Effects of an Abbreviated Class-Wide Reading Intervention for Students in Third Grade

Abstract

Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) provide instruction and intervention to all students in schools. However, when many students within a setting demonstrate reading difficulties, there is likely a tier 1 problem which makes it infeasible to implement tier 2 or tier 3 interventions with large numbers of students due to limited resources. The current study experimentally examined the effects of a brief class-wide intervention with two third-grade classrooms with large numbers of students demonstrating reading difficulties. The treatment group participated in partner reading with paragraph shrinking (i.e., summarizing) every school day for 2 weeks. The intervention resulted in significantly greater fluency growth compared to the control classroom. Moreover, the number of students in the treatment group who scored below the seasonal benchmark criterion fell from 12 out of 21 to 6 of 21 students. The control classroom had 13 out of 24 students who scored below the benchmark before and after the intervention. Results pointed to a promising practice for schools to enact when class-wide reading difficulties are evident.