Effect of Reader Schemes and Initiatives on Child Reading

Effect of Reader Schemes and Initiatives on Child ReadingInvestigate whether the deepen Reader Scheme and Star Reader Test has a positive effect on a childs variant execution.AbstractAn rating carried off in a primary school on the implementation of the deepen Reader Scheme manifests its efficacy in improving recital hit and recitation dayss for students who atomic number 18 less able readers. The books review shows that epoch there is limited secern on the scheme itself, which is derived from American schools settings, there is evidence which shows that similar schemes, which atomic number 18 targeted on reading development, and similarly schemes which integrate ongoing take and feedback (either individual(prenominal) or ICT base) argon impelling in bideing those who atomic number 18 falling behind national literacy standards. However, this report card, which utilises marks and reading scores to evaluate the scheme, is limited in its applic readiness and i n the usefulness of its findings. More re calculate is postulate into the underlying cultures and pedagogies which affect such reading interventions, and much(prenominal)(prenominal) depth and detail of pupil attitudes and responses are required to go steady how such programmes affect student achievement in reading and in the longer term.IntroductionChildrens reading development is a key feature of overall literacy in the primary age company, and as such is subject to considerable governmental governance and input. Achieving standardised levels of literacy is seen as cardinal in ensuring children reach developmental and cognitive milest mavins, and are decent prepared for standby school when they move into this phase of their education. However, there are a number of challenges to supporting children to read, because even though this is a key fraction of their learning, children are a good deal lacking in enthusiasm or confidence about reading, and do non take sanitary to reading for pleasure. Similarly, school resources often mean that support for reading is less than optimal, particularly if teachers do not have enough time to devote to listening to children read and providing them with feedback and guidance.This dissertation describes an valuation of a new approach to improving literacy in a chosen age group inwardly a primary education setting the deepen Reader Scheme, which includes the Star Reader Test. This scheme uses figurer-based resources to encourage children to read. Children take the Star Reader test, are assigned a reading age, and then are pointed to books associated with that reading age within the school library. Children read the books and then take comprehension tests, which demonstrate their level of learning and their rise. Students can access the website at Think.com to graph their progress and see their own growth. The scheme originated in America, where its success within primary age schools was demonstrated, and has since been adopted in a number of schools in the join Kingdom. There is some literature to cite the benefits of the Accelerated Reader scheme, and a lot of examples of websites, weblogs and feedback demonstrating enthusiastic approaches to it in certain schools and locations.This dissertation shows an evaluation of this scheme in wizard school setting in a socio-economically deprived area, and contains primary data on the implementation and effects of the scheme. A critical review of the literature was carried out, to explore the condition of the scheme and its place within the pedagogy and practice of primary education within this country. The discussion of the scheme and its results takes into account current surmise, and concludes with recommendations for prox research and practice. A summary judgement of the efficacy of the scheme is included. The evaluation is based on reading result scores as discussed in the findings sections, and indicates where the scheme has been effe ctive, and where findings were comprise to be other than those anticipated. The conclusions make recommendations for future research surrounding this intervention, and also explore some of the drawbacks of utilize such an approach.Literature retrospect see StrategyA critical review of the available literature was carried out, in order to set the context of the study and evaluation, and to explore the current state of theory and practice. A literature search was first carried out, in order to identify the pertinent literature which could be employ to inform the study. In order to do this, the root first carried out a thought shower in order to identify key basis to be used as search words and search word combinations, then used these to search the literature, shortlist articles by abstract, and then select full text articles for reading and review.The Critical ReviewThe changing character of education, particularly within the state-funded sector, is such that there are emergent issues around the ways in which educational goals are defined and set, and the context of education1. However, the concern of this dissertation is the effectiveness of interventions in relation to supporting reading competence in primary schools, and so the focus of the literature review is on reading competence, reading interventions, and factors which efficacy affect reading and the success of such interventions. It was decided to take a broader approach to the literature review because there were rattling few primary studies which directly assessed Accelerated Reader itself, and therefore the understanding of the current theoretical and practical context needed to be explored in terms of this