The effects of Read Naturally on students' oral reading fluency and reading comprehension

This study examined the effectiveness of a computer software program called Read Naturally on students' reading comprehension and oral reading fluency levels. Twelve students were put into six pairs based on their academic levels. All twelve students were given a pretest to gather baseline information on the students' fluency and comprehension levels. Next, one student from each pair was randomly assigned to the control group and the other was assigned to the experimental group. The students in the experimental group were from three different general education classrooms. These students participated in the Read Naturally program for 30 minutes a day, three times a week for ten weeks. The students in the control group remained in the general education classroom and did not receive additional language arts intervention. At the end of the ten week period, all the students were given a posttest to examine their growth in fluency and comprehension. The results of the study indicate that the students who received the intervention made greater progress in fluency and reading comprehension. Key Words: Special education pre-referral intervention, literacy intervention, response to intervention