Action Research Proposal

Alexandria Acevedo
Ariel Gonzalez
Josue Rodriguez

Madeleine C. Torres

Introduction
As you listen to some students read, one thing becomes painfully clear; many
students are struggling with reading fluency. The students are syllabicating, reading
word for word or in paused, clipped, phrases. They cannot easily differentiate dialogue
from other text. They ignore punctuation and, when they read, they sound robotic.
Evidence of lack of reading fluency among readers is easily detected. Two patterns of
difficulties are especially common. In the first pattern, a student has difficulty reading
words accurately, syllabicates, stutters and also reads in a slow, labored fashion. In the
second pattern, a student might have achieved reasonably accurate word decoding,
especially after remediation in phonemic awareness and phonics, but still reads very
slowly compared to other students his or her age.
All of us have encountered readers like this but why is it an issue? Fluency was
identified as one of five instructional factors proved to be critical to students' overall
reading development. Lack of reading fluency is a problem because the readers tend to
read in a labored, disconnected fashion with a focus on decoding at the word level that
makes comprehension of the text difficult, if not impossible. When the reader spends
too much time and energy on decoding the actual text, little time and energy is left over
to construct meaning from it. According to various studies, the most compelling reason
to focus instructional efforts on students becoming fluent readers is the strong
correlation that has been found between reading fluency and reading comprehension.
Through this action research we are proposing different strategies in order to
improve the reading fluency of a group of 7 th graders. Using the strategies of: Repeated
Readings, Audio Assisted Readings, Readers Theatre and Phrased Reading we will
attempt to improve the students reading fluency, therefore boosting his reading

comprehension and ultimately his class performance. We will attempt to answer the
following questions, posed by the strategies we selected:
1. How will repeated readings significantly improve a 2 nd language learners
reading fluency and comprehension?
2. Will Readers Theatre significantly improve an ESL students reading
fluency and comprehension?
3. Will Readers Theatre attract students participation and, in turn, help
them develop reading skills?
4. Will Audio Assisted Reading significantly improve an ESL students
reading fluency and comprehension?
5. Will Phrased Reading significantly improve ESL students reading fluency
and comprehension?
Oral reading rate is considered an important measure of reading proficiency and
a tool for progress monitoring so we will measure it in order to decide whether or not
the students reading fluency and comprehension has improved. In order to measure
oral reading rate we will be using the instrument Running Record at the beginning of
the research and at the end, as well as a Pre-Test and a Post-Test for each strategy. In
order to evaluate the effectiveness of these activities we will utilize the Running Record
instrument.

Review of Literature

Reading fluency is the ability to read with speed, accuracy and proper expression.
It is one of the marks of a good reader and a lack of fluency is usually a hint of poor
reading skills. Not only do differences in reading fluency distinguish good readers from
poor ones, but a lack of reading fluency is also considered a reliable predictor that the
student could have reading comprehension problems. Reading fluency is comprised of
three key elements: accurate reading of connected text at a conversational rate with
appropriate prosody or expression. (Hudson, Mercer, & Lane, 2000). Each of these
three aspects is connected to text comprehension.
The first element of reading fluency is accuracy. Word reading accuracy refers to
the ability to recognize or decode words correctly. Strong understanding of the
alphabetic principle, the ability to blend sounds together and knowledge of a large bank
of frequently used words are required for word-reading accuracy. Accurate word reading
allows the readers to understand the authors intended meaning and helps avoid
misinterpretations of the text. La Berge and Samuels (1974) suggested that mastering
word identification to the point of automaticity (quick and effortless identification of
words in or out of context) frees the processing space for higher order thinking, which
would link accurate word reading directly with reading comprehension. Quick and
effortless word identification is important because it frees ones limited cognitive
resources so they can be applied to comprehension.
The second key element of reading fluency is rate. Reading rate is made up of
both word-level automaticity and the speed and fluidity with which a reader moves
through a connected text. Reading rate can be quantified in terms of reading speed,
either the number of words read correctly per minute or the length of time it takes for a
reader to complete a passage. Slow reading rate or poor automaticity in word reading
takes a toll on the readers capacity to construct meaning from the text, as well as