type of approach to reading competence.The literature demonstrates that there are m both factors which may affect childrens reading abilities and progress2, not all of which are inevitably to do with the childs cognitive or other abilities3. Understanding these factors may be important in understanding the kinds of schemes and programmes which might support reading progress in all children4. This review does not detailally address children with Special Educational Needs provided does make some mention of them in relation to inclusive schools practices. Although published data presented by governmental and other official sources suggests that there have been meaningful cleansements in reading and literacy overall in children in primary education, there are other authors who argue that this is not the case, and the tests and measured used have been advantageously designed to reflect better on the current ruling party and its policies5. While standards may be improving, it is suggested that these improvements are not as significant as they are claimed to be6, 7, and that recording and testing processes are sufficiently biased to warrant an independent body be set up to monitor standards8.The introduction of the National Literacy Strategy may have something to do with changing responses to reading and even changing attitudes to reading, but this does not mean that the responses are overwhelmingly positive. One study suggests that the ways that children interact with reading and with books, and their attitudes towards books, are much more complex than the official guidelines and strategies might suggest9. This study was a questionnaire study with a sample of 5076 pupils in Years 4 and 6, and instal that attitudes towards reading, while generally positive, did appear to decline between the younger and older of the sampled age groups10. Of the overall sample, it seems sub-sample of 2364 of these pupils were actually in the same schools where the same questionnaire had been implemented previously, in 1998, and it was set in motion from comparison of these two incidences that consumption of reading had significantly fallen over the five eld, whilst confidence as readers had significantly sum upd over the same stop11. It may be that these ch anges may have something to do with the introduction of the National Literacy Strategy, but it is argued that other, less popular explanations are also possible for this change, including differences in cordial life and differences in childrens exposure to other media and other forms of entertainment12. What is interesting about this study is that children were enjoying reading less, but had more confidence in reading. This might reflect the outcomes based type of education that is now very much the standard with the UK context, and to this author, also reflects the fact that reading literacy is very much related to competence rather than true enjoyment of texts and of wider opportunities for reading. This might also represent a restriction of students to only reading set books or texts, perhaps, which would possibly limit enjoyment and pleasure in reading.Strategies towards improving literacy have taken many forms, but on significant change has been the use of classroom assistant s, who specifically target reading and other deficits in children in general classroom settings. Interventions to provide extra support through classroom assistants have been shown to improve standards at Key format 1 testing13. However, studies such as these on meeting national standards in literacy do not address the wider and more complex issues around reading and naming of students, and around the pedagogy of literacy direction and the limitations of having standards based education rather than supportive education that encourages children to realise their own potential. Other studies, such as champion carried out recently in Ireland, show that specific programmes, such as the Reading Recovery programme, can be efficacious in improving standards14, but more work needs to be done on evaluating what is described as the depth of such approaches, meaning how they really affect student-teacher interactions and quality of experience15,16.Earl and Maynard explore one potential issu e in relation to reading progress and proficiency, the reluctant reader, looking at what makes children behave in this way17. They examined the underlying reasons for children to develop a negative relationship with reading, and the possible resulting attitudes that they may develop towards it, and found that while the majority of children claimed to enjoy reading, in actuality, they found reading difficult, and subsequent investigation indicated that these children were not confident n their reading abilities18. The study showed that self-efficacy and a sense of autonomy were potential features of improving these responses to reading19. Earl and Maynard conclude that reluctant readers should be offered the opportunity to take office for their own reading practice and development, to allow them to learn for themselves the value of reading20. It was also discovered that it is vital that the childs parents/carers1 are involved with helping to tackle their childrens reluctance to read . enate input is crucial to a childs education if this input is provided at an early stage, then reluctance to read is more likely to be successfully track and may even offer prevention as well as cure (p 163)21.There is some research to suggest that teachers are one of the important factors affecting student outcomes in literacy22. This is not just to do with their ability to use teaching skill in literacy development, but to do with other