Date of Graduation
1992
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
There are regular and at-risk students in regular education who are not progressing academically. The emphasis of keeping students in the regular reading classroom, while meeting their individual needs makes effective documentation vital. This study indicated that frequent measuring of student progress by collecting and graphing data can be useful. A multiple baseline design across behaviors and students was employed to determine if self-graphing would affect greater and more rapid change in student progress. All students showed improvement when they self-graphed words per minute (WPM) and rated their daily performance. Because improvement in WPM occurred only when self-graphing was introduced, it is unlikely that outside influences could account for these improvements. The results suggest that while progressing through their reading texts, the students continued to read more fluently, using progressively more difficult material, without lowering the number of correct comprehension responses or increasing the amount of time to answer the comprehension questions. Thus, the teachers were able to effect more rapid reading with no loss of comprehension or increase in time required when the students began to graph and rate their data. The ranking of question difficulty was important to permit the researcher to attribute any change in the number of correct comprehension answers to self-graphing and rating, rather than easier or harder questions being asked. The ages, abilities, and skills of the students participating in the study varied. The data patterns were consistent regardless of the type of student in the study. Self-graphing WPM resulted in improved performance for all students through-out the study. Therefore, the effects of data collection and graphing were not specific to age or ability represented by the students. This study supports the recommendations of many leaders in special education to frequently measure student progress as a component of effective educational programs. This study demonstrated that providing material at the students' instructional level that is not too hard or too easy, and teaching the students to be accountable for their progress by self-graphing, produces amazing results.
Recommended Citation
Farrer, William D., "The effects of self-graphing on regular, at-risk and special needs students' oral reading fluency and comprehension." (1992). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 8842.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/8842