Focused Reading Instruction and Student Achievement

Presentation at CEC ConferenceBoston – April 5, 2008

Dr. Richard Evans, PhD evansra@jmu.eduTaryn Goodwin MEd goodwitm@jmu.edu Allison Moriarty MEd moriaram@gmail.com Lauren Martina MEd laurenmartina@gmail.com Molly-Armine Manwaring manwarmx@jmu.edu

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

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Skills

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Control average Exp Average Mean line

PA Phonics

Net Change of Groups Comparisons

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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