long vowels.
Participant C and D: both of them had low scores on reading comprehension assessments at the
end of grade three.
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Participant E: she always read slowly (slow reading speed) and she stops in the middle of reading
frequently.
Participant F and G: they have problems with spelling.
Participant H and I: they have limited sight words vocabulary.
Participant J: she is a good reader she reads correctly and knows the sight words vocabularies, but
he has a problem with expression, she needs to practice expression while reading to improve.
Actions we will take
Before first week - The teacher will start looking for past literature regarding the repeated reading
strategy. For which grades it is suitable? To see if it is suitable for the 4th grade
29 August students or she will have to change the strategy. What are the positive aspects of
this strategy? And many more useful information, since the literature review will
guarantee that the action the teacher aims to implement goes smoothly without
facing problems
First week The students will undergo the ongoing progress monitoring oral reading fluency
test that will aid the teacher in determining their reading levels. This is the pre-test
that is going to be used before the strategy implementation.
Before the beginning of the test, the teacher will give each student 2 reading
30 August (Sun.)
passages that vary in their difficulty for them to read aloud (See in Appendix A).
There are a couple of steps the teacher needs to follow throughout the whole
1st and 3rd of
assessment which are:
September Firstly, the teacher will give instructions about the pre-test. The instructions are as
(Tue. & Thru.)
the following:
1- The students will have to read the passage aloud within 60 second
2- After reading the passage, each student will have to answer a set of
comprehensive questions prepared by the teacher. Therefore, they have to read
carefully and comprehensively. The teacher will emphasize this point kindly.
Secondly, The students will read the passage, and the teacher will check the reading
speed rate at which the students read. The teacher can achieve this by checking
how many words did the student read within 60 seconds. After 60 seconds are up,
the teacher will stop the student and thank him. The teacher will calculate how
 14

many mistakes the students made throughout their reading process. she will also
monitor to check whether the student corrected their mistakes or not.
Lastly, the teacher will proceed to the last part of the pre-test, which is asking the
students the comprehensive questions that she warned previously in her
instructions. Each student will answer various comprehension questions about the
passage they read. They will be assessed based on how close their answers were to
the possible module answers that the teacher prepared beforehand.
Finally, the teacher will use the data to determine students’ levels. At this point,
the teacher will be able to see the problem and know its lengths.
Second week This week, the teacher will start teaching students how to use the strategy and
practice how to use it.
First lesson – Sunday Sep. 6th: the teacher will introduce the strategy to the
students and give them general and basic instructions. These instructions will be
like the following: do not be hesitant while reading because your reading will
automatically improve after each reading. She will motivate them by showing
them that she believes that they are smart and that they can read many words in one
minute.
Such instructions are not enough, and the teacher will explain the critical aspects
of this strategy in the weeks to follow. In a nutshell, her sole focus will be on
motivating them to explore this strategy in this lesson. The teacher’s goal is not
reaching the level of implementation at this point. However, it will be in later
weeks.
Second &Third lesson-Tuesday Sep. 8 and 10th :
The teacher will show the students an introductory video about a teacher that used
the Repeated Reading strategy with a student which will help students form a clear
idea about the strategy they are going to be using.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q2mvF_6K6M
After watching the introductory video, the teacher will model the strategy alone
firstly, then choose a student to randomly model it for his fellow students. It will
go as the following:
 15

Teacher: Your role will be to read this text aloud till I tell you to stop. I will be
using this timer in hands and it will stop after 60 seconds then I will tell you to
stop. Is it clear?
The student: yes teacher.
Teacher(starting the timer): start.
The student will keep reading the passage till he/she reaches 60 seconds. Here the
teacher will stop the timer and command the student to stop reading.
Teacher(counting words per minute) okay you read 60-word-per-minute and that
is really good.
Then the teacher will inform the student of the mistakes he/she made and will ask
the student to continue reading from where he/she left off. This time, the teacher
will pay close attention to whether the student fixed the mistake he/she committed
before based on the feedback she gave.
The Teacher and the student will repeat the strategy 3 times. As in reading a text 3
times. This step will help the students form a better realization of what is required
of them. To elucidate, they will realize that they are required to read the texts they
are given three times each.
Third lesson-Thursday 5th: this lesson is going to focus on post-video questions,
inquires, and the students’ comprehension. The teacher will start off her lesson by
replaying the video that they watched last class about repeated reading to refresh
their memories. Then, she will ask them if they have an inquiry about the video or
her explanation of the strategy so far. Their questions can be about the nature of
the strategy or how it would affect them positively. Students need to know what
they are doing what they are asked to do. The teacher cannot reply by “because I
think it is okay”. On the contrary, she will tell them that they will become better
readers like the girl in the video. Their improved reading abilities will allow them
to read all sorts of stories. She needs to create a positive image in their minds
regarding the strategy. After answering all their questions, She herself will ask each
student questions about the strategy. She will ask them about what they will have
to do in certain steps throughout the strategy. For example, what do you do when I
say time is up? What do you do when I start the timer? What do you do when you
 16

