Repeated Reading

The student reads through a passage repeatedly, silently or aloud, and receives help with reading errors.

Materials:

-          Reading book

-          Stop watch (if readings are to be timed)

Preparation:

The teacher, parent, adult tutor or peer tutor working with the student should be trained in advance to use the listening passage preview approach.

Steps in Implementing This Intervention:

Step 1: Sit with the student in a quiet location without too many distractions. Position the book selected for the reading session so that both you and the student can easily follow the text.

Step 2:  Select a passage in the book of about 100 to 200 words in length.

Step 3:  Have the student read the passage through. (Unless you have a preference, the student should be offered the choice of reading the passage aloud or silently.)

Step 4:  If the student is reading aloud and misreads a word or hesitates for longer than 5 seconds, read the word aloud and have the student repeat the word correctly before continuing through the passage. If the student asks for help with any word, read the word aloud. If the student requests a word definition, give the definition.

Step 5:  When the student has completed the passage, have him or her read the passage again. You can choose to have the student read the passage repeatedly until either the student has read the passage a total of 4 times (Rashotte & Torgesen, 1985) or the student reads the passage at the rate of at least 85 to 100 words per minute (Dowhower, 1987; Herman, 1985).