Reading poetry for improved adolescent oral fluency, comprehension, and self-perception

Abstract

This study was designed to explore the effects of oral fluency instruction and strategies on struggling adolescent readers’ prosody, comprehension and self-perception as readers. Additionally, this study sought to determine if relationships exist between performances in adolescent oral fluency and comprehension, prosody and comprehension, and oral fluency and reader self-perception. Prior to and immediately after the intervention, assessments were administered. Oral fluency was assessed with Rasinski’s (2004) oral reading multidimensional fluency scale. To determine students’ reading comprehension levels, the Brigance Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills reading comprehension subtest was used. Reader’s self-perception was measured with Henck and Melnick’s (1995) Reader Self Perception Survey. The study included eight high school students who were identified as struggling readers. During fifteen class sessions, the students participated in an intervention which used poetry and five oral fluency strategies: model, guided, repeated, paired, and performance reading. The analysis of pre and post tests revealed statistically significant improvements in comprehension, fluency, and reader self-perception. However, only fluency and comprehension gains indicate a statistically significant relationship.