have seen a word for the first time? What do you do if you want to correct your
pronunciation? This will be after the teacher explains that they will start reading
after she sets the timer on. The teacher would have explained that the students have
to try their best to pronounce new words and that she will assist them in reading if
they stop reading for 5 seconds.

Third week In this week, the implementation of strategy will begin by reading the first passage.
The Teacher will use numerous reading passages to allow the students to develop
their fluency more and challenge their own abilities.
Each student will start reading the passage loudly to the teacher. After the first
student finishes reading and come back to his table, another student will go to the
teacher and read loudly while the other students practice reading silently.
First step, the teacher will talk about the passage in general to give to them an idea
about the passage. It will be brief, where she will summarize it in a line or two
without giving too many details. Introducing the main idea before the students start
reading makes them feel more comfortable. Most importantly, teacher will tell the
student what the main goal of reading is, the teacher will say that this reading
process that the students are undergoing will be helpful for improving their fluency.
The student will read the passage loudly to the teacher and the teacher will count
how many words per minute did the students read. In addition to that, the teacher
will circle the words that the student mispronounced and his mistakes while
reading. After 60 seconds, the teacher will tell the student how many words per
minute did he read. Also, teacher will ask from student to reread the words that
they made mistakes in pronouncing and see if he will fix it or not. If not, the teacher
will help the student with the pronunciation until the student pronounces the words
correctly.
then the teacher will ask the student to go back to his desk and read the passage
silently. (this whole process goes for all students that are participating in the study)
Fourth lesson-Sunday Sep. 13th: the teacher will give the student the easiest
passage in the first lesson “the lost duckling” (check Appendix B). In addition, the
teacher will meet with students from Group A (5 students) and let each of them
 17

read the passage the way that they practiced on in the earlier week. The teacher
will use a checklist to assess the students’ reading fluency throughout the reading
process (refer to Appendix F).
she will help the students who stop numerously read or read instead of them if they
don’t read a word after 5secs
Fifth lesson- Tuesday Sep. 15th: the teacher will give the same passage as the one
she gave to group A on Sunday to group B (5 students) and let students read aloud
separately (applying repeated reading strategy). The teacher will use a checklist to
assess the students’ reading fluency throughout the reading process (check
Appendix F). she will help the students who stop numerously read or read instead
of them if they don’t read a word after 5 secs
Sixth lesson- Thursday Sep. 17th: the first group (the 1st five students) will re-read
the same passage they read on Sunday 13th separately and loudly (applying
repeated reading strategy) and the teacher will use a checklist to assess the student’s
reading fluency throughout the reading process (check Appendix F). Teacher will
see if they applied the feedback, she gave them and how it improved their reading
fluency.

Fourth week Seventh lesson – Sunday Sep. 20th : Group B will re-read the same passage they
read on the 15th of September. The teacher will use a checklist to assess the students’
reading fluency throughout the reading process (Look at Appendix F). Teacher will
see if they applied the feedback, she gave them and how it improved their reading
fluency.
Eighth lesson – Tuesday Sep. 22nd: Group A will re-read a new passage
“Amusement Park” Aloud (see Appendix C). The teacher will use a checklist to assess
the students’ reading fluency throughout the reading process (Look at Appendix F).
she will help the students who stop numerously in reading or read instead of them if
they don’t read a word after 5 secs
Ninth lesson – Thursday Oct. 1st: Group B will follow exactly the same steps as
group A did on Sep. 22nd and the teacher will have the same exact role too.
 18

