Building Oral Reading Fluency With Peer Coaching

Abstract

Fluent oral reading is an essential literacy skill, and data suggest that it is a consistent and persistent problem for many elementary school children. Peer-mediated instruction in which students work together to support each other is an evidencebased practice for improving performance in a variety of academic areas. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of a peer-mediated fluency-building intervention for struggling readers in second grade. The intervention was provided to small groups of students referred to as difficult-to-remediate, treatment resisters, nonresponders, or lower responders in similar research. Oral reading fluency performance for students who received supplemental intervention (n = 17) was statistically significantly better than that for their peers who received only typical classroom instruction (n = 17). The effects of enhanced fluency instruction were evident across multiple benchmarks, and significant relationships were evident between oral reading fluency and comprehension. The authors discuss the findings in the context of similar peer-mediated interventions and the emerging development of targeted interventions to support response-to-intervention practices.

Fluency Interventions for Elementary Students with Reading Difficulties: A Synthesis of Research from 2000–2019

“…This is especially true if the classroom has a high percentage of students with or at risk for reading difficulties. One viable option may be the use of peer tutors, as two studies of peer coaching in this review produced large and significant effects for oral reading fluency [46,52]. However, these findings should also be interpreted with caution since three of the four studies on small groups and two of the three studies on peer coaches came from the same research teams, respectively.…”

“…Fourteen (87.5%) of the 16 studies reviewed included a repeated reading intervention [46][47][48][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61]; however, none of the studies examined a stand-alone repeated reading procedure. All of the interventions described included supplementary components in addition to the repeated reading procedures.…”

“…One-on-one with a peer coach. Three studies examined the use of a repeated reading intervention in which students worked one-on-one with a peer coach [46,52,55]. Two of the three studies produced large effects on oral reading fluency outcomes [50,54].…”

“…In both Algozzine, Marr, Kavel, and Dugan and Marr, Algozzine, Nicholson, and Dugan [46,52], students worked together for 10-12 min, three times a week for 36 weeks. While both Algozzine et al and Marr et al found students in the intervention group had statistically significant gains in oral reading fluency from pre-test to post-test, statistically significant gains were also found for students in the no-intervention control group although at a lower rate.…”

Fidelity of Implementation and Instructional Alignment in Response to Intervention Research

“…A majority of the studies did not report information on fidelity of implementation of Tier 1 core reading instruction (see Table 1). Of these, 14 received a 1‐point score (Case et al, 2010; Chambers et al, 2011; Fuchs, Compton, Fuchs, Bryant, & Davis, 2008; Kerins, Trotter, & Schoenbrodt, 2010; Loftus, Coyne, McCoach, Zipoli, & Pullen, 2010; McMaster et al, 2005; Nelson, Vadasy, & Sanders, 2011; Pullen, Tuckwiller, Konold, Maynard, & Coyne, 2010; Schuele et al, 2008; Simmons et al, 2008 , 2011; Tuckwiller, Pullen, & Coyne, 2010; Ukrainetz, Ross, & Harm; 2009; Vernon‐Feagans et al, 2010). Of these, five studies received a second score for reporting fidelity information for supplemental instruction that was provided in addition to the core reading program within Tier 1 (Loftus et al, 2010; McMaster et al, 2005; Pullen et al, 2010; Schuele et al, 2008; Tuckwiller et al, 2010).…”