Effects of voluntary in-school free reading programs on elementary students

¶ … grain of sand, hold infinity in an hour, - lines I read in a book of poetry, lines that play at the back of my mind as I begin to lay the outlines if this thesis for a Master's degree.

I see the wonder in a child's eyes as he imagines a world unfolding in a grain of sand as I read a story to him; an hour reading in a class of children translates into infinity as the children in that class become readers themselves, changing the hours into infinity as they develop the habit of infinite reading.

Voluntary in-school free reading program - elementary level" is the subject of this thesis proposal, and the objective is to prove that voluntary in-school free reading programs result in positive effects on elementary students' attitudes toward reading.

Statement of the Problem

General Objective

To be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a voluntary in-school free reading program (Elementary level)

Specific Objectives to establish the parameters of a voluntary in-school free reading program to explore how an in-school free reading program's structure, methodology, strategies and resources influence the children's attitudes toward reading to get an insight into how the development of children's love for reading is directly related to reading fluency and comprehension to explore the possibility of conducting a formal voluntary in-school free reading program at the elementary school level to find out what studies have been performed by experts to measure results of students attitudes where in-school free reading programs have been implemented.

Conceptual Framework

One of the most rewarding programs for children is what has been labeled voluntary In-house Free Reading Programs. Rewarding because efforts to open up a wonderful world of words for children result in untold positive effects on children's reading attitudes. One acquires self-fulfillment in hearing children first form orally words out of a set of letters from a book or reading material. The happiness mirrored on the faces of children as they grow from words to phrases to sentences to paragraphs to whole stories or from nursery rhymes to complete poems is happiness enough.

Reading as an integral part of the child's development impacts on his personal and social development as well as on his mental growth. The child-development theory of reading has been presented in varied ways by Burton, Olson, and Russell. [Strang, McCullough and Traxler, New York, McGRaw Hill, p. 9].

This theory shows how various aspects of the child's development: his physical growth, language development, general mental development and social development are related to and contribute to his development in reading. It in turn induces growth in the other areas. These relationships may be explained schematically as follows:

Skills for advanced learning

Language Happiness, enjoyment

Child Physical Reading development Mental development Understanding himself,

Social others, his world

Social and emotional adjustment

Strang, et.al., p. 9)

Olson says that "reading is a part of a more or less predetermined pattern of growth which will emerge under favorable conditions." A condition may occur in the child's development during which there is a sudden temporary spurt of improvement after reading lessons and activities have been administered but after which he reverts to his old inability to read functionally and effectively. When certain factors at home or in school interfering with the child's development are removed and he is provided with instruction, practice and help neglected in his younger years, it is possible that permanent growth in line with his true developmental trend may ensue.

Strang, et. al pp. 9-10).

Consider the pyramid of growth shown below. The pyramid reinforces the concept of the interrelatedness of a child's reading development and his physical, mental, emotional and behavioral growth. (Strang, et. al p. 143)

Inferences.

Critical thinking.

Understanding of relationships.

Evaluation of materials.

Skill in drawing conclusions.

Permanent interest in reading.

Broadened appreciation of good literature.

Skill in locating and using books and reference materials.

Ability to do purposeful oral reading.

Greater rate and skill in silent reading to serve varied purposes.

Ability to select, evaluate, and organized study type materials.

Growth in enjoyment of printed materials.

Introduction to the work-type skills.

Growing independence in work recognition.

Ability to read silently more rapidly than orally.

Growth in ability to read orally with fluency and ease.

Desire to read good literature for recreatory purposes.

Beginning recognition of the printed symbols.

Attachment of meaning to printed sentences.

Purposeful reading to satisfy actual group and individual needs.

Keen interest in books and strong desire to read.

Development of visual and auditory discrimination, speech, motor control, language

Facility, organization of ideas, left-to-right progression, and listening.

Adjustment to the school situation. Health and happy living. Wide, varied, purposeful experiences, directed toward building vocabulary. Ability to work and play in groups.

Source: Curriculum Bulletin No. 12, State Department of Education, Augusta, Maine).

Definition of Terms

Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) as conceptualized by Krashen heavily targets users of English as a second language in the hope that the program will result in higher student achievement. Efforts are directed towards improved teaching methods and strategies. FVR is the result of the collaborative effort of highly successful teachers, coaches and mentors who believed that the single most important factor associated with reading achievement is independent reading. Writing ability and style, spelling and grammar improve with increased free voluntary reading. Studies point to the fact that students who have joined FVR programs did as well, if not better on comprehension tests as students who were given the traditional, skill-based reading lessons.