features of teaching practice.It is teachers expectations, their enacted curriculum, their classroom talk, their relations to young people and their actual ways of inducting them into specific textual practices that most affect literacy outcomes.23This would suggest that while there may be specifics of educational practice, and pupil response or individual ability, there can be things to do with teachers themselves that are as important as paying caution to reading ability. In a study by Wilkinsonit was found that teachers used theory effectiv ely to improve the literacy outcomes of students in eight disadvantaged South Australian schools24. Teachers constructing and using theory to enhance their agency emerged as one of the key factors that made a difference to student outcomes, which can be viewed as teachers using theory to underpin their actions, and achieving positive effect25. It would seem from this study, that teacher quality is predicated on teacher knowledge, particularly theoretical knowledge26. However, this study was carried out in Australia, within a contrasting cultural, pedagogical and policy context, and as such would have to be replicated within a UK context to be fully transferable.Fisher also suggests that there are features of teachers and teaching practice which may affect reading activities and reading attainment27. He also suggests that despite a growing awareness and understand of sociocultural personality of language and classrooms, teachers and theorists are continuing to argue for more freque nt and extended opportunities for teacher-pupil exchanges and discussions about texts, and more reciprocity in teacher-child dialogue in relation to reading and exploring texts and books28. Fisher (suggests that there are studies of classroom teaching practice and activities which demonstrate the continued use of triadic dialogue, in which the teacher predominantly controls the personality and length of any interaction, and effectively closes down discussion rather than support more free exploration and debate29. This would seem to indicate that there is more to students growing reading skills and engaging with reading than simple pedagogical practices and activities, and much of the work around reading is still functional rather than philosophical. However, it may be that these findings precisely reflect the realities of classroom practice, with deliberate control over discussions because of the need to maintain good discipline and achieve the prescribed tasks and goals of the teaching at that point. Certainly a classroom which encouraged more free debate and interaction with teachers could be viewed by some traditionalists as one in which discipline would be harder to maintain. And because of the kinds of limitations on resources, some ideal ways of addressing reading skill might not be practical.A study by Downer (2007) shows that one to one, targeted reading and literacy support, provided by teaching assistants, could be efficacious in improving the reading abilities of pupils who were falling behind literacy standards30. The study showed that as little as four minutes one to one support each day could make a difference31. However, this study is about supporting children identified as having fallen significantly behind their peers and the natioanl standards for their developmental age, and might require resources that are simply not available in the majority of state schools. It also has the disadvantage of singling out the students who are demonstrati ng slower progress and development in reading, which is not necessarily a good thing because it lastlights the difference between them and their peers. Yet it does highlight the potential value of providing targeted reading support, perhaps even 1 to 1 support, in supporting childrens reading.Hatcher et al (2005) report a randomised controlled trial which evaluated the effectiveness of an intervention for reading-delayed children in Year-1 classes32. In this, a sample of 7 children from 14 different schools, children identified as having the curtest reading ability, were randomly allocated to either of the two groups, and the 20 intervention group get the programme for two times ten weeks, the second group only for the second ten weeks33. This was a small group programme, providing daily sessions of around twenty dollar bill minutes, comprising small group and individual teaching34. In this study, the children who received the programme during the first ten weeks made markedly mo re progress on outcome literacy measures, but the children who received the programme in the second 10 week period seemed to catch up with the first group35. This programme, as with that described by Downer (2007), used trained teaching assistants, and found it was effective for children who showed reading delays, although around a quarter of children did not respond to the intervention36. Again, this is an intervention which single out those with less ability and provides specialist input, but it does not really address the notion of reading as a whole within the primary classroom, and, as with the previous study, singles out the poor achievers. This is no surprise, as it really reflects the predominant ideologies of national strategies for literacy37.There are a number of ways of targeting literacy, especially in poor achievers. Bunn (2008) reports a study which compared the progress in reading and spelling of 256 children in eleven classes in nine primary schools in England, loca ted in years 3 and 4, and a partially overlapping sample of 126 children who received additional help with literacy during a single year38. In this study, teachers and