Date of Award

Spring 2-21-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctorate of Education, Ed.D.

College

College of Education

Department

Education

First Advisor

Audrey Rabas, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Greg Aldred, Ed.D.

Third Advisor

Julia Britt, Ed.D.

Abstract

A quasi-experimental quantitative study using a pretest-posttest design examined the effects of Reader’s Theater to eighth graders fluency and comprehension development. The study used 50 eighth grade students with 25 students making up the control group and 25 students making up the experimental group. Reader’s Theater was used as an intervention with the experimental group for 30 minutes a day for 6 weeks while the control group used regular instructional methods including summarizing, questioning, and text-dependent questions. Data were gathered using a fluency passage from Easy CBM and a 20-question comprehension passage from Easy CBM. Most students showed improvement in their fluency and comprehension scores after the study. Data suggested that Reader’s Theater is effective in increasing both variables among students within the intervention group. The gains between the experimental group and the control group based on posttest data showed a significant difference. Results from this study indicated the effectiveness of using Reader’s Theater at the secondary grade level to increase both fluency and comprehension scores. This study was unique in that it uses a primary grade level intervention such as Reader’s Theater with eighth grade students to suggest a way to bridge reading gaps in secondary students.

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