What is the best modification a teacher can make to improve students' oral reading performance while using a repeated reading approach?

Providing individual students with explicit teacher feedback on their reading accuracy and prosody between readings is the best modification a teacher can make to enhance students' oral reading performance using a repeated reading approach. This strategy is effective because it focuses on delivering targeted, personalized guidance to each student, which can lead to significant improvements in their reading skills.

When students receive specific feedback on aspects such as their pronunciation, expression, and overall fluency immediately after their reading, they can understand what they are doing correctly and what areas need improvement. This immediate reinforcement helps students to make adjustments in their subsequent readings, thereby enhancing their overall performance. Furthermore, feedback on prosody—the rhythm, stress, and intonation in speech—encourages students to engage more fully with the text, making their reading sound more natural and expressive.

Other approaches, such as selecting texts below grade level for struggling readers, might help in managing frustration but can limit opportunities for growth. Allowing students to read silently to themselves does not facilitate the same interactive learning experience that feedback provides, nor does it help improve oral reading specifically. Lastly, allowing students to choose any text without guidance may not focus their efforts on improving specific reading skills or strategies they need to develop. Thus, individualized feedback during repeated readings stands out