In the FVR program, the amount of leisure reading and reading achievement are correlated. Program endorses strongly believe that reading promotes reading - the more the children read the more their vocabulary grows, the more words they read, the more words they can read, and the more reading they can do. Krashen 1993, opines that listening to stories read aloud promotes independent reading. In the same manner, light reading (comics, romance books) positively correlates with achievement. Reading activities such as teacher read-aloud, freedom of choice of reading materials and owning books were motivational.

FVR is a way to achieve advanced second language proficiency. Reading books from one series, or of one type not only makes the reader stay with material he finds interesting but also allows the reader to take advantage of background information to make tests more comprehensible (Cleo and Krashen, 1994).

Sustained Silent Literacy (SSL) is about a fifteen to twenty minute span of time during language arts where the students participate in reading, writing, listening, communicating, and thinking activities.

Research shows that free reading and literacy program promotes the development of writing and of reading comprehension.

Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) as differentiated from SSL is a system in which students read for a limited (10-15) minutes on self-selected material. No changing of reading materials is allowed during this time. Teacher acts as a model doing voluntary reading at the same time. No reports nor records are required.

On the other hand, Modified Silent Sustained Reading allows students to self-select their reading material and read for a designated time period each day. (Routman 1991). When the child has finished the book, the student has a peer conference (with specific questions) and completes a project to share with the class. The teacher also confers with the student. The student uses a WEB recording sheet to log the process.

Reading Workshop is a very structured approach (Artwell, 1987, Reif, 1992) to free voluntary reading based on three principles: time, ownership and response. Students are given time everyday for silent, independent reading. Unlike USSR, it is not limited to 10-15 minute block of time. Reading workshop sets a minimum of 30 minutes. Students may choose titles. In this way students make a connection between reading and writing through the use of dialogue journals (Artwell, 1987, Reif, 1992).

Review of Related Literature

Voluntary in-school free reading programs" is anoffshoot of a host of reading programs, born of a need to address the needs of students who cannot read efficiently and functionally. Why can't they read efficiently? There are a host of reasons too - maybe the problem is physical or medical-based; vision is weak, listening skills are poor. Maybe the child is emotionally or psychologically afflicted - he/she thinks reading is only for the intelligent and he/she is mentally disadvantaged. It could be culture-or language-based Mexicans, Cubans, Negros have language difficulties. There is a corresponding reason behind a reading difficulty, this has to be addressed before a child can learn to read.

Different schools and communities have tried different reading programs - some subsidized by the school or community, some by the federal government. Out of the gaggle of programs has emerged what is termed voluntary in-school free reading programs. These are voluntary: students comet to the classrooms without coercion, only encouragement. These are free lessons are unstructured - only teaching strategies are. These are in-school. Programs belong to a particular school, catering to the specific needs of a particular studentry. There is no rhyme or rhythm, only a reason for being in the voluntary free in-school reading program.

Way back in the 60s and 70s and even before those decades, teachers, educators, supervisors and parents had opted for individualized reading instruction which was not a complete reading program per se. The program serves as a valuable part of a well-balanced reading program. It is never used exclusively for it may cause the neglect of systematic instruction in reading skills and the pupil may commit errors. The teacher or mentor may conduct lessons two days a week on individualized reading, others may alternate two-week blocks of individualized reading with basal experience. Variations in the method may be used if and when the pupil has learned to read independently.

While some studies have shown superior results of individualized instruction, others have failed to show superiority in the reading achievement. (Strang, et. al. p. 52).

Comments made by participants in individualized instruction are:

Now I can read as fast as I can without waiting for the slow readers."

Now I can read as many science books as I like."

Now nobody will laugh if I may mistakes when I read aloud."

Students also show that they're reading a larger number of books.

Individualized instruction may include individual and group discussion in reading skills and discussion of the books read. Basal programs include features of individualized reading.

A program that includes both systematic instruction and individualized reading promotes the best development of reading skills and also promotes interest in and enjoyment of reading and many other values (Strang, et. al p. 53).

