How do Students' Perceptions of Their Own Fluent Reading Change After Receiving Direct Fluency Instruction?

Abstract

The purpose of my research is to see how students' perceptions of their fluency changes before and after direct fluency instruction. 4 male elementary students and 1 female elementary student provided the data for this study. The purpose of this study is to see how students thinking about their fluent reading changes after they participate in Reader's Theater. The researcher had the students read a book and their reading was tape recorded and then the students listened to their reading. They then filled out a self assessment after reading the text. The teacher filled out the same assessment on the students. After both teacher and student filled out the assessment they talked about their thinking and why they assessed themselves the way that they did. Once all students completed the initial self assessment, the researcher had the students participate in Reader's Theater. They participated in Reader's Theater for three weeks. During this time the students spent one week at a time on a skit. During this week the students explored the feelings of the characters, proper phrasing, and paid close attention to punctuation marks so that they can read the skit with proper expression. The students practiced the skit several times everyday. After three weeks of Reader's Theater, the students then read another text to the researcher and this again was tape recorded. The students listened to their reading and filled out another self assessment. The researcher also filled out the same assessment as the students did. The researcher went through the pre and post self assessments that both the participants and researcher filled out and compiled the data. Four out of the five students' perceptions changed in some way after the three weeks of direct fluency instruction.