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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the ReadNaturally, an intervention program designed to increase oral fluency rate, as measured byAIMSweb, of identified at-risk readers in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. In addition, thisstudy investigated whether the effect of Read Naturally on the oral fluency rate of at-riskfourth, fifth, and sixth grade students was influenced by membership in the supersubgroup. In this study the super-subgroup was defined by the state of Missouri toinclude Black students, Hispanic students, students with disabilities, English LanguageLearners, and low income students. The sample size for this study consisted of 27students attending a suburban, public elementary school. Read Naturally wasadministered to students in the fall, winter, and spring of the 2013-2014 school year. Aquantitative research design was used to determine the effect of Read Naturally on oralreading fluency during each of the three testing periods (fall to winter, winter to spring,and fall to spring). One-sample t tests were conducted to determine growth in oralreading fluency. Results revealed statistically significant growth in the oral readingfluency of fourth and fifth grade students. On average, the oral reading fluency growthfor fourth and fifth graders participating in Read Naturally was higher than the null valueof 0 at each of the three testing periods. In addition, results indicated marginallysignificant growth in the oral fluency of sixth graders participating in Read Naturally. Onaverage, during the fall to winter testing period, the oral reading fluency growth for sixthgraders tended to be higher than the null value of 0. During the winter to spring and fallto spring testing periods, growth in the oral reading fluency of sixth graders wasstatistically significant. On average, the oral reading fluency growth for sixth graders during the winter to spring and fall to spring testing periods was higher than the nullvalue of 0. Two-sample t tests were conducted to address the effect membership in thesuper-subgroup had on oral reading fluency. There was no statistically significantdifference between the oral reading fluency growth of fourth grade students in the supersubgroup and fourth grade students not in the super-subgroup. The results for fifthgraders indicated the oral fluency growth for fifth graders in the super-subgroup waslower than the oral reading fluency growth for fifth graders not in the super-subgroup.Further, the growth in oral reading fluency tended to be lower for sixth grade members inthe super-subgroup as compared to sixth grade students in the non super-subgroup. Theimplications of this study can suggest an effective intervention program to use withstruggling readers in grades 4 through 6 as well as with students in fourth and fifth gradewhose demographics are similar to those of the super-subgroup. Recommendations forfuture research include repeating the study using a larger sample size, conducting anexperimental study of an oral reading fluency intervention such as Read Naturally, andexamining a cohort of students over time. |
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