diminishes his motivation as he might grow bored. Many fluency interventions focus on
increasing reading rate, because slow reading inevitably results in weakened
comprehension.
Reading out loud with proper expression is a foundational reading skill students
should be developing between grades 1 - 5, according to the Common Core State
Standards for English Language Arts (2012). However, it is clear to many middle school
and high school teachers that this is not always the case, which brings us to the third key
element of reading fluency, prosody. Prosody is a linguistic term used to describe the
music of oral language. That is to say, it used to describe reading with proper rhythm
and intonation. In oral reading, prosody includes paying attention to sentence structure
and punctuation. Students who read prosodically respond to these when reading aloud
by pausing briefly at commas, pausing slightly longer at sentence boundaries, raising
their pitch at the end of questions, and lowering their pitch at the end of declarative
sentences. Prosodic reading is the defining feature of expressive reading, it comprises all
of the variables of timing, phrasing, emphasis, and intonation that speakers use to help
convey aspects of meaning and to make their speech lively. Although, with this
definition, it could seem as though prosody is only concerned with the aesthetics of
reading and not with the content of the text itself, it is not. Poor prosody could hurt the
reader. Inappropriate grouping of words, could take away from the meaning of the text.

Repeated Readings, Audio Assisted Readings, Readers Theatre and Phrased Reading.
The main technique we have decided to use with our students is repeated
readings. Repeated reading emphasizes practice as a way of improving all three areas of
reading fluency: accuracy, rate and prosody. As previously mentioned, fluent readers
chunk the text into appropriate units or phrases. A non-fluent reader has great difficulty

of chunking text so that it makes sense. Practicing reading in phrases helps students
learn and break text into meaningful parts. This is why we chose Phrased Reading as
one of our strategies in order to improve the students reading fluency. Phrased reading,
which is basically breaking down sentences into phrases that you read over and over
until you reach comprehension, involves putting together all sources of information,
meaning, language structures, and print knowledge in an integrated and flexible manner
to support the comprehension of text. By getting the student used to breaking the text
into meaningful parts we would improve his prosody, which would eventually lead to
improved comprehension.
The third strategy we chose to use is readers theatre. Reader's theater motivates
reluctant readers and helps them with increasing reading fluency and comprehension.
Also provides fluent readers the opportunity to explore genre and characterization while
increasing self-confidence. It's a way to involve students in reading aloud. In reader's
theater, students "perform" by reading scripts created from grade-level books or stories
in a creative and stressfree environment. Usually they do so without costumes or props,
but they are used if it helps them get engaged to the characters. Research seem to
suggest that struggling readers may benefit from the use of this strategy because it
increases reading skills by, increasing motivation, enhancing the connection to the
prosody aspect of reading and fostering engagement with reading text. Reader's theater
is a strategy that combines reading practice and performing. Its goal is to enhance
students' reading skills and confidence by having them practice reading with a purpose.
Reader's theater gives students a real reason to read aloud. It is an approach that
involves the students actively since it is hard for them to be passive observers when they
have a script in their hands. Another positive aspect of reader's theater is that there is no

risk, because there's no memorization required. There is enough opportunity for

practice, so struggling readers dont feel that they are put on the spot. Simply readers
theater has great outcomes with students. They become more active in the reading
process, the more reluctant readers become less reluctant, negative response toward less
fluent readers diminished. Also students become more literate with comprehension and
improve in their ability to connect sequence of events, their social relationships are
enhanced and behavioral outcomes for students are improved.
The final strategy we selected is audio assisted reading. It is no surprise that one
of the reasons that student have such a hard time reading is because some if not most of
the words they see are new to them. The strategy of Audio Assisted Reading is a great
tool to help reading fluency in students. According to an article found in the website
Reading Rockets, with the use of Audio Assisted Reading, students learn how to
properly phrase words and also improve their expression. It helps them improve their
sight word recognition and build comprehension. It also allows students to hear the tone
and pace of a skillful reader and it is a strategy that can be used across content areas.
But the question is, what is Audio Assisted Reading? In simpler terms, its is a process in
which the student hears what he or she is reading from a fluent reader (it could be in the
form of an audiobook, a teacher reading out loud with the class amongst others).
Researchers have developed a comparison of Sustained Silent Readings effectiveness
and the Assisted Reading method and have come up with the conclusion that assisted
reading approaches provide scaffolded support by using a fluent model as an example of
effective reading practice, something that SSR does not provide (Estevez & Whitten,
2011). The research findings of assisted reading with students with learning disabilities
and with struggling readers lends credence to the claim that assisted reading improves