teaching assistants implemented either special Literacy take for (ALS), which is a highly structured programme of small group teaching activities and materials, developed by the English National Literacy Strategy, or they used a broad range of other materials and approaches, including other published intervention programmes, reading scheme-based, computer-based and individually designed interventions, alone or in combination with ALS39. A intensiveness of this study is that the researchers explored the influence of a broad range of contextual factors, especially whether childrens qualities, school factors such as socio-economic status and class size, and delivery differences made any marked differences to the results of the different interventions in relation to reading ability40. The design of the study was a natu ralistic quasi-experimental design, and the author found ALS was marginally more effective than other interventions in the majority of the classes studies, however, the authors also found limitations in their ability to catch up to their peers, and found little difference in attainment in relation to individual factors41.another(prenominal) study demonstrates a targeted, home-based intervention that can be good at supporting literacy in children identified as being at risk of developing reading problems42. This was the Literacy Early Action Project, which is described as a home-visiting scheme for these children, carried out by teaching assistants, which involved parents and grandparents43. The study of this intervention identified five key factors which supported the childs progress the flexibility in the teaching assistants approach that enabled extended family members to become sedulous in literacy support the teaching assistants sensitivity to family culture the playful approac h to learning adopted by the teaching assistant putting the child at the centre of the intervention and the existence of a school culture that strongly promoted involvement for parents44. What this shows is that not only do certain children need more support than is available in current school settings, but that the individual needs and attributes of the child are important in achieving reading standards. The nature of the intervention, therefore, must be something that would be responsive and sensitive to individual children.Most literacy support programmes, particularly those for under-achievers, are based on phoneme-oriented strategies45. Authors of one study suggest that training in phoneme awareness and letter-sound knowledge is a fundamental part of effective interventions for poor reading in the context of reading books in particular, and evaluate the UK Early Literacy Support (ELS) programme46. Again, this is a study on children who were already identified as poor readers, a nd found that this programme offered a cost effective method of boosting 6-year-old childrens reading to an medium level47. However, it does not address the idea of improving attitudes towards reading, rather, it focused on functional reading skill. A similar study explored why students did not respond well to phoneme-based reading support, and showed that other factors, such as letter knowledge and vocabulary were important in attaining reading competence48. This study also fails to address issues in the nature of the reading materials that may affect childrens responses to reading activities.Technological advances and the rapid development of information and communications technologies within the leisure as well as the educational sector an have effects on and provide insight into different ways of supporting reading skill development for children. Wood reports a small scale study of beginning readers using a form of talking books software, compared to adult teaching support, usi ng the same books in paper versions49. The authors found that there were no significant differences between the two groups in their phonological awareness attainment, with both groups showing equivalent gains from pre- to post-test. Use of specific features of the software was associated with gains in rhyme detection ability and with changes in the childrens reading strategies50. While this is a small study with a limited sample, and limited transferability, it does show that children might interact slightly differently with ICT-based reading interventions, perhaps due to differences in autonomy and engagement with reading materials, although more research is definitely needed into what features of the ICT-based reading activities are most effective.Another study describes the evaluation of a parent delivered, computer based beginning reading program51. Statistically significant treatment effects were found for Kindergarten students in the intervention group on letter-sound fluency, oral reading fluency, non-word decoding, and phonemic awareness skills. Grade 1 students in the intervention group demonstrated significant improvement over time on letter-sound fluency, letter-name knowledge, non-word decoding and oral reading fluency however, these improvements were not significantly greater than those for the Grade 1 comparison group52. This study was implemented in pupils across the ability range, but the authors also concluded that it might be a very useful intervention for students more at risk of poor achievement in reading and literacy53. It is interesting that this computer-based intervention was particularly targeted at reception and year one age students, and this author would raise the question of how well different reading programmes meet the needs of different ages. Also, it would have been good to have more detail about the computer based