The Ungraded Primary Unit

This device helps in preventing problems of nonpromotion. Parents who resent a child's failure to achieve sometimes act to block individualized instruction. Giving too much pressure on a child to learn may sometimes cause him tension, aggravate nervousness, increase his sense of failure which make him resort to truancy or self-defeating ways in an attempt to cope with the situation.

In the ungraded primary unit the child can progress through the first three years of school at his own best rate as he remains unperturbed by a schoolmate skipping a grade or his embarrassment at being held back at the end of the schoolyear. If at the end of another schoolyear or more, he still does not read at his expected level, then he is transferred to a special class where he receives special instruction in reading and learns the minimum grade content. If his reading improves sufficiently, he is promoted to the next grade level, if not, he stays in the same grade level for another year.

The ungraded system has been conducted for the intermediate grades and even for high school level students. It allows and encourages the pupil to proceed at his own rate of growth. It is assumed that a curriculum and instructional methods are based on diagnoses and employ mentors who have learned how to provide for individual differences (Strang, et. al. p. 58).

Special Services

To solve prolonged or repeated failure, some elementary schools offer special services. The Chicago schools have employed "adjustment teachers" who work with backward and maladjusted children. (Strang, et.al., ibid).

Reading Programs in School Systems

Many school systems have adopted citywide campaigns to solve the reading problem.

The St. Louis Reading Program

The Reading Program of the St. Louis Public Schools as described by Dr. William Kottmeyer and published in the journal "Evaluation Handbook for Elementary Schools" and in the Teacher's Guide for Remedial Reading has four unique and notable features:

Analysis of Levels of Reading. Each child has a thorough analysis that covers physical and sensory factors and mental functioning, as well as interpretive skills and word analysis skils. Reading tests and daily observations of teachers appraise the level of performance in these skills.

The primary Classification Plan. All primary children attend ungraded primary schools. If, in the third year, the children have not achieved the top level of achievement for the primary grades, they are placed in groups of twenty with well-qualified teachers, where, under good conditions, they make a final effort to build basic reading skills before they have to deal with middle-grade textbooks. Over the past several years, several thousands of pupils have avoided trouble and frustration because of these "Rooms of Twenty."

The Reading Clinics. At first these clinics offered only diagnostic and remedial service, they have now become language-arts centers, each under the direction of a language-arts consultant. Every year, promising public school teachers join the small permanent clinic staff; here they become familiar with diagnostic and remedial procedures. The clinics therefore serve as in-service education centers.

Evaluation of the Language Arts Program. The program has a detailed guide for evaluating a language arts program which sets forth criteria by which the teacher may rate his performance in teaching reading, spelling and other language activities. The language arts consultants in the reading clinics serve as visiting committees for the evaluation of a given school's language-arts program. The results in the language-arts achievement, as shown by the standardized tests, have been particularly gratifying (Kottmeyer, p. 66).

The Philadelphia Reading Program

In the Philadelphia schools, the concept of reading growth as a developmental process requiring instruction from first grade school through college has gained increasing importance. Data are from two unpublished doctoral dissertations written by Helen Carey and Dorothy Withrow in Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, 1955.

The reading program in the elementary schools began as a reading adjustment program many years ago. The reading adjustment teacher provides remedial instruction for those retarded readers who show the greatest potential for improvement.

Each junior high school provides instruction in developmental as well as in remedial reading. Developmental teaching is done by the English faculty under the leadership of the special reading teacher. A curriculum guide and a weekly television program in the past which provided demonstration teaching gave further in-service instruction.

The reading program in the junior high schools began with the establishment of remedial groups of not more than fifteen pupils whose achievement in reading seemed to be below mental potentialities.

To teach these classes one or two reading teachers were added to the regular staff in each school; this lightened the load of other teachers. To stigma was attached to attendance in these classes. In fact, there was a waiting list. These small reading classes served as a laboratory in which methods and materials can be developed and tested; the experience gained is passed on to teachers in the regular classes.

As the program developed the reading teachers spent more and more of their time helping the teachers of regular classes to improve the reading instruction in all subjects. In line with the developmental concept of reading, several senior high schools have introduced additional courses in advanced reading and study skills for college preparatory students and courses in developmental reading for all students. At least three senior high schools have organized in-service education programs involving all members of the professional staff, including counselors, librarians, and department heads. One principal initiated a program in which full responsibility for the teaching of reading is carried by the subject teachers with the assistance of the special reading teacher, who now has the role of consultant.

