Developing and Implementing a Plan To Improve the Reading

DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 359 493

CS 011 348

AUTHOR

Christmas, Jack

TITLE

Developing and Implementing a Plan To Improve the

Reading Achievement of Second Grade Students at

Woodbine Elementary School.

PUB DATE

Feb 93

NOTE

164p.; Ed.D. Major Applied Research Project,

Nova

University.

PUB TYPE

Dissertations/Theses

Undetermined (040)

EDRS PRICE

MF01/PC07 Plus Postage.

DESCRIPTORS

Elementary School Students; Grade 2; Parent

Participation; Primary Education; Program

Effectiveness; Program Implementation; Reading

Achievement; *Reading Aloud to Others; *Reading

Comprehension; *Reading Improvement; Rural Schools;

Socioeconomic Status; Vocabulary Development

IDENTIFIERS

Camden County School District GA

ABSTRACT

A program was designed to improve the reading

achievement of second grade students in

a rural Georgia school. An

analysis of the problem indicated that:

a higher percentage of second

grade students from low socioeconomic conditions

scored lower on

standardized reading achievement tests

than other second grade

students; students who scored lower owned fewer

books than those who

scored higher; and those who scored lower did

less recreational

reading than those who scored higher.

Interventions included a

program of daily oral reading in the classrooms by teachers

and

recruiting parents to enroll their children in

the Woodbine

(Elementary School) Read Aloud Club.

Parents who enrolled their

children in the club agreed to read

aloud to their children on a

daily basis and turn in simple reading

logs to the teachers each

month. As a reward for their parents' read

aloud efforts, the

children received free storybooks of their

choice each month. The

objectives were to improve the students'

reading comprehension, word

reading, and auditory vocabulary using

the Stanford Diagnostic

Reading Test to measure any changes in reading

ability. Test results

indicated a 38.5% increase in auditory

vocabulary, a 46.4% increase

in reading comprehension, and

a 43.6% increase in word reading for

the approximately 70 subjects. (Twenty-seven

tables of data are

included; 53 references, 2 appendixes

of data, a list of educational

objectives, the enrollment form,

a reading log, 2 sample newsletters,

2 newspaper articles, and

a site visitation team report are

attached.) (Author/RS)

***********************************************************************

Reproductions supplied by EDRS

are the best that can be made

from the original document.

***********************************************************************

CYZ

Developing and Implementing a Plan to Improve the

Reading Achievement of Second Grade Students at

Woodbine Elementary School

CvZ

;Ts4

Jack Christmas

Principal

Woodbine Elementary School

Camden County Schools

Woodbine, Georgia

A Major Applied Research Project Report

submitted in

partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Doctor of Education

National Ed.D. Program for Educational Leaders

Nova University

$ DEPARTMENT

OF EDUCATION

Otke

of Educatfonat

Research and

Improvement

EOUCATIONAL

RESOURCES

INFORMATION

CENTER (ERIC)

Tem document

has been

reproduced as

recewed from

the perSOn

Or 0,ganfratIOn

ongfnattng

C MfnOf changes

nave b

,e0roductton

qualftY

een made tO

fmCuOve

Po.nts of

',few°, oruntOnS

slated m rola

ocu-

ment do not

neceSsardy represent

OtttC..1

OERI Poston

or ootfcy

February 1961

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

*PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS

MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

-%\c`(\-

TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."

Committee Signature Page

Major Applied Research Project (MARP)

Participant:

Jack Christmas

Cluster and Number:

Jacksonville V

As Major Applied Research Project Committee Chair,

affirm that

this report meets the expectations of thA National Ed.D. Program for

Educational Leaders as a representation of applied-field research

resulting in educational improvement.

Ken e

ush, Com ittee Chair

4' nature

Ace/

Date

As Major Applied Research Project Committee Reader,

I affirm that

this report meets the expectations of the National Ed.D. Program for

Educational Leaders af; a representation of applied-field research

resulting

in educational improvement.

Joan Mignerey, Committee Reader

As Major Applied Research Project University Representative,

affirm that this report meets the expectations of the National Ed.D.

Program for Educational Leaders as a representation of applied-field

research resulting in educational improvement.

Thrisha G. Shiver, Univer

y Representative

Signature

Date

Permission Statement

As a participant in the National Ed.D. Program for Educational

Leaders,

I do give permission to Nova University to distribute copies

of the Major Applied Research Project report on request from

interested individuals.

is my understanding that Nova University

will not charge for this dissemination except to cover the costs of

microfiche reproduction, handling, and mailing of materials.

Participant signature

3/7 43

date

As editor of the Camden County Tribune, I do give permission to Nova

University to distribute copies of news articles printed in the

Camden County Tribune that are related to this Major Applied

Research Project.

It is my understanding that the news articles

from the Camden County Tribune will be used only for educational

purposes, and Nova University will not charge for the dissemination

except to cover the costs of microfiche reproduction, handling, and

mailing of materials.

347- q3

Signature

date

As editor of the Southeast Georgian, I do give permission to Nova

University to distribute copies of news articles printed in the

Southeast Georgian that are related to this Major Applied Research

Project.

It is my understanding that the news articles from the

Southeast Georgian will be used only for educational purposes, and

Nova University will not charge for the dissemination except to

cover the costs of microfiche reproduction, handling, and mailing of

mataria s.

7Lizr-/ (

iii

date

Abstract

Developing and Implementing a Plan to Improve the

Reading Achievement of Second Grade Students at Woodbine

Elementary School

This report describes a program designed to improve the reading

achievement of second grade students in a rural Georgia school.

analysis of the problem indicated that a higher percentage of second

grade students from iow socioeconomic conditions scored lower

standardized reading achievement tests than other second grade

students in the school. One of the probable causes for low reading

achievement was related to the number of books students owned.

Students who scored low on reading achievement tests owned fewer

books than students who scored higher.

Another probable cause was

related to the amount of recreational reading done by students.

Those students who scored low on reading achievement tests did

less recreational reading than those students who scored higher.

The search of the literature revealed that involving parents in

a read

aloud program with their children was one of the best

ways to

improve reading achievement.