programme and its components. This may be a feature of these kinds of studies, that they do not really look at wh at it is about the programme that attracts students or engages them.Another study outlines the use of computer software to identify reading problems and propose ways of addressing these. This is in the form of an adaptive assessment named the Interactive Computerised Assessment organization (InCAS), and can be used with children of a wide age range and differing levels of ability, in order to identify specific reading problems54. There are different potential formats of feedback to teachers, but overall the feedback provided also indicates how children need to improve55. Such programmes may be very useful but it is difficult to see how they can improve on good teacher-student interaction, and whether or not they would help to reduce the major challenges of managing the teaching work load to improve literacy. While it is unsurprising that the programme is aimed at addressing specific reading problems, it also underlines the ongoing theoretical and pedagogical orientation towards eli minating problems rather than enhancing students reading experience, engagement and enjoyment. However, there is research which shows that reading can be raise by ICT-type reading tools and activities56.Reading is important for many reasons, not just for the childs ability to carry out the increasingly difficult tasks which oblige with their progress through school57. Wallace (2008) shows how literacy an identity are strongly linked within the minds and behaviours of children, and how reading can help them to build links and connections between the childrens diverse personal histories and the texts and practices validated by school58. Supporting the development of reading literacy, and also engagement with reading as an activity in itself, may be a more important feature of primary schooling than is suggested by government guidance59 and by teaching practice and pedagogy. It may, perhaps, be more than a functional skill.There are also some differences found within primary educatio n between the genders60,61, 62, and between reading fiction and non fiction independently63. Boys tend to be of lower reading ability than girls, 64, 65, and although they may read marginally more non-fiction than fiction, they appear to do this less carefully and with less skill66. A mixed methods, but primarily ethnographic study in the North of England found that there were two different discourses around reading, both of which were genderedTwo main differently gendered discourses about reading were encountered. The one discourse, dominant in the working class classroom, was strongly gendered and afforded reading low status. The other discourse encountered in the middle class classroom was gender-inclusive and reading carried high status. It is argued that the interaction between social class and gender is important in understanding childrens discourse about reading.67This seems to show that reading ability is based upon a much more complex interaction of factors than simply the child interacting with the set activities, and being defined as a reading age regardless of other features of their life, personality and attitudes. The study also demonstrates the ways in which class and social context affect perceptions of reading and reinforce gender differences in literacy and attainment at this early educational level. How much any reading intervention or teaching approach to redress this balance is debateable.Other research appears to demonstrate that the idea of encouraging reading for pleasure, rather than for necessity68, is not really a part of current pedagogy and classroom practice69, 70. In a study of secondary schools in the south of England, it was found that because of a lack of time and absence of demand for wider reading in the English curriculum, teachers expressed ambivalence about encouraging and assessing wider reading, and teachers with less experience expressed uncertainty about how to introduce and encourage this71. Interestingly, it was al so found that where teachers did initiate wider reading, this was sometimes against departmental practice, a semi-illicit addition to their workload and could thus be seen almost as a form of bootlegging 72. This study places emphasis on the need for school children to learn to read widely rather than just because they have to, but also shows that the current approach to reading and literacy is prohibitive rather than encouraging73. It would seem that current pedagogical and classroom cultures are limiting the opportunities for children to develop as individuals, in their own ways, and to engage in individual ways with reading74, making their own choices75. The Accelerated Reader programme appears to increase self-efficacy and motivation in primary students76, but the evidence for this is limited and is based on American schools, which have a different culture to the UK. However, the interactive, ICT based nature of the programme makes it attractive to the current primary education context, particularly in enhancing cross-curricular knowledge development.The EvaluationThe Accelerated Reader Scheme was implemented in triplet classes, years 3, 4 and 5 in a primary school in an urban, deprived area. The aim was to improve reading scores, using the scheme to support students to engage more with their own reading activities and progress. It is well known that attainment levels suffer in schools with a high proportion of children who are subject to socio-economic deprivation77. The Accelerated Reader Programme has been implemented with some success in a range of schools in the