**4. Methods**

#### *4.1. Setting and Participants*

The present study took place at a charter school located in the urban core of a large midwestern U.S. city, in what was once an industrial factory. Ninety-eight percent of the student body is non-white (89.5% African American, 5.4% Asian American, 1.6% Hispanic American, and 1.9% multiracial). Consent to participate in the FDL was given by parents. One hundred percent of the students received free lunch. Subjects for the study were students from three first-grade classrooms at the Village Prep

School. Students in two of the classrooms (*n* = 51) were identified as the treatment (FDL) group while students from the other classroom (*n* = 27) were selected as a business-as-usual comparison group. Students had previously been randomly assigned to the three classrooms.

The impetus for the study came from the school principal and reading specialists who recognized that the demographics of the school population were likely to put students at risk for di fficulties in reading. The principal and reading specialists were on the lookout for instructional innovations that might help students. The study, then, took place within an ecologically valid setting.

All elementary grade teachers in the school were provided with an overview of reading fluency, the FDL, and a demonstration of the FDL in practice. The total time for the training was 90 min. Although all teachers were trained in the FDL, teachers in the control or business-as-usual classroom agreed not to use it during the span of the study. The teachers who implemented the FDL were volunteers and indicated to the reading specialists a willingness to implement the FDL daily in their classrooms. The reading specialists regularly observed both the business-as-usual and FDL classrooms to ensure that the FDL was not part of the business-as-usual classroom and that the FDL was an integral part of the FDL classrooms.
