Section 1: Introduction to the Study

Introduction

One of the most commonly used methods to teach reading is repeated reading that incorporates oral-reading scripts. Oral-reading scripts involve an interpretive activity wherein students practice repeated reading, alternate scripts, and perform a written script. This approach has been shown to improve reading fluency, word recognition, reading speed, and accuracy (Griffith & Rasinski, 2004). However, repeated reading by itself in the absence of content that captures the reader's interest does not take full advantage of this approach. This study integrated African American-based ethnic scripts into a widely used repeated-reading approach to teaching reading that heretofore has not included these focused-type scripts. The approach was used on a sample of 10th-grade secondary school readers. The purpose of the study was to determine if the focused scripts resulted in improved fluency and reading comprehension.

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP; U.S. Department of Education, 2011), 64% of students with learning disabilities in the eighth grade were below basic reading-achievement level for reading; in comparison to all students, the percentage of those reading below basic was 25%. For African American students, 42% of students scored below the basic reading-achievement level; in comparison, White students scored 16%. Students need explicit instruction, modeling, and practice in vocabulary and reading comprehension (Fletcher, 2007). Also, many students who experience reading problems need instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, and word study, even when they are in the upper elementary and secondary grades. Although reading instruction has been placed at the forefront of educational-reform policy (Carnegie Council on Advancing Adolescent Literacy, 2010; Lewis, 2007), most educational reforms have failed to make substantial differences in the academic performance of the large majority of students, particularly ethnic minorities (Houston, 2001).

Research on reading that includes oral reading has shown that oral reading improves phonemic awareness, comprehension, and vocabulary (Duane, Campbell, Grigg, Goodman, & Oranje, 2005). Oral reading is a form of scaffolded learning; question answering is one of the direct reading-comprehension measures. Clark (2000) examined the effects of first-grade students' responses as students read Krauss's The Carrot Seed. Clark explored the effects of oral reading — question answering — as one of the direct reading-comprehension measures and discovered that oral reading increases students' reading comprehension. Students need opportunities to practice reading, writing, and talking about different content areas to learn skills to successfully communicate (Pearson, Cervetti, & Tilson, 2008). Oral-reading instruction improves students' reading, and when students generate and investigate their own questions, wonderings, and connections, they move into a reading process that gives insight to their abilities to decode word meanings, as well as semantic understandings (K. Meyer, 2010).

For secondary school readers, oral repeated reading alone may not provide sufficient incentive to increase interest or motivation to read. Readers' theater scripts are a widely used reading model that employs several forms of lessons including repeated oral reading. Free scripts are the primary teaching materials used; they include a variety of topics and cultures to make the learning experience more interesting and successful.

The urban community district of interest in this study has a racially mixed population with Whites comprising 85% of approximately 11,435,798 people, Blacks 11.5%, Hispanics 1.9%, Asians 1.2%, and American Indians 2%. The local school district of interest of this study had a dropout rate of 2% from Grades 9 to 12 in 2009. In that local school district, 12% of students have an individualized education program, a written plan for students who are eligible with special needs (Infoplease, 2013). The school setting and students are described in detail in Section 3.

Problem Statement

Improving reading is one of the central topics in educational research. Much progress has been made, but significant numbers of students are substantially below acceptable performance in reading fluency (Rasinski, Rikli, & Johnston, 2009). Reading instruction that includes oral reading has a positive effect and can increase the likelihood of substantive reading improvement (K. Meyer, 2010). Although the readers' theater model is promising, I found a lack of research on the impact of the method used with secondary school readers. Further, I found no ethnic-oriented scripts for this population of readers.

Nature of the Study

I used a quasi-experimental design to determine the effect of a treatment by comparing an experimental group with a control group on a variable of interest (Gravetter & Wallnau, 2005). The objective was to determine if an independent variable (the treatment) had an effect on a dependent variable. For this study, reading instruction using the readers' theater model was the independent variable represented by an experimental and control group. The experimental group used the readers' theater method and used scripts that were oriented to a particular ethnicity. I conducted the study for 6 weeks. The control group used scripts that were not ethnic specific. The primary dependent variable was reading fluency. However, I also measured comprehension, because the nature of the ethnic-oriented scripts may have increased this important reading component. A view of Vygotskian (1978b) theory...