Repeated Reading

 What is it?

"Repeated Reading" is what it states – reading the same passage repeatedly.

Why do I recommend it?

Researchers (see 2 and 3 below) have learned that reading speed, rate, and accuracy are critical to reading comprehension. When readers struggle to lift the words from the page, decoding efforts reduce understanding because the cognitive effort to read takes away from understanding. Researchers have also learned that repeatedly reading the same passage increases reading rate and accuracy when reading any material on that reading level over time. (Sometimes referred to as "Repeated Reading Practice.") It is like learning to play a musical instrument or shooting hoops. With more practice, the easier it becomes and the more accurately the task is performed.)

Repeated Reading is essential. Children struggling with Reading and writing will not read or write if they can get out of it. Consequently, they miss seeing spelling patterns, do not develop familiarity with words that do not follow phonics rules, or even see how sounds affect letter patterns. They miss hearing and seeing new vocabulary and more complex sentence patterns in print. Researchers have given this phenomenon a name. They call it the" Matthew Effect," which alludes to the Bible parable: "To him who has will more be given and to him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

In Chapter 5 ((1) Reading Sound Strategies), Repeated Reading was suggested briefly with research cited. The five stories provided for assessment are also appropriate for repeated reading exercises.

In my experience, repeated Reading is to a reader what piano practice is to a musician, shooting hoops is to a basketball player, and tossing the football is to a football player. It is what we do to get better at the skill of Reading. It is what we do to build reading speed and accuracy.

Chapter 11 contains five reading levels of stories and a chart documenting your students' reading fluency. This activity should take about 10 minutes a day AT THE MOST! I cannot emphasize this enough."

How To Do Repeated Reading

1. Have the student orally read a passage on their current reading level for one minute.  Mark the words missed.  If your student struggles with a word as they read [silently count to 5], say it for them.  (Notice that there are two copies of each story – one for you and one for your student.)
2. After one minute, review the missed words with the student.
3. Read the same passage a second time for one minute, following the same pattern as in 1 and 2.
4. Read the same passage a third time for one minute, following the same pattern as in 1 and 2.
5. Record the best score on the student chart.  Have the students color the graph to show how they did each day.
6. When a child reads a passage at 80-100 words per minute, move to the next area of the story.  Make the same pattern again.  I choose the grade level for the chosen story based on how much the student struggles. If a child is in third grade, reading first-grade level text at 30 words per minute and misses five or more words, but after practice, consistently reaches 80 words per minute on three repeated reading samples, they move to a second-grade level passage. Sometimes, the child may need to read 80 words per minute on the first-grade level for two or three passages before moving up to the second-grade level.
7. When a child completes a story, go to the next grade-level story and start all over.  Gradually, your child will increase their reading rate and accuracy to their grade level.
8. At the second-grade level, the rate increases to 100 words per minute. At the fourth grade level, the rate increases to 120 words per minute.
9. At every level, the student should read at least 95 out of the 100 words smoothly without help decoding and without error before moving on.

(1)"Reading Sound Strategies" by Vickie Dinsmore from pages 21, 48, and 62. Independently Published 2023. Available on Amazon.

(2) Meyer, Mariane S., and Felton Rebecca H. "Repeated Reading to Enhance Fluency:  Approaches and New Directions" Annals of Dyslexia, Vol. 49, 1999 Copyright 1999 by the International Dyslexia Association ISSN 0736-9387

(3) Dowhower, Sarah L.  "Repeated reading:  Research into practice." This article reports on the benefits of repeated Reading, various ways to conduct repeated reading exercises, and classroom applications of repeated Reading.