overall reading fluency and therefore, promotes comprehension for students who are
described as dysfluent readers (Esteves & Whitten, 2011). Although assisted reading
improves accuracy, rate and prosody, some researchers believe that the time needed for
this strategy to be effective, and the fact that, when done on one-to-one support, it is not
practical for facilitating inclusion with general educations peers (Esteves, 2007).
Because of that, with time, researchers have developed different ways to make the
strategy effective, which in turn, revealed the now known strategy of audio assisted
reading with the use of technology, like audiobooks. The Center for the Improvement of
Early Reading Achievement, after reviewing the effectiveness of assisted reading in
improving students reading fluency went as far to say that this strategy enables
children to read more difficult material than they might otherwise be able to read, or
may provide manageable structure to enable increased amounts of reading (Lesnick,
2006).

There have been many studies made by different researchers like Carbo,

Chomsky and Reissner that prove that audio assisted reading is a great tool with
excellent results in improving disabled readers in their skills, especially fluency and
comprehension, which leads to the conclusion that this strategy is effective and should
be used in any and all curriculums.
An activity you can do with your students to implement this strategy is the simple
audiobook reading. You give the students a reading they can all hear as a group from an
audiobook and assist them in the learning and reading process while they listen. Once
the students begin hearing the audiobook, they will begin to read at the same pace as the
recording and you can monitor how well they are reading by seeing how they follow the
reading by listening to the narrating voice. After listening to the audiobook and once you
realize that students were capable of keeping up with the reading and have achieved

some sort of comprehension, later on you let them choose their own reading from an
approved list of books, and you let them do independent reading with the reading of
their choosing. This way, students are able to not only learn as a group, but also put in
practice what they have learned from the group learning, and put it in practice
independently. Afterwards students will read each passage one by one orally and there
you will be able to see just how this strategy has improved their fluency and
comprehension of the subject.
Any and all of these strategies are great for achieving fluency in students who are
not. Its clear that with the use of Readers Theater, Audio-Assisted Reading, Repeated
Readings or Phrased Reading, students will develop fluency and, as a result of that, will
reach comprehension when reading at a level that the student wasnt able to achieve
before receiving instruction with any or all of these strategies. The strategies are at times
time consuming and may require personal attention to students, but the results are
worth the sacrifices one must make to ensure that their students are reading at the level
they should be and develop comprehension skills that will undoubtedly help them in the
future.

Setting
The school selected to participate in this action research proposal is the University of
Puerto Rico High School or UHS. The UHS is located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is part
of the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus and it is administered by the very

same institution. The school provides education to approximately 530 students from 7th
to 12th grade. According to a study made by the metro newspaper in Puerto Rico, 61.3%
of the students at UHS are considered middle and high class. On the other hand 15% of
the students come from public housing environments. Its main building is a centuryold art deco building located on Gndara avenue, and includes a three-story classroom
annex designed in the 1970s by architect George McClintock.
Some students receiving education at UHS elementary and high school have special
needs. The school provides the students with special needs accommodation necessary
for the comfort and development of the student. Student practicums studying education
at the University of Puerto Rico help teachers at UHS with special needs students that
need improvement on a certain skill or knowledge.

Participants
The students selected as subjects for the action research proposal are 7 th grade students.
Most of the students in the class are 13 years old Hispanic students. The students in the

class are mostly Puertorricans. In the school there are other ethnic cultures including;
Republican Dominican students, Chinese students, Korean students and American
students among others. Some of these students are second generation immigrants that
stayed here in Puerto Rico.
The students selected as participants have been diagnosed with reading fluency
problems. Problems dealing with accuracy, rate and prosody are the ones that affect this
population of students the most. The accuracy and rate are necessary for the texts
maximum retention. For these students the problem lies with reading comprehension
due to the lack of all three; accuracy, rate and reading prosody. To deal with reading
fluency problems for this particular 7th grade classroom, we decided to assess the
students using a variety of techniques that help increase reading fluency.
The assessment selected to assist students dealing with reading fluency, includes
activities based on the following assessment techniques; Phrased Reading, Readers
Theatre, Repeated Reading, and Audio Assisted Reading. Students with special needs
will be provided assistance as necessary. During this proposal, students with hearing
impairment or eyesight impairment will be exposed to the Audio Assisted Reading
assessment. The assessment provides the special ed student with a chance to fully
participate and achieve reading fluency.