Fifth week Tenth lesson – Sunday Oct. 4th: Group A will re-read the passage they read on
Sep. 13th for the third time separately and loudly (applying repeated reading
strategy) and the teacher will use a checklist to assess the student’s reading fluency
throughout the reading process (See appendix F). Teacher will see if they applied
the feedback, she gave them in the second reading and how it improved their reading
fluency.
Eleventh lesson- Tuesday Oct. 6th: Group B will re-read the passage they read on
Sep. 15th for the third time separately and loudly (applying repeated reading
strategy) and the teacher will use a checklist to assess the student’s reading fluency
throughout the reading process (See appendix F). Teacher will see if they applied
the feedback, she gave them in the second reading and how it improved their reading
fluency.
twelfth lesson- Thursday Oct. 8th: Group A will re-read the passage they read on
Sep. 22nd separately and loudly (applying repeated reading strategy) and the teacher
will use a checklist to assess the student’s reading fluency throughout the reading
process (See appendix F). Teacher will see if they applied the feedback, she gave
them and how it improved their reading fluency.
Sixth week
Thirteenth lesson – Sunday Oct. 11th: Group B will go through the same process
as group A went through on the 8th of October.
Fourteenth lesson – Tuesday Oct. 13th: Group A will read a new passage “Happy
memories”( see Appendix D) and the teacher will observe their performance, record
their mistakes and provide them with corrective feedback
Fifteenth lesson – Thursday Oct. 15th: Group B will follow the same procedures
that Group A followed on the 13th of October. The teacher will have the same role
too.
 19

Seventh week Sixteenth lesson – Sunday Oct 18th: Group A will re-read “Amusement Park” for
the third and last time. And follow the same procedures they followed on the first two
readings.
Seventeenth lesson – Tuesday Oct 20th: Group B will follow the same procedures
group A followed on Sunday Oct 18th .
Eighteenth lesson – Thursday Oct 22nd: Group A will read a new passage “school
trip” ( refer to Appendix E)
Eighth week Nineteenth lesson – Sunday Oct 25th: Group B will follow the same pattern as Group
A did on Oct. 22nd .
Twentieth lesson – Tuesday Oct. 27th: Group A will read “happy memories” for the
last time the same way they read it for the first time.
Twenty- first lesson – Thursday Oct. 29th: Group B will copy what Group A did on
Tuesday 27th of October.
Ninth week Twenty-second lesson – Sunday Nov. 1st: both Groups A & B will read “school trip”
for the second time.
Twenty- third lesson – Tuesday Nov 3rd: Group A & B will read “school trip” for
the third time.

Tenth week The teacher will dedicate this whole week to conduct interview with the students’
parents to get their feedback about their children’s experience and how RR strategy
8, 10 and 12th of affect their reading and record their replies – if they allow it.
Nov.

Timetable:
Prepare proposal by 15 August
Complete literature review by 29 August
Complete field work by 12 Nov
Complete analysis by 21 Nov
 20

Give presentation on 25 Nov

Complete final report by 5 Dec
Data Sources
Many data sources will be used in this study which are: pre- and post- reading test, observation
checklists, and interviews to be conducted with parents. The ongoing progress monitoring oral
reading fluency test will be used by the teacher doing the action research to detect the difference
in the student’s reading level after and before using the Repeated Reading strategy. Most
importantly, if the students show improvement in the post-test, then these tests will be regarded as
an empirical piece of evidence of the strategy’s effectiveness.
Data Collection Tools
The research will use a variety of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to measure
the student’s fluency before and after the strategy implementation phase. These data collection
methods will help monitor the fluency throughout the RR strategy application process.
Quantitative Data Collection Methods
- Pre- and Post-reading test
The teacher will conduct a pre- and post-reading test known as the ongoing progress monitoring
oral fluency test. The fourth-grade students learning English will re-read various texts that differ
in complexity to improve their fluency. This test consists of two main parts: the passage that will
be read by the student and the comprehension questions that follow it. The components of this test
reflect the teacher’s reason for using it since it will measure the fluency of the students and their
comprehension of what they read. As mentioned before, reading fluency and reading
comprehension are interrelated; if the reading comprehension increases so does the reading
fluency. Measuring the fluency of the students includes all the components of fluency mentioned
earlier in the literature review: phrasing, expression, reading rate, and sight words. Sight words are
measured because of their effect on the reading fluency of students. The teacher will be able to
read all these aspects by calculating the CWPM (Check Appendix A)
- Observation Checklist
the teacher will use an observation checklist to measure the fluency of the study participants when
applying the RR strategy. This method is easy to administer and timing saving since the reader
will read for 1 sec then stop and receive corrective feedback. And start again for 2 sec then stop
 21

