Strategic Reading: Using Think Alouds to Increase Fluency in High School Students
Date of Award
Spring 5-11-2018
Document Type
Project (696 or 796 registration)
Degree Name
Master of Science in Curriculum & Instruction
Department
Graduate Studies
Committee Chair
Boyd Bradbury
Keywords
Literacy, High School, Fluency, Think Alouds
Abstract
In order to be a contributing member of society, one must be literate. The purpose of this study was to explore how think alouds, a teaching strategy normally used in elementary school, could impact fluency in high school students. The study explored answers to two research questions. First, does the practice of reading aloud and the implementation of think alouds have a positive impact on reading fluency for nonfiction in the high school classroom? The second question was does the practice of reading aloud and the implementation of think alouds accomplish the goal of reading more fluently regardless of academic achievement? A five-week experiment followed ten male and ten female 10th grade students with various ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds from a small to midsized midwestern town high school. The study compared fluency test scores from the Bader Reading and Language Inventory (BRLI) before and after the implementation of weekly think alouds of nonfiction texts. The researcher analyzed accuracy, automaticity, and prosody results from the pre and posttest. Analysis appeared to indicate that think alouds did benefit student’s reading fluency. The most noticeable change was observed in mainstream students with academic challenges. The results were inconclusive, however, as increases in the three fluency measurements did not consistently increase comprehension scores of the test passages. There were also other variables outside of the control of the experiment that could have affected fluency. Therefore, one cannot directly connect the increase of fluency scores to the think aloud implementation without future study.
Recommended Citation
Mueller, Patricia Kate, "Strategic Reading: Using Think Alouds to Increase Fluency in High School Students" (2018). Dissertations, Theses, and Projects. 47.
https://red.mnstate.edu/thesis/47