A reading clinic serving the entire city was opened to provide diagnostic study of children with severe reading disabilities. Its three-fold purposes is 1) to help the pupil with a severe learning problem, 2) to provide in-service education for teachers and counselors, and 3) to conduct research in the field of reading disability.

This description of an evolving reading program by Carey and Withrow (pp. 66-67) illustrates three important trends in reading education: continuity in reading instruction from kindergarten to college, integration of reading instruction with the teaching of every subject, and development of a comprehensive, whole school program to serve the needs of students representing a wide range of reading potential and proficiency. This program also concedes the importance of providing for the continuous growth of teachers, administrators, counselors, librarians, and the reading specialist themselves. (Carey and Withrow, 1955).

Methodology

Relying heavily on the paper, "Sustained Free Reading Program at St. Mary's College, Los Angeles, authored by Teresa Miller, an English High School teacher, this researcher will attempt to install a voluntary in-school free reading program for grade pupils. Using the same techniques and strategies that Ms. Miller, used this researcher strongly believes that the program will create positive changes in the reading habits, attitudes, and perspectives of his Grade V pupils.

A process of selection will be used so that only those students who are reading below their grade and mental levels and who manifest a potential for improvement will join the program.

Survey tests will be used. This means one whole class of pupils will undergo the test to establish their reading level, and show where aspects of the program used, help.

One test which has been used by teachers of English and reading specialist is the Durrell-Analyses of Reading Difficulty. It was conceptualized by Donald D. Durrell, a professor of Education and Director of Educational Clinic at Boston University.

The Manual of Directions of the Durrell Analysis of Reading. Difficulty describes its nature and purpose. It has a series of tests and situations during which the examiner may observe in detail different aspects of a child's reading. Covered is a range of reading ability from the non-reader to sixth-grade ability.

The Analysis aims to discover weaknesses and faulty habits in reading which may be corrected in a remedial or improvement reading program. The Analysis uses a check list for recording observations of difficulties. While norms are provided for many of the tests, a record of the difficulties the child displays is more significant than the level of attainment. The items on the check lists are those of highest frequency and significance in remedial work. Check lists and test situations are provided for three levels of reading:

Non-reader or preprimer level

Primary grade reading level

Intermediate grade reading level

Content of the Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty

The Analysis has the following parts:

Oral Reading Tests. Consists of eight paragraphs with comprehensive questions. It has check lists for observation of phrase reading, voice, enunciation and expression; general reading habits. Norms for oral reading level are provided.

Silent Reading Tests. Eight paragraphs of equal difficulty to the oral reading paragraphs. Provision for recording unaided and aided oral recall; check lists for mechanics of silent reading, characteristics of recall, comparison with oral reading. Questions for checking imagery. Norms for silent reading level.

Listening Comprehension Tests. Seven paragraphs, one for each grade level, with comprehension questions.

Supplementary Paragraphs

Eight paragraphs, equal in difficulty to the oral and silent reading paragraphs. May be used for supplementary testing, retesting, written recall, or for checking speed of handwriting from copy.

Word Recognition and Word Analysis. Word cards and a tachistoscope. One list for Grade I, another for Grades 2 to 6. Separate norms and check list for recognition and analysis. Phonics inventory for primary grades.

Visual Memory of Word Forms. Identification tests for primary grades. Norms for both tests.

Auditory Analysis of Word Elements. Identification tests for primary grades, writing from oral presentation for intermediate grades. Norms for both tests.

Spelling and Handwriting. Two spelling lists, one for primary and one for intermediate grades. Check lists and norms. Norms for speed of handwriting from copy. Check list of faults.

Suggestions for Supplementary Tests and Observations

Testing suitability of textbook, for instruction; suggestions for evaluating study abilities; methods of detailed analysis of word abilities and spelling; observing reading interest and effort.

Profile Chart. On a student's logbook, page 1 should be used for charting test results.

Check list of Instructional Needs. On the individual log or record book, page 2 may be dedicated to summarizing the results of the various tests.

General History Form. Page 3 may be devoted to school record, medical record, psychological factors and home history, remedial plans.

All these data are from the Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty Manual of Directions. The reading specialist may add or subtract details to fit the specific needs of each student with special reading difficulties. The researcher/writer will have to play everything by ear of course, but with assiduousness, perspicacity and love for his work.