Closing the Gap: Improving Reading Fluency in the Struggling Middle School Reader

Abstract

To succeed in the twenty-first century, students will need advanced levels of literacy to function responsibly as individuals, citizens and workers. They will need literacy to accurately evaluate the flood of information in today’s digital age. They will need literacy to feed their imagination so that they can create the world of the future. Therefore, as a twenty-first-century teacher educating twenty-first-century learners, one must empower students with strategies that will enable them to participate in all aspects of their lives. Throughout my practicum observations to date, and supported by the literature, a disturbing number of serious reading problems exist among middle school students. This study will critically investigate and evaluate strategies to improve fluency in struggling readers to close the gap between the struggling middle school reader and their grade-level peers. This will take form using personal reflections and critical evaluation of my own practices, my peers and mentors and will be supported by literature on the topic to date. I dedicate this study to all the hard-working students who struggle with reading fluency. Without these students, this study would not have been possible. The students’ hard work and determination to make significant improvements in their reading ability inspired me and made me not only a better person but a better teacher.