Date of Award
2002
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
EdD Program for Educational Leaders
Advisor
Madelaine Ramey
Committee Member
Carole Trueman
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Committee Member
Claudia Santin
Keywords
apprenticeship model, Brandt, Buckmaster, coaching, cognitive apprenticeship model, community libraries, comparative analysis, Farmer, grant funds, parental involvement, public libraries, reading comprehension, reading improvement, reading skills, Reading to the Max, Stanford Achievement Test, student achievement, teacher quality, teaching strategies, workshops
Abstract
This study examines strategies and techniques intended to update 5th-grade target students’ reading skills at Our Lady of Victory (OLV) Catholic School. A comparative analysis of the reading comprehension subtest results from the Stanford Achievement Test of successive cohorts of OLV 4th-grade students showed a decline during the students’ 4th-grade year. An effort to identity this decline in performance led the researcher to possible factors: teacher quality and degree of parental involvement. To address this problem, Brandt, Farmer, and Buckmaster’s (1993) cognitive Apprenticeship Model program, in which instruction is modeled and adult learners gradually take responsibility for instructing young learners, was introduced to the 5thgrade teacher and parents.
The 5th-grade teacher was required to attend workshops on Reading to the Max, a program derived from the cognitive apprenticeship model, in order to develop skills for the teaching of reading. She also served as a coach in involving the parents actively in the reading program. Reading textbooks and supplementary books were provided through grant funds and community and public libraries. Reading comprehension scores for the students who participated in the Reading to the Max program in 2000-2001 improved beyond the targeted level. However, it was noted that, because there was no control group, test results showing reading improvement could be due to factors other than the program. The researcher recommended implementation of the program with other students in different grade levels.