Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Joan M. Mignerey
Committee Member
John C. Drewes
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
achievement gains, administrators, classroom centers, comparison group, computerized instruction, district level testing, early phonological awareness, early reading, elementary schools, first grade, kindergarten, peer tutoring, reading achievement, reading centers, reading comprehension, reading inventory, reading readiness, reading readiness skills, reading success, research, skill-based instruction, student preparedness, suburban schools, teachers, Waterford Reading Inventory, whole language approach, whole-language instruction
Abstract
This report describes programs and activities to assure the development of reading readiness skills in kindergarten students in a suburban elementary school. Kindergarten students were entering 1st grade with little or no reading readiness proficiency. This was apparent by their lack of skills on the 1st-grade entrance survey test developed by the 1st-grade teachers. This report examines research on reading techniques and the effects of early training on reading success.
Strategies included in this report are (a) early phonological awareness, (b) using both whole-language and skill-based instruction through a computerized program, (c) use of centers in the classroom, (d) peer tutoring, and (e) instructions on how reading instruction should proceed. Teachers and administrators were involved in using the strategies throughout the school year at the kindergarten level.
This project helped to assure that kindergarten students were prepared to read in 1st grade, if not already reading prior to entering 1st grade, and to help increase 1st-grade reading comprehension as measured on the district level testing. Student reading achievement gains for the kindergarten students in the study group were 20 points greater than the comparison group as measured by the Waterford Reading Inventory. This program has been expanded to include 1st graders.