Interventions included a program of

daily oral reading in the classrooms by the teachers and recruiting

parents to enroll their children in the Woodbine Read Aloud Club.

Parents who enrolled their children in the Woodbine Read Aloud Club

agreed to read aloud to their children on a daily basis and to turn in

simple reading logs to the teachers each month.

As a reward for

their parents' read aloud efforts, the children received free

storybooks of their choice from the principal each month.

The objectives were to improve the students' reading

comprehension, word reading, and auditory vocabulary using the

Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test to measure any changes in reading

ability.

Tests results indicated a 38.5% increase in auditory

vocabulary, a 46.4% increase in reading comprehension and a 43.6%

increase in word reading for the subjects in the study.

These

results were supportive of the project's effectiveness.

Table of Contents

Page

Committee Signature Page

i i

Permission Statement

i i i

Abstract

i v

List of Tables

v i i

Chapter

Problem and Problem Background

Statement and Primary Evidence of the Problem

Overview of the Problem Setting

Description of Surrounding Community

Problem Definition and Evidence

Problem Background

Evidence of Problem Discrepancy

Probable Causes of Problem

3 2

Problem Situation and Context

4 3

Written Policies, Procedures, and Commentaries

4 3

Norms for Behavior, Values, Traditions

4 7

Formal and Informal Influences of Individuals and Groups.

External Circumstances

5 0

Problem Conceptualization, Outcomes and the Solution

Strategy

5 3

Bibliographic Research and Review of Literature

5 3

Data Gathered Through Consulting With Others

7 5

Practicum Outcomes

7 7

Proposal Solution Components

7 9

Action Plan and Chronology

8 6

Original Action Plan

8 6

Chronology of Implerrizntation Activities

8 7

6. Results

100

Overview of Problem and Setting

100

Results of Implementation

100

Summary of Accomplishments

109

Discussion

116

Discussion

120

Recommendations

120

Implications

121

Dissemination

122

References

125

Appendices

130

Appendix

Classroom Teachers by Grade and Year

131

Second Grade QCC Objectives in Language Arts

133

Changes in Teacher Assignments

137

WRAC Enrollment Form

138

WRAC Reading Log

139

WRAC Newsletter

140

Newspaper Articles

14 2

School Bell Award Newspaper Article

146

WRAC Site Visitation Team Report

147

List of Tables

Table

Page

Camden County Population

Population of the Incorporated and Unincorporated

Areas of Camden County

School System Attendance

Student Enrollment for Camden County Schools

Second Grade Reading Percentile Scores 1988-1990

Second Grade P.dading ITBS Scores Camden County Schools

.1 1

Second Grade Students Scoring Below the 50th and 25th

Percentiles on the ITBS

Students on the Free or Reduced Lunch Program

Retained Students

10.

Classroom Teachers by Grade and Year

11.

Days Absent for Classroom Teachers

12.

Teacher Experience and Certification

13.

Photocopying 1989-1990

14.

Second Grade ITBS Scores for Targeted Groups

15.

Age in Months of Second Grade Students Entering

Kindergarten

16.

Second Grade Students Who Were Retained

17.

Lunch Status of Second Grade Students

vii

18.

Average Number of Days Absent for Second

Grade Students

19.

ITBS Reading Analysis for Second Grade Students

20.

Books Read by Second Grade Students

21.

Books Owned by Students

22.

SDRT - May 1991

23.

SORT Auditory Vocabuiary for 2nd Grade Students

102

24.

SDRT Reading Comprehension for 2nd Grade Students

103

25.

SDRT Word Reading for 2nd Grade Students

10 5

26.

1991-1992 Home Read Aloud Percentages

106

27.

1992-1993 Home Read Aloud Percentages

108

viii

Chapter 1

Problem and Problem Background

Statement and Primary Evidence QI thl Problem

Second grade students who attended Woodbine Elementary School

during 1988, 1989, and 1990, did not achieve average percentile

ranks on the reading portion of the Iowa Tests of Basis Skills that

were above the Georgia statewide average percentile ranks in

reading nor above the average percentile ranks for reading for other

elementary schools in Camden County.

Overview of tbg Problem Setting

Woodbine Elementary School is located in the City of Woodbine,

which is in the southeast coastal area of Georgia. Woodbine is 20

miles south of Brunswick, Georgia, and approximately 50 miles north

of Jacksonville, Florida.

Students attending Woodbine Elementary

School come from the northern half of Camden County.

Woodbine Elementary School was the subject of the study. The

school had a population of 440 students in grades K-5 and 65 faculty

and staff members.

The faculty and staff consisted of a principal,

an assistant principal, a media specialist, a school counselor (1/2

time), four kindergarten teachers, four first grade teachers, three

second grade teachers, three third grade teachers, three fourth grade

teachers, three fifth grade teachers, two Chapter 1 teachers,

special education teacher, a music teacher, a physical education

teacher, a speech teacher (1/3 time), an office manager, a secretary,

a media clerk, a resource paraprofessional, twenty classroom

paraprofessionals, seven food service personnel, and four

custodians.

The ethnic composition of the students and the adults who

worked with the children at Woodbine Elementary School was quite

diverse.

The ethnic balance of the students was almost equal.

Fifty-three percent of the children were Black and 47% were

Caucasian. The adults working at the school had an ethnic ratio of

33% Black to 67% Caucasian.

However, this percentage was

somewhat misleading, since only 24% of the classroom teachers

were Black, while 76% of them were Caucasian.

An increase in the percentage of Blacks working directly with the

children occurred with the paraprofessionals, since 40% of them

were Black, aid 60% were Caucasian.

Both administrators were

Caucasian, as were the media specialist, school counselor, and part-

time speech teacher.

The office manager was Caucasian and the

secretary was Black.

The media clerk and the resource center

paraprofessional were Caucasian.

Three of the food service workers

were Black, and four were Caucasian.

All four of the custodians

were Black.

The socioeconomic level of the families in the attendance area

served by Woodbine Elementary School was quite low.

Two hundred

sixty (59%) of the children attending the school qualified for the

free or reduced lunch program. Two hundred sixteen (49%) of the

children qualified for the free lunch program, and 44 (10%) qualified

for the reduced cost meals.

