Date of Award
1-1-1991
Document Type
Practicum
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Advisor
William W. Anderson
Committee Member
Brenda Edwards
Keywords
at-risk students, books, Count on Reading, donations, first graders, language arts, literature, media center, mentors, parents, practicum, public library, reading aloud, reading attitudes, reading materials, teacher-student sessions, third graders, tutors, tutees
Abstract
The activities of this practicum were to develop the reading attitudes of six at-risk third graders. There were regular teacher-student sessions that were devoted to reading aloud. Practicum participants were assigned mentors. The mentors and mentees met two times during the implementation cycle. The targeted group served as tutors for a group of first grades. The tutors shared a variety of literature with their tutees.
The writer took members of the group to the main branch of the public library. Donations of reading material were solicited from colleagues. The writer scheduled evening meetings with parents. The group worked collectively on one story and individually on another. Copies of the stories were distributed to a national language arts consultant, the district’s language arts director, and the school’s media center.
Analysis of the pre-assessment data suggested that members of the target population had negative attitudes for reading. The writer noted that the number of books borrowed from the media center as well as the number of books read for the Count on Reading (CORe) was below some of the other third graders. The post-assessment data indicated that all of the students have increased their reading attitudes. The number of books borrowed from the media center, and the number of books submitted for CORe have increased. Assessments administered after the end of the practicum represent the success of the practicum.