Small Group Skills Based Instruction and Reading Fluency: A Fourth Grade Classroom Study

Abstract

Reading fluency instruction takes place in schools across the nation. Fluency assesses how many correct words a student can read per minute, while also using speed, accuracy, and expression. Many schools across the nation report low reading fluency scores. Students who struggle with reading fluency can lead to essential problems as a child grows causing behavior and social issues, along with unemployment. Students may lack confidence or improvement when they are reading stories out of their level because of poor instruction. Reading fluency issues increase from inconsistent practice, inappropriate reading passages for their levels, and lack of differentiated instruction. Educators may lack proper training in fluency causing them to teach ineffectively or neglect fluency altogether. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of small group reading instruction and reading fluency scores compared to whole group instruction. Twenty-three fourth grade students from an urban school district will be part of a research group to test whether small group instruction using learning styles benefits their fluency scores. The independent variables are small group and whole group instruction, while the dependent variable is the FAST reading fluency score. The hypothesis is that small group instruction focused on learning styles will improve fourth grade reading fluency more than whole group instruction. The results showed both whole group and small group instruction improved reading fluency scores, but small group instruction had more improvement. The hypothesis proved to be true that small group instruction using learning styles would improve reading fluency scores more than whole group instruction.