The high percentage of children

qualifying for the free or reduced lunch program was an indication of

the low socioeconomic status of many of tha families who sent their

children to the school.

The school qualified for two Chapter I teachers because of the

high percentage of students who were below grade level in reading

or mathematics in second through fifth grades.

One hundred thirty-

nine (47%) of the children in grades two through five

were served by

the Chapter 1 program. One hundred eighteen of the children

were

served in Chapter 1 reading, and eighty were served in Chapter 1

mathematics.

Some children qualified for both Chapter 1 reading

and mathematics.

In kindergarten and first grade, a Special Instructional

Assistance (SIA) program was initiated in the 1989-1990 school

year to serve those children who were identified as having

developmental deficiency delays which could result in problems

preventing them from maintaining a level of performance consistent

with expectations for their age range.

For the 1990-1991 school

year, 32% of the students in kindergarten and first grade were

identified as having developmental delays and qualified for the SIA

program.

Description of Surrounding Community

Camden County is located on the southeast coast of Georgia.

It is

south of Brunswick, Georgia, and it borders Florida on the north.

There are three incorporated cities within the county: Kingsland; St.

Marys; and Woodbine. Kingsland and St. Marys are situated in the

southern portion of the county, while Woodbine is located in the

northern section of the county.

According to U.S. Census data, the population of Camden County

changed considerably during the 1980's (Table 1)_

Table 1

Camden County Population from

U.S. Census

Year

Population

1960

9975

1970

11334

1980

13371

1990

30167

As the Camden County population changed, so did the incorporated

and unincorporated areas of the county.

The following table (Table

2) reflects the changes in the population in the incorporated cities

and in the unincorporated area of the county:

Table 2

Population at thig. Incorporated and Unincorporated Areas s21 Camden,

County

Area

1980

1990

Kingsland

2008

4699

St. Marys

3696

8187

Woodbine

910

1212

Unincorporated

6857

16069

The change in the population in Camden County during the 1980's

had been, for the most part, due to the installation of the Kings Bay

Naval Submarine Base.

In 1979, construction was started on the

future site of the Naval Base, and in 1981, Kings Bay Naval

Submarine Base was officially opened for military service

personnel.

Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base is located adjacent to St. Marys,

in the southern portion of Camden County.

The population growth in

Camden County centered around the Naval Base. The growth of St.

Marys and Kingsland were more affected by the advent of the Naval

Base than Woodbine.

However, there was considerable growth

throughout the unincorporated area of the county.

The Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base greatly affected the growth

of the Camden County School System.

Since the construction of the

Naval Base started, two elementary schools and two middle school

were constructed in the Kings land-St. Marys area.

Other schools already in service during this construction boom

included three elementary schools and a high school.

The cities of

Kings land, St. Marys and Woodbine each had an elementary school.

One middle school was located in St. Marys, and the other middle

school was in Kings land.

The high school was located in St. Marys.

The new Woodbine Elementary School was opened for occupancy

during the 1991-1992 school year.

On January 2, 1992, the students,

faculty and staff moved into the new facility.

The new building

replaced the old structure originally built in 1926.

The old school

building was given to the Camden County Commissioners for their

use.

For the 1991-1992 school year, student

enrollment increased

at Woodbine Elementary School.

Additional teachers,

paraprofessionals and other staff members were employed to meet

the educational needs of the additional students who were enrolled

when the school opened.

The school population in Camden County had experienced an

increase each year since the announcement that Camden County

would have a Naval Submarine Base at Kings Bay. The following

table (Table 3) reflects the changes in the average daily attendance

in Camden County since 1978-1979:

Table 3

School System Attendance

Year

Students

1978-1979

2680

1979-1980

2804

1980-1981

2978

1981-1982

3078

1982-1983

3203

1983-1984

3262

1984-1985

3313

1985-1986

3723

1986-1987

3984

1987-1988

4288

1988-1989

4708

1989-1990

5222

1990-1991

5686

The total school enrollment for the 1990-1991 school year for

Camden County for the fifth month of school was 6,137.

The

percentage of attendance was 93, so the average daily attendance

was 5,686.

The following table reflects the attendance for each of

the schools in Camden County for the 1990-1991 school year:

Table 4

Student Enrollment fsu Camden County Schools 1990-1991

School

Students

Crooked River Elementary

868

Kingsland Elementary

574

Matilda Harris Elementary

818

St. Marys Elementary

758

Woodbine Elementary

440

Camden Middle

724

Mary Lee Clark Middle

602

Camden County High

1353

Woodbine Elementary School had the lowest enrollment of all the

elementary schools in Camden County.

While other elementary

schools were experiencing growth problems, especially trying to

find sufficient classroom space, Woodbine Elementary School was

not experiencing the same type of problems.

Chapter 2

Problem Definition and Evidence

Problem Background

In 1988, 1989, and 1990, second grade students who attended

Woodbine Elementary School received lower than anticipated scores

on the reading portion of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS).

The

reading scores for the second grade students at Woodbine

Elementary School during these three years showed that students

achieved lower average percentile ranks than the Georgia statewide

average percentile ranks and the national percentile ranks.

addition, second grade students at Woodbine Elementary School had

average reading percentile scores that were lower than any other

elementary school in the county.

Evidence Qf Problem Discrepancy,

The Georgia Quality Basic Education Act (QBE) required norm-

referenced tests to be administrated to students in grades two and

four.

Results of these tests were used in planning instructional

improvement activities and in various program evaluation efforts.

The 1988-1990 average percentile scores on the reading portion

of the ITBS for second grade students are given in the following

table (Table 5) for Woodbine Elementary School (WES), Camden

County and Georgia:

Table 5

Second Grade Reading Percentile Scores 1988-1990

Date

Grade

Average Reading Percentile Scores

WES

County State

3/88

60 62

3/89

2 42

6 3

3/90

6 6

From 1988 through 1990, the average reading percentile scores

of second grade students at Woodbine Elementary School decreased.

This indicated that there was a need for reading improvement in

second grade at the school, and a need to determine the causes of the

decline in reading scores.