Procedures:
REPEATED READING

1. Select a compelling short story that the student already knows and is of an
appropriate grade level. For example: Papa's Parrot
2. Break the story into chunks. Write short paragraphs in separate sheets of paper or
cardboard. By doing so, you help introduce your student to the notion of taking in
increasingly longer chunks as they read.
3. Practice reading the text to build proficiency. To build confidence with the text, have
the student read the lines together out loud with you. Hold a cardboard mask just above
the first line and then, as they read, move it down the text at the desired speed.
4. Once they gain confidence reading the piece together, one passage at a time the
student will read it by himself for 1 minute several times (3-5)
5. The teacher counts how many words the student read in 1 minute. The number of
words read will increase with each time he reads the passage.

READERS THEATER
1. On strips of paper write 10 different adverbs (angrily, sneakily, quietly, sadly, etc.).
Then place them on a bag.
2. On strips of paper write 5 simple sentences. And place them on a different bag.
3. Have your student choose 1 slip of paper from the sentence bag and 2 from the
adverbs bag and tell him to act out the sentence once with each adverb. For example: He
could read, what are we having for dinner? In a sleepy way and then in a happy way.
This way he can gain confidence and start getting into the mindset of readers theater.
4. Select a short scene from a script appropriate to his grade level and that appeals to his
interest.
5. Hand the student the script and have a copy for yourself.
6. Have the student read the entire script silently first.
7. Have the student choose one of the characters. Then let him read the script again but
this time concentrating on his part and marking his lines with highlighter to avoid
confusion.

8. Practice with him reading it out loud this time. Each one reading only the lines of
their characeers.
9. Once he has gained the confidence act out with intonation and emotion pertinent of
the script. You can use props if you think it would help your students get into the story.
10. Create a rubric were you can put a check mark next to the areas you feel your student
did well. For example:

1. Phrasing/Fluency
___He or she read longer phrases.
___He or she had good expression.

2. Pace
___He or she used good speed when reading.
___He or she did not pause too much.

3. Accuracy
___He or she could read the words easily.
___He or she read quickly,
___He or she made words sound meaningful.

Data Analysis
I.

Data Collection

To collect and compare data two tests will be administered, a pre-test designed to
identify the students current reading fluency and a post-test designed to measure how
much have the students improved their fluency. The pre-test consist of two parts one
part measures accuracy trough a running record (See figure 1) and the other part
reading rate trough timed readings. A small 200 word passage from the short story
Papas Parrot (see figure 2). Both of these parts are evaluated simultaneously. During
the post-test another timed running record will be performed but this time two short
stories will be used instead of one. First Papas Parrot and second Raymonds Run (see
figure 3).
II.

Data representation

The data collected from the pre and post tests will be displayed in a chart that will show
the students name, the time it took them to read the passage, their accuracy rate and
how many errors and self-corrections they made during the running record tests the
first time. Take a look at the figure 4 to see how the results will be organized. Notice how
both the pre and post-test results will be placed next to each other for swifter
comparison of the improvement on reading fluency.

Figure (1)

Running Record Sheet

Name: ____________________ Date: ____________ School:

_________________________
Age: ________ yrs. _________ Recorder:
_________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_______________________
Text title
Errors
Error
Accuracy
Self
correction
Running words
Ratio
Rate
Rate
________________
__________ 1: ________ ________%
1:
_____________

Analysis of Errors and Self-corrections

Information used or neglected Meaning (M), Structure or Syntax (S), Visual (V).
Error (E) Self Correction (SC)
Count
Page

Notes:

Title

SC

Figure (2)

Timed Reading

Papas Parrot
Wheres Harry?
Harry stared at the parrot.
Wheres Harry? Chills ran down Harrys back. What could the bird mean? It was
something from The Twilight Zone.
Wheres Harry?
Harry swallowed and said, Im here, Im here, you stupid bird.
You stupid bird! said the parrot.
Well, at least hes got one thing strait, thought Harry.
Miss him! Miss him! Wheres Harry? You stupid bird! Harry stood with a handful of
peppermints.
What? he asked.
Wheres Harry? said the parrot.
Im here, you stupid bird! Im here! Harry yelled. He threw the peppermints at the
cage, and the bird screamed and clung to its perch.
Harry sobbed, Im here. The tears were coming.
Harry leaned over the glass counter. Papa.
Harry buried his face in his arms.
Wheres Harry? repeated the bird. Harry signed and wiped his face on his sleeve. He
watched the parrot. He understood now: someone has been saying, for a long time,
Wheres Harry? Miss him.

