Focused Reading Instruction and Student Achievement
Presentation at CEC ConferenceBoston – April 5, 2008
Dr. Richard Evans, PhD [email protected] Goodwin MEd [email protected] Allison Moriarty MEd [email protected] Lauren Martina MEd [email protected] Molly-Armine Manwaring [email protected]
James Madison University Harrisonburg, VA 22807
The study
• Evaluated the effectiveness of intensive remedial reading tutoring for students with disabilities or high-risk of reading failure in a rural area of Virginia. The study explored focused reading skills instruction on struggling readers to identify instructional practices that might be used in a Response to Instruction (RtI) school model for elementary students with and without emotional and behavioral disorders.
Exploring outcomes of focused reading instruction
• Pilot study for potential RtI strategy
• subjects (individuals) in third and fourth grade in a rural elementary school
• Outcomes based on student achievement in reading
• Outcomes based on change between pre-test and post-test data
Changing the Way We Educate Struggling Students
• Catch them before they fall (fail) • The majority of sped students have reading
problems• Reading is a basic building block of education • Research suggests all but a few children can be
taught reading • Early intervention catalyst for change • NCLB Act stresses funding of successful public
education instead of continuing to fund a failing system
Research Supports• To be good readers, children must possess:
– Phonemic awareness -Chard & Dickson, 1999
– Phonics skills - National Reading Panel, 2000; Vaughn et al., 1998
– Fluency - Chard & Dickson, 1999; National Reading Panel, 2000
– Comprehension - Chard & Dickson, 1999; National Reading Panel, 2000; Vaughn et al., 1998
– Vocabulary - Kueker, 1990; Nagy, 1988; Nagy et al., 1985
• Explicit instruction in decoding with practice on stories that “fit” a child’s reading level as the most effective way to teach all students to read
Professional Training is Part of the JMU SPED M.Ed. Program
Instruction is an essential components of effective reading instruction• Phonological awareness
– Word study / word analysis– Letter-sound correspondence
• Phonics• Fluency
– Reading speed– Prosody
• Comprehension• Vocabulary• Establish Progress Monitoring
– In-class training• Modeling
– Modeling of specific components of reading program
Study • Individualized sessions (10-16) with students with
reading difficulty (n=8) – Referred by teacher
– Discussion with teacher about students Progress / Problems
– IEP and work sample review when available
• Control group of students with reading difficulty (n=8) – Referred by teacher
• Focused systematic reading instruction based on – Informal assessments
– IEP goals
– Teacher recommendation
Student Characteristics• Gender
– 5 males experimental group and 3 males in the control group
– 4 females experimental group and 4 in the control group
• Ages 8 to 10
• Grades 3 to 4
• All students were eligible for special education services
• Exhibited a variety of reading difficulties
Student Outcomes
• Student academic outcomes were evaluated with four informal reading measures
• Phonological awareness – Quick Screener
• Phonics - Quick Screener
• Fluency – Timed Readings• Comprehension – Commercial Screeners
(QRI)
Rhyme:
Sentence Segmentation:
Blending:
Addition/Substation:
Deletion:
Phoneme Isolation:
Syllable Segmentation
Activity 1: Name/sound
Activity 2A: CVC
Activity 2B: Context
Activity 3A: CVCC & CCVC
Activity 3B: Context
Activity 4A: Silent E
Activity 4B: Context
Activity 5A: R-Control
Activity 5B: Context
Activity 6A: th, ing, sh, wh, ch, igh, ck, kn, wr, nk
Activity 6B: th-, ing, sh, wh, ch, igh, ck, kn, wr, nk
Activity 7A: oa, ea, oo, ee, ai, ol, ay, ou, oi, oy, au, aw, oe, ew, ow
Activity 8A: dis-, non-, in-, re-, -tion, -ous, -ness, -ion, -able, -est, -le, -ful, -ic, be-, de-
Activity 9A: 2-Syllable
Activity 9B: 3-Syllable
Activity 9C: 3-Syllable
PA
Phonics
Skill Areas for Focused Instruction
Comparisons of Groups Initial Averages
0.00
0.20
0.40
0.60
0.80
1.00
1.20
Rhyme:
Blendin
g:
Deletio
n:
Syllab
le S
egm
enta
tion
Activit
y 2A:
Activit
y 3A:
Activit
y 4A:
Activit
y 5A:
Activit
y 6A:
Activit
y 7A:
Activit
y 8A:
Activit
y 9B:
Skills
Sco
re
Control average Exp Average Mean line
PA Phonics
Net Change of Groups Comparisons
-0.30
-0.20
-0.10
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.40
0.50
0.60
0.70
Rhym
e:
Blend
ing:
Delet
ion:
Syllab
le S
egm
enta
tion
Activi
ty 2
A:
Activi
ty 3
A:
Activi
ty 4
A:
Activi
ty 5
A:
Activi
ty 6
A:
Activi
ty 7
A:
Activi
ty 8
A:
Activi
ty 9
B:
Skills
Sco
re
Net change CONTROL Net change EXP Net Change B/EXP
PA Phonics
Net Change Fluency
Average Net Change EXP CONTROL
Fluency: Accuracy 17% 3%
Words Per Minute (WPM): 17.4 -5.37
Comprehension: 5% 1%
Variable Posttest average
Per-test average m1-m2= SD
d = (effect size)
Rhyme: 0.933 0.933 0.000 0.103 0.000
Sentence Segmentation: 0.933 0.900 0.033 0.110 0.304
Blending: 1.008 0.900 0.108 0.110 0.989
Addition/Substation: 0.833 0.767 0.067 0.197 0.339
Deletion: 0.833 0.817 0.017 0.223 0.075
Phoneme Isolation: 0.967 0.900 0.067 0.110 0.609
Syllable Segmentation 0.733 0.367 0.367 0.266 1.379
Activity 1: Name/sound 0.974 0.923 0.051 0.044 1.169
Activity 2A:CVC 0.933 0.950 -0.017 0.055 -0.304
Activity 2B: Context 0.975 0.902 0.073 0.111 0.658
Activity 3A: CVCC & CCVC 0.883 0.700 0.183 0.141 1.296
Activity 3B: Context 0.983 0.917 0.067 0.117 0.570
Activity 4A: Silent E 0.877 0.617 0.260 0.204 1.274
Activity 4B: Context 0.867 0.800 0.067 0.141 0.471
Activity 5A: R-Control 0.950 0.767 0.183 0.186 0.985
Activity 5B: Context 0.900 0.817 0.083 0.172 0.484
Activity 6A: th, ing, sh, wh, ch, igh, ck, kn, wr, nk 0.858 0.550 0.308 0.327 0.943
Activity 6B: th-, ing, sh, wh, ch, igh, ck, kn, wr, nk 0.800 0.617 0.183 0.313 0.587
Activity 7A: oa, ea, oo, ee, ai, ol, ay, ou, oi, oy, au, aw, oe, ew, ow 0.722 0.594 0.128 0.310 0.412
Activity 8A: dis-, non-, in-, re-, -tion, -ous, -ness, -ion, -able, -est, -le, -ful, -ic, be-, de- 0.417 0.400 0.017 0.318 0.052
Activity 9A: 2-Syllable 0.417 0.233 0.183 0.367 0.500
Activity 9B: 3-Syllable 0.383 0.100 0.283 0.245 1.157
Activity 9C: 3-Syllable 0.317 0.083 0.233 0.204 1.143
Accuracy 0.937 0.916 0.021 0.074 0.289
wpm 72.952 51.738 21.213 24.742 0.857
Comprehension 0.933 0.800 0.133 0.179 0.745