The 1988 through 1990 ITBS reading percentile scores for second

grade students from each of the five elementary schools in the

Camden County School System were examined and compared. The

following table (Table 6) gives the average ITBS reading percentile

scores for second grade students in each of the Camden County

elementary schools:

Table 6

Second Grade fleadina ITBS Scores Camden County Schools

School 1988 1989

1990

Score Score Score

Crooki River (CRES)

53 60

Kings land (KES)

6 2 55

Matilda Harris (MHES)

St. Marys (SMES) 72

Woodbine (WES)

50 42

From 1989 to 1990, three of the elementary schools in Camden

County experienced an increase in the average percentile scores in

reading for second grade students on four occasions, while two of

these elementary schools twice experienced a decrease in reading

scores. The 1988 ITBS reading scores for second grade students at

Woodbine Elementary School were the lowest of all the elementary

schools in Camden County, and second grade students at Woodbine

Elementary School had average reading percentile scores that

decreased for the next two consecutive years.

The ITBS reading

scores for second grade students from other elementary schools in

,..

Camden County during this period of time did not reflect the same

decrease in test scores.

There are not any 1988 and 1989 ITBS

reading scores reported for Matilda Harris Elementary School

because it did not receive students until the 1989

- 1990 school

year.

Matilda Harris Elementary School officially opened in August,

1989.

Students attending Matilda Harris Elementary School came

from the former attendance zones of Woodbine Elementary School

and Kings land Elementary School.

The ITBS test data were more conclusive when the number of

students scoring below a certain percentile was determined and that

number was reported as a percentage. The 50th and the 25th

percentiles were chosen as markers to distinguish levels of

achievement.

Above the 50th percentile was considered acceptable

reading achievement, and below the 25th percentile was considered

very low reading achievement for second grade students.

All

students who scored below the 25th percentile in reading would also

be reflected in the numbers of those students scoring below the

50th percentile.

The following table (Table 7) shows the number of

second grade students who scored below the 50th percentile and

below the 25th percentile on the reading portion of the ITBS from

1989-1990, for each of the elementary schools in Camden County.

also gives the number of students tested and the percent of students

scoring below the 50th and 25th percentiles:

'.1

Table 7

Second Grade Students. Scoring Beim t

50th and 25th Percentiles

g_ng ITBS

School Year Grade <50th % <25th

% No. Tested

ORES 1988 2

55 57.3 24

25.0 96

KES

1988

2 41

51.2 15

18.8

SMES 1988

2 40

37.7

24 22.6

106

WES 1988

2 66

60.0 37 33.6

110

CRES

1989

54 46.6

18 15.5

116

KES 1989 2

60 47.6

34 27.0

126

SMES 1989

47 39.8

25 21.2

118

WES 1989 2

65.7 41

39.0 105

ORES

1990

33.9 26

21.5 121

KES

1990 2

41.3 15

20.0

M-IES

1990 2

54 48.2 34

30.4 112

SMES

1990

2 43 35.0

17.9

123

WES

1990

46 64.8

28 39.4

Woodbine Elementary School had a higher percentage of second

grade students scoring below the 50th percentile on the reading

portion of the ITBS from 1988 to 1990, compared to the other

elementary schools in Camden County during the same years. The

percentage of second grade students scoring below the 25th

percentile on the reading portion of the ITBS was 18.7% higher

during the three year period than the average percentile for each of

the other elementary schools in Camden County.

The percentage of

second grade students scoring below the 25th percentile on reading

indicated that Woodbine Elementary School had a proportionally high

number of lower achieving reading students in second grade.

The Camden County School System participated in the free or

reduced price lunch program.

Table 8 shows the percentage of

students on free or reduced price lunches:

Table 8

Students oil the Free a Reduced Lunch Program

School

% Free

% Reduced

% Free & Reduced

ORES

KES

25 10

NI-ES 21

SMES

-7

WES 47

CMS 27

MLCMS

CCHS

COUNTY

Woodbine Elementary School had the highest percentage of

students on the free or reduced price lunch program in the Camden

County School System. The percentage of students at Woodbine

Elementary School receiving free lunches was over twice the

average percentage of students receiving free lunches at the other

elementary schools in Camden County.

This high percentage of

students receiving free lunches at Woodbine Elementary School was

an indicator of the low socioeconomic conditions of the families

from which many of the children come. These low socioeconomic

conditions of the children were reflected in their reading

achievements.

Children from low socioeconomic conditions in the

Woodbine area did not perform as well on standardized reading

achievement tests as did children who came from high

socioeconomic conditions.

Each year at Woodbine Elementary School, students who did not

meet promotion criteria were retained at grade level.

The Camden

County Board of Education established promotion criteria for the

school system.

The promotion criteria for students in the

elementary schools included passing the required major subjects

with grar;es of 70 and above and meeting the reading requirements.

Reading requirements were established for each grade.

The

following table (Table 9) gives the year and grade retained for

students at Woodbine Elementary School:

Table 9

Retained Students

Year K

1st

2nd

3rd

4th 5th

1985 9

0 0

1986 1

6 0

1987 2 11 5

0 0

1988

12 14

1989 2

1 1

1990

1 0

Students who were retained one or more years made up a high

percentage of the students attending Woodbine Elementary School.

Of the 440 students attending the school, 17.7% of them were

retained one or more years.

Of the 58 students who were retained in

first through fourth grades from 1986 to 1990, 75.9% were retained

because they failed to meet the reading requirements for promotion.

Teacher turnover was a factor that affected the reading program

and the overall curriculum at Woodbine Elementary School.

There

were many classroom teachers at Woodbine Elementary School from

1985 through 1991, and in various grades (Appendix A, page 136).

The following table (Table 10) shows the number of teachers by

grade and year:

Table 10

Classroom Teachers la Grade and

Year

Grade 90-91

89-90 88-89 87-88

86-87 85-86 84-85

K 4 5 5 4

3 3

1st 4

6 6

2nd

5 5

4 3

3rd

3 3

4 4

5 3

4th

3 3

4 5

5th

3 3 5 4

3 5

The table above does not reflect the teacher turnover during

seven year period.

There were nine different teachers in

kindergarten from 1985-1991.

During this period of time, first and

second grades each had 11 different teachers.

