Key Information
Focus
When To Use This Strategy
Appropriate Group Size
What are timed repeated readings?
Timed repeated readings are an instructional strategy used to improve students’ reading fluency. The goal of timed repeated readings is to increase reading speed, accuracy, and expression through repeated practice of a specific passage or text.
Why use timed repeated readings?
- It improves reading rate — one aspect of fluency.
- It improves reading accuracy — a second aspect of fluency
- Better fluency leads to improved comprehension.
How to use timed repeated readings
Timed repeated readings should be done using books or passages the student has read before that are at an independent reading level (i.e. books the student can read with 95% accuracy or above). Most timed repeated reading sessions should include 3-4 re-readings of the same text.
What you will need:
- Two copies of the assessment passage — one for the student and one for the teacher
- Stopwatch or clock
- Pencil
Carefully select passage to be used, and determine the type of assessment information you want to gather:
One minute reading. The student reads for 1 minute. The teacher or partner counts the number of words read correctly in one minute (WCPM). This score is as valid as calculating perfect correct or accuracy on longer readings. Provide some practice time with non-assessment reading material before beginning the 1 minute timed reading.
Timed repeated readings. The student reads the same passage for 1 minute multiple times (3-5). The teacher or partner counts how words the student read in 1 minute. The number of words read results can be graphed using a bar graph.
Words correct per minute (WCPM). Choose a passage. Time the student when s/he reads the passage.
Watch a lesson (one-on-one)
This video is part of the professional learning communities facilitator’s guide for the What Works Clearinghouse practice guide: Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Collect resources
How to determine words read correctly per minute (WCPM)
A student read a story with 148 words in 2 minutes, 55 seconds. She made 8 errors. To determine WCPM:
- Count the total number of words.
Example: 148 - Count the number of mistakes.
Example: 18 - Take the number of words minus the number of mistakes = number of words read correctly.
Example: 148-18 = 130 - Calculate percent accuracy: number of words read correctly divided by total number of words.
Example: 130/148 = 87% - Convert the time it took to read the passage to seconds.
Example: 2 minutes, 55 seconds = 175 seconds - Convert the number of seconds to a decimal by dividing the number of seconds by 60. This is the total reading time.
Example: 175 / 60 = 2.91 - Divide the number of words read correctly by the total reading time in decimal form.
Example: 130 / 2.91 = 45 WCPM
Use these 2017 fluency norms from Hasbrouck and Tindal to determine the student’s approximate percentile for oral reading fluency.
Differentiate instruction
For second language learners, students of varying reading skill, and younger learners
- Encourage students to become familiar with the strategy before introducing a stop watch.
- Begin with materials that are familiar to the student.
- Accommodate students who have speech impediments. Have them talk to you or read an extremely easy passage. Record their fastest rate of speech. Do not expect them to be able to read faster than this rate.
- Use repeated reading as practice for the timed repeated reading. Have students read passages aloud several times while receiving feedback and guidance from an adult.
- Have the adult or a more proficient student read the passage. Then have the student read the passage.
- Teach students to be proud of their own progress and not compare it to others. Keep scores private.
See the research that supports this strategy
Council for Exceptional Children, the Division for Learning Disabilities (DLD) and the Division for Research (DR). Fluency Instruction.
Dowhower, S. (1989) Repeated reading: Research into practice. The Reading Teacher, 42(7), 502-507.
Hudson, R.F., Lane, H.B., & Pullen, P.C. (2005). Reading Fluency Assessment and Instruction: What, Why, and How?. The Reading Teacher, 58(8), 702-714.
Johns, J. & Berglund, R. (2002). Fluency: Question, answers, evidence-based strategies. Dubuque, IO: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.
Kuhn, M. (2004). Helping students become accurate, expressive readers: Fluency instruction for small groups. The Reading Teacher, 58(4), 338-344.
Lee, J., & Yoon, S. Y. (2017). The Effects of Repeated Reading on Reading Fluency for Students With Reading Disabilities: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 50(2), 213–224. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219415605194
Murray, B. (1999). Two Methods for Developing Fluency.
Rasinski, T. (2003) The fluent reader: Oral reading strategies for building word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. New York, NY: Scholastic Professional Books.
Samuels, S. J. (2002). Reading fluency: It’s development and assessment. In Farstrup, A. & Samuels, S. (Ed.). What research has to say about reading instruction (pp. 166-183). Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.
Samuels, S. J. (1997). The method of repeated readings. The Reading Teacher, 50(5), 376-381.
Therrien, W. J. (2004). Fluency and Comprehension Gains as a Result of Repeated Reading: A Meta-Analysis. Remedial and Special Education, 25(4), 252–261. https://doi.org/10.1177/07419325040250040801
Vaca, R. & Vaca, J. (1999). Content area reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum, 6th edition. New York, NY: Logman.