Evaluation of an intervention program in reading fluency

Abstract

This research aims to evaluate changes in performance occurred during an intervention program intended to improve reading fluency of students in fifth year. For that purpose, 13 fortnightly sessions of 45 minutes were held, supervised by teachers of Portuguese. All the students in theschoolwhere theprojecttook place (n=270) participated in the program. However, for assessment purposes, 54 students were randomly selected. The study consisted of a single group design with three repeated measures. Data came from video recordings of oral reading of two excerpts (of a hundred words each) drawn from two books recommended by the Portuguese National Reading Plan. Data analysis was intended to determine the individual reading time and number of errors.

Significant differences were found in the three moments of the evaluation, visible in the progressive reduction of reading time and number of errors. Results demonstrate a positive impact of the intervention on all pupils assessed. Despite the changes observed, the intraclass correlation coefficient suggests that, although students with lower results improve, they still score lower than their better performing peers.

These results are similar to those reported in other studies that evaluated the effect of intervention programs aimed at developing reading fluency (although those studies involved students younger than the participants in the present research). Results may be seen as particularly relevant if we consider that educational progress of students with learning disabilities usually slows as the age of schooling increases