Third grade had 7

teachers, while fourth and fifth grades each had 13 teachers.

There

were only five teachers in the school who remained in the same

grade during this period of time.

Kindergarten had two teachers who

taught in the same position for seven years, and each of the other

grades, except for second grade, had one teacher in the same

position for this period of time.

The longest tenure for a second

grade teacher at Woodbine Elementary School was four years, and

the average tenure in second grade was two and a-half years.

This data implied that whatever the reasons for teacher turnover,

Woodbine Elementary School had experienced a considerable turnover

at each grade level except for third grade during the seven years.

Personnel records indicated that the majority of teacher turnover

was related to the mobility of the instructional staff. The number of

teachers employed in second grade during this time and the brevity

of tenure indicated that consistency in the curriculum may have been

lacking.

In the Camden County School System, teachers earned 12 days of

sick leave each year.

Three of the 12 sick leave days could be used

as personal days upon advanced approval by the administration.

Sick

days and/or personal days that were not used could be accumulated

by the teacher. A maximum of 45 days of sick leave could be

accumulated by each teacher.

Accumulated sick leave up to 45 days

could be transferred by a teacher to another school in Camden County

or to another public school system in Georgia.

Sick leave earned

above 45 days not used by a teacher was lost.

The number of days

teachers were absent from classroom instruction at Woodbine

Elementary School was obtained from attendance records. The

following table (Table 11) gives the number of days absent for the

classroom teachers at Woodbine Elementary School from 1988

through 1990:

Table 11

Days Absent fa

Classroom Teachers

Teacher

Grade

1987-1988

1988-1989 1989-1990

101 K

102

12.5

104

20.5

106

8 10

13.5

107 K

3.5

108

110

1st

111

1st

11.5

9.5

112

1st

114

1st 1

116

1st

117

1st

8.5 1

118

1st

119

1st

101

2nd

120

2nd

14.5

122

2nd

11.5

12.5

123

2nd

13.5

125

2nd

115

2nd

118

2nd

126

2nd

6 17.5

From 1988 through 1990, the average number of days teachers

were absent from the classroom increased each year from

kindergarten through second grade.

There were no records indicating

the reasons for the increased number of absences for teachers from

kindergarten through second grade.

Teacher absences required

employing substitute teachers to provide classroom instruction.

Prospective substitute teachers received four hours of training

before entering the classroom.

Substitutes used at Woodbine

Elementary School did not have the training and experience to

provide an equal educational program for the students compared to

the certified teachers.

The Georgia Department of Education issued teacher certification

based on persons completing college degrees with approved training

in teacher education.

In Georgia, there were four basic types of

professional teacher certification, T-4 through T-7.

Teachers

having a B.S. Ed. Degree and the required education courses were

eligible for T-4 certification.

T-5 certification was for those

teachers who had a Master's Degree and the approved education

courses.

Persons having an Education Specialist Degree were given

T-6 certification, and teachers having T-7 certification earned a

doctorate in education.

The $311owing table (Table 12) gives teacher experience in

education and certification levels for the classroom teachers at

Woodbine Elementary School for the 1990-1991 school year:

Table 12

Teacher Experience and Certification

Teacher

Grade Years Experience

Certification

103 K

T-4

104 K

T-4

107 K

T-4

108 K 11

T-4

109 1st

T-4

111

1st 17

T-6

117

1st 26

T-5

119

1st

9 T-4

123

2nd

T-4

106 2nd

T-4

118

2nd

T-5

128

3rd

T-4

129

3rd 35

T-4

130

3rd

T-4

133

3rd

T-5

134

4th

T-4

137

4th

T-4

148

5th 19

T-5

151

5th 18

T-5

153

5th 11

T-5

Although teacher certification and experience were not

necessarily part of the reading problem, apathy can be a problem.

the 13 teachers in kindergarten through fifth grade who had T-4

certification, 7 of them were working toward Master's Degrees.

The

other six teachers who had T-4 certification each indicated that

they had no intention of ever going back to college for an advanced

degree.

Another factor considered in relationship to the reading problem

was the amount of worksheets teachers gave to students.

Table 13

gives the number of photocopied sheets for each teacher iri K-2

during 1989-1990:

Table 13

Photocopying 1989-1990

Teacher

Grade Sheets

Students

Copies/Student

Per/Day

102 K

15106

839 4.7

104

6592 18

366 2.0

106 K

8724 18

485 2.7

107 K

11675

687

3.8

108

5807 19

306

1.7

111

1st

7676 21

365 2.0

117

1st 17720

844

4.7

118

1st

14049

669

3.7

119

1st 13183

628

3.5

122

2nd 15065

558 3.1

123 2nd

19111

708 3.9

126

2nd

16694

795

4.4

The number of worksheets students received at the school was a

problem not only in reading but in other areas of the curriculum, too.

When students were completing worksheets, they were losing

teacher instructional time.

Each second grade teacher averaged

using approximately 17,000 photocopied sheets during the school

year.

The number of worksheets given to each second grade student

averaged 3.8 per day. The average number of worksheets used in the

classroom increased from kindergarten through second grade.

In order to make comparisons in reading achievement of second

grade students who had been enrolled at Woodbine Elementary School

from 1988 through 1990, two groups of ten second grade students

were chosen each year.

One group included those who scored lower

than acceptable on the reading portion of the ITBS. The second group

had scored the highest on the same test. The following table gives

the average reading percentile scores on the ITBS for the two groups

of second grade students from 1988 through 1990:

Table 14

Second Grade, ITBS Reading Scores la Targeted Groups.

Group A

Group B

Average ITBS Scores

Year

Average ITBS Scores

Year

18.5

1988

85.8

1988

7.9

1989

80.2

1989

8.8

1990

79.8

1990

Group A contained students who scored the lowest, and Group B

were students who scored the highest on the reading portion of the

ITBS from 1988 to 1990. The Group A students had average reading

scores beiow the 25th percentile, and the Group B students had

average reading scores above the 75th percentile.

The average

reading percentile scores for each group decreased during the three

year period.

