| |
 |
Laboratory
of Comparative
Human Cognition
University of California, San Diego
Juanita M. Cole, Ph.D.
|
|
The following
is summary of an 8-week experimental research study conducted
in the spring 2003 semester by Juanita M. Cole, Ph.D., Postdoctoral
Fellow, in the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition
at the University of California, San Diego.
Numerous
intervention strategies to improve literacy outcomes for
children struggling to read have been well documented in
the research literature. However, few interventions take
into consideration important issues such as students' interests,
culture, and everyday practices. Additionally, advances in
computer technology afford the delivery of reading instruction
to a diverse population of students, yet research documenting
its effectiveness is limited. Thus, the purpose of this study
was to investigate the effects of a web-based program, Reading
Upgrade, and a traditional intervention program on the reading
outcomes of children who demonstrated difficulty acquiring
basic literacy skills.
Twenty-five
third grade children enrolled in a public-elementary school's
reading enrichment program were randomly selected to participate
in this 8-week study. Their teachers identified students
as "struggling readers" based on skill assessments and classroom
observations. Children were randomly assigned to one of two
types of reading intervention, traditional or Reading Upgrade.
Traditional
Reading Intervention
Extended Day Reading Enrichment is a supplemental program offered
by the school in this study and it provides small group remedial
instruction with a reading resource teacher. Each student spends
approximately 30-90 minutes a day with the reading enrichment teacher
who works with small groups of 5-6 students at a time or larger
depending on skill level. Children who qualify for reading enrichment
have either scored below a certain level on standardized achievement/reading
tests, are below grade level in reading or have been referred by
the classroom teacher.
Web-Based Reading Intervention:
READING UPGRADE
The new
instructional method under study is the web-based reading
intervention program, Reading Upgrade. The 50 lessons of
this program teach phonics, phonemic awareness, word decoding,
vocabulary, and comprehension. Each lesson consists of a
teaching portion with instructional songs and digitalized
videos, followed by a practice activity consisting of an
interactive game.
The Reading
Upgrade group of students received intervention for 1-hour
a day, twice a week, while students in the traditional intervention
program met for 1-hour a day, three times a week. At the
close of the 8-week period, all participants in both groups
were administered pre-post test measures on reading performance
and motivation. Also observation field notes were written
on students participating in the Reading Upgrade group after
each intervention session.
Results
Reading Performance
- Reading
Upgrade students performed significantly better than the
traditional intervention program students.
- The
gain achieved for Reading Upgrade students was equivalent
to one-grade level improvement in reading.
- Observations
of Reading Upgrade students revealed high student engagement,
positive teacher perception of the intervention, and a
culturally relevant learning context.
Reading Motivation
- Non-struggling
readers were invited by books and motivated to read by
intrinsic factors such as book content, one's ability to
read well, and reading satisfaction.
- Struggling
readers were inhibited by books and motivated to read by
extrinsic factors such as recognition from parents or teachers,
rewards and incentives.
Improvements
from Reading Upgrade prove to illustrate a more effective
reading intervention. Moreover, Reading Upgrade appears to
be a realistic intervention approach because it is culturally
responsive and web-based which affords wide classroom deployment.
Evidence from this study further confirms the relationship
between reading performance and motivation. Through stimulating
video, games, rewards and certificate, the Reading Upgrade
program provides the extrinsic motivation essential to engaging
a child who is primarily insecure and discouraged by reading.
While
the findings are very compelling, further evaluation on Reading
Upgrade is needed to measure mastery of reading skills, efficacy
of other reading skills such as comprehension, and carry-over
effects in classroom. Therefore the following recommendations
are made:
- An
in-depth evaluation with a larger sample
- Additional
reading assessments covering all content areas
- Computer
tracking of performance within the Reading Upgrade program
There is
certainly enough empirical evidence from this study to encourage
teachers and schools who want to engage children who are
struggling to read, to use Reading Upgrade as an intervention
strategy.
|