and receive feedback for the second time. This shows us that the teacher will have to flexible and
fast because she will have to observe on a loop till the text ends. The teacher will voice record the
observation to enable going back and collecting more information if he finds out that the
information she collected is not enough. The data collected by observation using the design
observation method and the observation checklist will both be part of the tracking of the success
of the intervention. The data shall give the teacher an idea about the influence of the intervention
while the research is in process
Qualitative Data Collection Methods
- Interviews
The teacher will set aside a whole week to interview the students’ parents after the strategy
implementation phase is finished. Each parent will be asked nine open-ended questions
that are somewhat related to the Repeated Reading strategy. The information gathered from
the interview will be used to gather feedback on the validity of the strategy to remedy the
issue. The responses gathered from the interview will be used in the final analysis to read
what the parents are trying to tell us about their children’s experience with the RR
strategy.
Data analysis
The initial findings reported using the ongoing progress monitoring oral fluency tool before,
during, and after the process will be graphed, and quantitatively evaluated using Excel software.
Data will be presented in graphs. Although decoding and reading what is intended to be seen in
the graphs is not easy, the teacher will use a graph to represent each student’s progress and the
overall progress of the whole class. By doing this, it will be easier for her to track each student’s
performance. It will also make it easier for her to read and analyze. All data collected throughout
observation, interviews, and reading assessment will be examined and triangulated to show the
holistic impact of the intervention on the reading capabilities of the participants students, their
classroom performance as well as the effect of the intervention on the well-being of the participants
as a reader. Lastly, data analysis would help researchers to determine if they used the correct data
collection form or not. After analysing the data and seeing the graph, the researchers will be able
to use the same data collection form with few adaptions to it in future.
Critical Ethical Issues
 22

The existence of an ethical issue can hinder the strategy implementation and action research as a
whole. One of the ethical issues that might be faced in this study is the parents disallowing the
teacher from recording the interview she conducted with them. They might even refuse to allow
the teacher to voice record the student’s reading during passage reading. Moreover, having
unmotivated students which not doing their best on any part of the process; especially because RR
strategy takes a long time in the application, and them not giving the same effort and energy fairly
would lead to inappropriate interpreted results. According to the test administration ethical issues,
if the test is administered in a negative classroom environment within the assessment situation,
then the participants can cheat; they would expose the content of the text among themselves. Thus,
will receive non-guaranteed and trusted outputs as teachers about their fluency improvement.

Significance

In this research we learned that to improve reading, some strategies need to be employed. One of
the best strategies is the repeated reading strategy. Also, we learned that fluency is a critical aspect
of reading whereas people who cannot read with fluency appear confused and overwhelmed. These
people may have trouble with language comprehension, or they might need to practice reading
more smoothly or easily. For several years, educators have acknowledged that fluency is an
integral part of literacy. About Thirty years of study has proven that fluency is among the key
pillars of reading since the development of fluency is directly linked to understanding. There are
some disparities when it comes to reading fluency; not only in the distinction of a good reader
from an average one but also in the absence of reading fluency for a learner, which is a reliable
indicator of reading comprehension difficulties (Stanovich, 1991). Fluency is essential because it
bridges the gap between word recognition and understanding. It gives the reader time to
concentrate on what the text means. The learners will draw correlations between what they read
and their background knowledge. The most salient attribute that primary school students hold is
their will to learn. As a result, they are willing to focus on understanding. While, non-fluent readers
need to invest more time translating, leaving less time to interpret the language. They would also
have to read the same paragraph several times to achieve understanding. Re-reading paragraphs as
we have seen before in the reviewed literature is the basis of the Repeated Reading strategy.
Conducting action research will improve our teaching and our students’ learning by using the RR
strategy in reading. To elaborate, it will help us and other teachers in applying the strategy and
 23

measuring its effect on a real learning context. Moreover, A fluent reader can sustain his reading
success for a prolonged time, retain his ability after a significant year of not practicing, and may
generalize through texts. A fluent reader is often not easily disturbed and reads easily and naturally
(Hudson, Lane & Pullen, 2005).
Every feature of fluency has a direct relation to the interpretation of the text. Without precise
reading of the word, the reader will not have access to the original meaning of the writer, and
incorrect reading of the phrase can lead to misinterpretation of the content. Bad automaticity in
word reading or long, laborious movement through text taxes the reader's ability to create a
continuous understanding of the text. Poor prosody may lead to misunderstanding by the incorrect
or irrelevant grouping of words or inappropriate usage of language (Hudson, Lane & Pullen, 2005).














 24

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Appendix A

Instrument - pre- and post-reading test

(the same paragraphs but with sight words labeling for the teacher)
 27

Appendix B
sources of sight word lists: https://sightwords.com/sight-words/dolch/
https://sightwords.com/sight-words/fry/

st
(1 RR reading passage – With sight words labeling)


 28

Appendix C – Reading Material

(2nd RR reading passage – With sight words labeling)

 29

Appendix D

(3rd RR reading passage – With sight words labeling)

 30

Appendix E

(4th RR reading passage – With sight words labeling)

 31

Appendix F

Instrument – Observation checklist

 32

Appendix G
Instrument – Parent Interview