In the public schools systems of Georgia, a child may enter

kindergarten if he or she has obtained the age of five years before

September 1

of the year entering school. The following table (Table

15) gives the average age in months of the selected groups of second

grade students at the time they entered kindergarten at Woodbine

Elementary School:

Table 15

Age is Months Qf and

Grade Students Entering Kindergarten

Group A

Group B

Average Age

Year

Average Age

Year

65.6 1988

65.5 1988

65.8

1P89

66.5

1989

64.2

1990

65.5

1990

On the average, the students in Group A were younger that the

students in Group B when they entered kindergarten. The average age

of Group A students when they entered school was 65.2 months, and

the average age of the Group B students was 65.8 months. Those

students who were experiencing developmental delays when they

entered kindergarten tended to be younger that those students who

were more developmentally mature when they entered school.

The second grade student target population included a number of

students who were retained one or more years.

To be retained at

grade level, a student must have failed two or more major subjects

or failed the meet the reading requirements for the grade level.

The

major subjects were reading, English, science, social studies,

mathematics, and physical education.

Table 16 gives the retained

students and the grade retained:

Table 16

Second Grade Students Who Were Retained

Student Grade Retained Group

0188

A 1089

K and 2nd A

0288 K

0690

2nd

0988

2nd

0890

1st A

1088

2nd

A 1188

1st

0289

1st

1589

2nd

0589 1st

1290

2nd B

0989 1st

Ten percent of the Group B students were retained during the

Ir 1, 7

first three grades compared to 33% for Group A students.

Seventy-

five

percent of the students retained in first and second grades

were retained because they did not meet reading promotion

requirements. The remaining 25% of the students were retained

because they failed two or more major subjects.

The lunch status of the second grade target population students

are listed in Table 17.

The number of students receiving free or

reduced lunches are given for each group.

Table 17

Lunch Status of Second Grade

Students.

Group A

Group B

Free

Reduced

Free

Reduced

Group A had the lowest reading scores and the highest percentage

of students qualifying for free lunches.

Group B had the highest

reading scores and the lowest number of students receiving free

lunches.

Group A had the highest percentage of students qualifying

for reduced price lunches compared to Group B students who

received reduced price lunches.

Seventy percent of the Group B

students did not qualify for either the free or reduced price lunches,

while only 27% of the Group A students did not qualify for the free

or reduced price lunch program.

It indicated that students who

-1. I)

scored lower in reading tended to come from family conditions of

lower socioeconomic status than those students who scored at the

highest levels in reading.

According to the policies of the Camden County School System, an

elementary student who has more than twenty days of unexcused

absences may not receive credit for a grade level.

A students who is

absent from school for any portion of a school day must provide the

appropriate school official with a written excuse from a parent,

guardian or physician.

The excuse must provide a reason for the

absence.

The average number of days absent from kindergarten through

second grade for the target groups of second grade students is given

in the following table:

Table 18

Average Number gi Days Absent la Second Grade Students

Group A

Year

Days Absent

Group B

Year

Days Absent

1988

8.6

1988

8.0

1989

7.4

1989

7.3

1990

4.6

1990

6.3

The average number of days absent for each group

was seven

days.

This indicated that the students had good attendance

matter what their academic standing.

It also indicated that because

of good student attendance, teachers had an opportunity to provide

maximum amounts of instructional time for all students.

The reading portion of the ITBS was analyzed to determine

specific areas of weakness by examining individual student

performance profiles.

The reading portion of the ITBS was

subdivided into three categories: facts; inferences and

generalizations.

Each of these categories was analyzed for each of

the target students.

The following table (Table 19) gives the

reading analysis for the target population of second grade students.

Table 19

Average FIBS Reading Scores Analysis fa Second, Grade Students

Year

NPR

Facts

Pupil % Correct

Inferences Generalizations

1988

18.5

50.8 36.4

National % Correct

1989

7.7

34.3

30.4

National % Correct

1990

8.8 40.7

32.5

National % Correct

70 71

This table indicated that second grade students at Woodbine

37.

Elementary School performed below national averages in three

subcategories on the reading portion of the ITBS.

It implied that

teachers must look more closely at their course content to insure

that they are teaching the concepts that will enable students to

master these three categories.

During the 1990-1991 school year at Woodbine Elementary

School, students in grades two through five kept library reading logs

for six months.

The following table (Table 20) shows the average

number of library books read by second grade students during this

time according to their ITBS reading percentile scores:

Table 20

Books Read by Second Grade Students

ITBS PRT

No. Students

Books Read

>75th

102

50th-75th

25th-49th 12

<25th

Sixty-five second grade students participated in

a recreational

reading program during the 1990-1991 school year.

Students

scoring above the 75th percentile on the reading portion of the ITBS

read an average of 102 library books. Those student who scored

between the 50th and the 75th percentile read an average of 55

3'8

books.

Students who scored below the 25th percentile read

average of 21 books.

This implied that students who scored higher in reading

on the

ITBS did much more recreational reading than those students who

scored lower in reading on the ITBS. The higher the ITBS reading

score, the greater the average number of books read for pleasure.

Students who could read, did read. Those students who had weak

reading skills did not read as much as students who had better

reading

skills.

During the 1988 - 1989 school year, teachers in kindergarten and

first grade questioned students individually to determine the number

of books each child personally owned.

The following table (Table 21)

gives the number of books owned by students:

Table 21

Books Owned by. Students

Grade

No. Students

5-10

>10

19 20

1st

Teachers reported that students who owned the most books

were

those children who came from homes of higher socioeconomic

status.

These children made better grades and scored higher on

standardized tests than children who did not own books or who

owned few books. These children, on the average, performed poorly

in academic subjects.

This indicated that students who did not have

books of their own did not have as many opportunities to enrich their

lives through books.

The children questioned by the teachers would

be second graders during the implementation of the project.

In May, 1991, the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (SDRT) was

administered to the first and second grade students at Woodbine

Elementary School.

The following table gives the results of three of

the subtests of the SDRT:

Table 22

SDRT,

- May. 1991

Group

Subtest

M%ile Rank

1st Grade

Auditory Vocabulary

6 7

31.3

2nd Grade

Auditory Vocabulary

6 5

32.7

1st Grade

Word Reading

6 7

37.8

2nd Grade

Word Reading

6 5

29.6

1st Grade

Reading Comprehension

6 7

33.5

2nd Grade

Reading Comprehension

6 5

27.4

The Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test is a group administered

instrument that has been used as a screening device for children

experiencing reading difficulties.