Harry finished his unpacking and then swept the floor of the shop. He checked the
furnace and so the bird wouldnt get cold. Then he left to go visit his papa.

Figure (3)

Raymonds Run passage

There is no track meet that I dont win the first-place medal. I used to win the twentyyard dash when I was a little kid in kindergarten. Nowadays, its the fifty-yard dash. And
tomorrow Im subject to run the quarter-meter relay all by myself and come in first,
second, and third. The big kids call me Mercury cause Im the swiftest thing in the
neighborhood. Everybody knows thatexcept two people who know better, my father
and me. He can beat me to Amsterdam Avenue with me having a two-fire-hydrant
headstart and him running with his hands in his pockets and whistling. But thats
private information. Cause can you imagine some thirty-five-year-old man stuffing
himself into PAL shorts to race little kids? So as far as everyones concerned, Im the
fastest and that goes for Gretchen, too, who has put out the tale that she is going to win
the first-place medal this year. Ridiculous. In the second place, shes got short legs. In
the third place, shes got freckles. In the first place, no one can beat me and thats all
there is to it.

Figure (4)
Schools Name
Students Name
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Test Result Data (Papas Parrot)

Reading Time Accuracy
Rate
st
nd
1
2
1st
2nd
time time
time time

Number of
Errors
1st
2nd
time
time

SelfCorrections
1st
2nd
time time

8.
9.
10.

III.

Comparing Data

Using the chart above the results will be tallied to find the average reading time,
accuracy rate, errors and self-corrections the students make. The average (mean) will be
obtained by adding all the numbers and dividing them by the total amount of numbers.
These results will later be compared to the average results of the post-test which is the
second time the students will read Papas Parrot. Comparing these two results will allow
us to measure how much did the students actually improve on their reading fluency
trough repeated reading and readers theater. Two highly praised techniques for their
effectiveness in helping struggling readers. After the comparisons has been made the
initial results will be placed next to the second results in order to obtain the percentage
increase of reading fluency of the students. Since we dont have the results yet here is an
example, lets say the average self-correction on the pre-test is 4 and the average selfcorrection for the post-test is 13. The starting value is 4, so subtracting the starting value
from the current value (13) yields a result of 9. Take this number and divide it by 4, the
starting value. 4/9 = 0.444. Now we multiply the result by 100 and we get our
percentage. In this example the correction rate of the students went up by 44%.

References:
Audio-Assisted Reading. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2015, from
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/audio_assisted_reading
Blau, L. (n.d.). 5 Surefire Strategies for Developing Reading Fluency | Scholastic.com.
Retrieved March 19, 2015, from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/5-surefirestrategies-developing-reading-fluency
Common Core State Standards Initiative (2012). English Language Arts Standards
Reading: Foundational Skills (Grade 1 Grade 5). National Governors Association
Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers
(CCSSO): Washington, DC.
Cutler, A. & Swinney, D. A. (1987). Prosody and the development of
comprehension.Journal of Child Language, 14,145-167.

Esteves, K., & Whitten, E. (2011). Assisted Reading with Digital Audiobooks for Students
with Reading Disabilities. Retrieved March 10, 2015, from
http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1021&context=reading_horizons
Esteves, K. J. (2007). Audio-assisted reading with digital audiobooks for upper
elementary students with reading disabilities. ProQuest.
Hudson, R., Lane, H., & Pullen, P. (2005). Reading fluency assessment and instruction:
What, why and how? The Reading Teacher, Vol 58(8), 702-714.
Lesnick, J. K. (2006). A mixed-method multi-level randomized evaluation of the
implementation and impact of an audio-assisted reading program for struggling
readers (Order No. 3211103). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
(305279100). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/305279100?
accountid=12640
Schwanenflugel, P. J., Hamilton, A. M., Kuhn, M. R., Wisenbaker, J. M., & Stahl, S. A.
(2004). Becoming a fluent reader: Reading skill and prosodic features in the oral
reading of young readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 119129.