A study investigated whether the practice of repeated reading enables first-grade children participating in a heterogeneous grouping model (which requires them to read difficult text) to acquire the fluency, accuracy, and understanding necessary to become independent readers. Subjects were four children from a public first-grade classroom in a predominantly white, middle-class suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. All children in the classroom were instructed using a combination of first-grade texts of a basal reading program and trade book literature. During the intervention phase, the teacher read the story aloud, the subjects read the story as a chorus with the whole class or in a small group, and the subjects read the story four more times with a partner over a period of several days. The intervention occurred for a minimum of 5 days. Assessment had two components: students read the selection aloud and retold the story in their own words. Results indicated that the four subjects experienced substantial improvement in accuracy, fluency, self-correction behaviors, understanding of grade-appropriate text, and ability to retell stories. Findings suggest that repeated readings enabled struggling readers to participate successfully in the first-grade curriculum, and the struggling readers succeeded in learning to read difficult text when the practice of repeated reading was combined with a full array of effective early reading strategies. (Contains 21 references and 4 figures of data. An appendix lists the reading materials used.) (RS)