The lowest level (Red) was

designed for first and second graders, and it was administered in

May, 1991, to both these grades at Woodbine Elementary School prior

to the start of the project.

Reading and reading related subtests of

the SDRT revealed a pattern of below average achievc;nent.

These

initial test results were compared to second grade SDRT scores

administered in May, 1992, as reported in Tables 23, 24, and 25.

Probable Causes githg Problem

From 1988-1990, the average reading percentile scores on the

ITBS for second grade students at Woodbine Elementary School were

below the Camden County average and the Georgia average. During

this time, Woodbine Elementary School also had the highest number

of children in the county who qualified for the free and reduced

lunch program.

The combination of these two factors indicated that

many of the children at Woodbine Elementary School were

disadvantaged and considered at-risk students.

Maeroff (1991) reported that there are many shortcomings

associated with norm-referenced tests.

It was speed and low cost

that enabled the norm-referenced test, with its multiple-choice

responses, to conquer the world of education and hold it in thrall.

Maeroff advocated alternative assessment for students.

However, he

recognized that students who score poorly on the much-maligned

norm-referenced tests with their multiple choice responses are not

necessarily going to perform better on the alternatives.

The second grade students at Woodbine Elementary School were

given the ITBS during the 1988-1990 school years.

ITBS testing was

conducted usually during late April or early May.

After the 1989-

1990 school year, the ITBS was no longer given to second grade

students.

Amspaugh (1990) stated that some standardized tests contained

test questions that were written in such a way that even the

teachers were not sure which were the right answers.

She said that

taking standardized tests took a lot of time, time that children

could have spent learning to read real books and enjoying practical

applications of mathematics and writing.

Means and Knapp (1991) stated that children who score lower

than their peers on standardized tests of reading tend to come from

poor backgrounds and/or from cultural or linguistic minorities.

They

also said that classroom studies document the fact that

disadvantaged students receive less exposure to print outside of

school and family support for education than do their more

advantaged peers.

Frymier (1990) reported that children who are retained in grade

were much more likely to drop out of schoo' than children who were

promoted, and their general achievement in the years ahead was

lower than that of students who were promoted.

The second part of

his statement was supported, in part, by the percentage of retained

students enrolled in second through fifth grades at Woodbine

Elementary School (Table 9) who were retained two or more times.

Ten percent of these retained students were retained for the second

or third time.

Of the students enrolled at the school for the 1990-1991 school

year, 17.7% of them were retained one or more times.

Of the

students retained during 1989 and 1990, 25% of these students were

second graders.

Smith and Shepard (1987) estimated the overall

rate of retention in the United States as being 15% to 19%. The

overall retention rate at Woodbine Elementary was consistent with

the national rates.

Table 10 shows the classroom teachers by grade at Woodbine

Elementary School from 1984 through 1990.

It gives the total

number of teachers per grade for each year.

There were many

teachers at the school during these years (Appendix A, page 131).

During this period of time, some teachers were moved frequently,

others taught in the same grade

and some teachers stayed at the

school for just a few years.

The turnover of teachers in

kindergarten through second grade was examined closely, and one of

the probable causes for lower reading achievement of second grade

students may have been due to the frequency of teacher turnover in

second grade.

From 1984 through 1990, at Woodbine Elementary School there

were 9 kindergarten teachers, 11 first grade teachers and 11 second

grade teachers.

The average tenure for kindergarten teachers was

2.9 years.

First grade teachers had an average tenure of 2.6 years.

Second grade teachers had the lowest tenure.

They averaged 2.4

years in second grade.

The lower tenure of second grade teachers

suggests that this may have been a probable cause for the low

reading achievement of second grade students.

The reading program was affected by frequent teacher turnover

because teachers new to the school had to become acquainted with

the basal reading program used at the school.

After the initial

adoption of a new basal reading series, very little staff development

was provided for new teachers on the basal reading program. The

lack of continuous staff development in the basal reading series for

new teachers suggests a probable cause of low reading achievement

of second grade students.

Teacher turnover will continue at Woodbine Elementary School as

more students move into the school attendance zone and as the

attendance zone for the school changes.

For the 1991-1992 school

year, approximately 60 additional students attended Woodbine

Elementary School.

The students who lived in the attendance zone of Woodbine

Elementary School moved into a new facility during the 1991-1992

school year.

The new school accommodated more students, and

additional teachers were added to the faculty for the 1991-1992

school year.

The number of days teachers were absent from class had a

negative effect on instruction.

Substitute teachers at the school

had little education beyond high school.

Everyday a teacher was out

of the class, the students lost valuable instructional time.

Second

grade teachers had the highest absenteeism of all the teachers in

the school, which suggests this as a probable cause for the low

reading achievement of second grade students.

For the 1990-1991 school year, a new leave policy was approved

by the Board of Education that had some effect on the number of days

teachers were absent from school.

Before the 1990-1991 school

year, teachers were allowed to accumulate up to 45 days of sick

leave.

Since this policy passed, teachers have been able to

accumulate an unlimited number of sick days.

This new leave policy

may have a positive effect on reducing teacher absenteeism.

It may

also maintain teacher instructional time.

Another factor of the second grade reading problem may have

been the number of worksheets that teachers gave to students each

year.

Table 13 gives the number of sheets photocopied for each

teacher in kindergarten through second grade for the 1989-1990

school year.

Although not all of the photocopied sheets were

necessarily student worksheets, the majority of them were.

For

these first three grades, the number of worksheets per student

per

day increased as the student moved up through the grades.

The reading curriculum was affected by the number of

worksheets completed.

When students were doing worksheets in

reading, they were losing reading instructional time.

A child cannot

learn to read by doing worksheets. One goal was to increase student

recreational and academic reading.

Smith (1992) expressed that children learn from the company

they keep, and there are two groups of people that ensure that

children learn to read.

The first group includes the people who read

to children: parents, siblings, friends, and teachers.

The second

group is composed of the authors of the books that children love to

read.

