Exploring the effects of student choice of topic on reading fluency interventions

Intrinsic motivation to read and reading difficulties reciprocally interact—students who have difficulties in reading are often less motivated to read, resulting in reading disengagement and even greater reading difficulties. However, by increasing a student’s reading motivation, deep practice in reading also increases, resulting in improved reading outcomes. A way to improve student motivation is by incorporating student autonomy (through choice) in an intervention. The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of a reading fluency intervention that incorporates student choice of topic through a multiple baseline across students design. Results indicated improvements in student reading fluency, both with the instructional passages and the generalization passages. Results from this study provide support for reading interventions that include choice of topic, even though students may choose passages or topics that are above their current reading levels.Education, Faculty ofEducational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department ofGraduat