The authors help children to recognize written words, and the

more written words that children are able to understand, the easier

is for them to learn new words.

It was reported by Smith (1992) that four year-olds learn about

20 new words a day. When they enter school, they know around

10,000 words. When they leave school, they know at least 50,000

words, and perhaps more, depending on how much reading they do.

He also advocated reading to children. He said that reading to

children served many purposes.

It put children in the company of

people who read.

It showed them what can be done with reading, and

it sparked their interest in the consequences of reading.

The effectiveness of teachers in the classrooms was difficult to

determine.

Teacher evaluation forms were examined to determine

areas for improvement of individual teachers.

The problem with this

procedure was that on the Georgia Teacher Evaluation Instrument

(GTEI) used by administrators to evaluate classroom performance,

was easy for teachers to receive satisfactory ratings.

In addition,

the GTEI had only been in existence since 1988, and evaluation forms

prior to that time were nonexistent.

According to a paper by Uphoff and Gilmore (1985), when children

enter school before they were developmentally ready to cope with it,

their chances for failure increased dramatically.

The research

reviewed by Uphoff and Gilmore showed that children who were less

than five years three months of age when enrolled in kindergarten,

when compared to children entering kindergarten who were older

than five years three months, showed that older children were much

more likely to score in the above average range on standardized

achievement tests, and the younger children in a grade were far

more likely to have failed at least

one grade than older children.

The second grade students in Group A and Group B had similar

average ages upon entering kindergarten (Table 15). The slight

difference in the average ages of the two groups did not appear to

have an adverse impact on the problem of low reading achievement

of the second grade students.

The number of children who were retained in the two grades

varied considerably.

Ten children from Group A were retained one or

more times, while only three students from Group B were retained.

The majority of these students who were retained failed to meet the

reading requirements for promotion.

Woodbine Elementary School students who come from lower

socioeconomic conditions made up the largest percentage of

students who scored below the 50th and 25th percentiles on the

reading portion of the ITBS. One of the probable causes for low

reading achievement of second grade students was the low

socioeconomic conditions of the families from which many of the

lower achieving students came.

The number of days absent for the selected groups of students is

given in Table 18.

The average number of days absent for each group

was almost equal.

Attendance did not appear

be a probable cause

of the low reading achievement of second grade students.

Although heterogeneous grouping of students in the classroom

had occurred at Woodbine Elementary School from 1988 through

1990, students were grouped for reading according to their ability

Ability grouping in reading did not allow low reading achieving

students to experience reading modeling by their peers who were

better readers.

The Camden County Schools adopted a different basal reading

series for the 1991-1992 school year.

During the 1986-1987

school year, a reading policy requirement was added to the Board of

Education's policies for the Camden County Schools.

For promotion

of students, all reading policy requirements must have been met.

Each grade was assigned a minimum level to complete in the basal

reading series.

Another probable cause for low reading achievement by second

grade students was related to the number of books they read.

Students who did not read well did not read as many books as

children who were better readers.

Students who performed poorly

on reading tests tended to do little recreational reading compared to

students who were better readers.

Another probable cause for low reading achievement was related

to the number of books students personally owned. Over 43% of the

students in kindergarten and first grade owned fewer than five

books.

Students who owned books had greater opportunities to

improve their reading skills than children who did not own any

books.

It also implied that someone in the families of these

students were concerned enough about reading to have purchased

books for their children.

The probable causes of low reading achievement of second grade

students at Woodbine Elementary School were difficult to ascertain.

But the most prevalent causes were related to the low

socioeconomic status of many of the families from which the

majority of the children came.

Families of low socioeconomic

status were unable to provide books for their children; therefore,

these children did not have as many opportunities for improving

their reading skills as did children who came from families who

provided books for their children.

Other probable causes were

related to the placement of students in reading groups.

Children

from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were, many times, grouped

together and, therefore, did not have opportunities to associate with

students who were better readers.

Cuban (1989) reported that parents of children from poor

families and certain cultural backgrounds failed to prepare their

children for school and provided lithe support for them in school.

Parents of many of the children from Woodbine Elementary School

were not involved in the education of their sons and daughters, and

this could have been one of the causes of low reading achievement.

Another probable cause of low reading achievement by second

grade students was related to the reading instructional program

provided by teachers from kindergarten through second grade.

Teachers used much of the instructional time by having students

complete worksheets.

Worksheets were not necessarily the

problem, because there was a place for worksheets.

According to

second grade lesson plans, the completion of worksheets occupied

approximately 50% of reading instructional time.

The second grade

teachers said that their use of worksheets was related to the basal

reading series.

Interviews with second grade teachers implied that

students should do more reading.

The reading portion of the ITBS was analyzed for individual

students by examining performance profiles.

Reading was

subdivided on the ITBS into three categories: facts; interferences;

and generalizations.

The results of the analysis, along with teacher

interviews, indicated that second grade students did not do enough

reading.

4S1

Chapter 3

Problem Situation and Context

Written Policies, Procedures, and Commentaries

On July 1, 1986,

a comprehensive approach to improving

education in Georgia, the Quality Basic Education Act (QBE), became

effective.

The overriding purpose of QBE was to insure that:

each student was provided ample opportunity to develop

competencies necessary for lifelong learning, as well as the

competencies needed to maintain good physical and mental

health, to participate actively in governing process and

community activities, to protect the environment and conserve

public and private resources, and to be an effective worker and

responsible citizen. (p. 5).

QBE addressed a statewide basic curriculum framework, and it

was a helping influence in that each of the public schools in Georgia

was required to adhere to the Reform Act.

To insure the uniform

adherence to QBE by public schools in Georgia, the Georgia Board of

Education (GBOE) supervised a comprehensive evaluation of each

local school system and each public school on a periodic basis. One

component of the comprehensive evaluation system was the Public

School Standards program. The application

Standards assessed a

system's or a school's compliance with state law and GBOE policy

and rules.

The Public School Standards were a helping influence because the

Standards were indicators of legal adherence to the QBE Act, and

schools must function within state laws.

In the event that a school

did not meet a certain standard, the evaluation process allowed the

school to make adjustments to its program to meet the standard.

The Quality Core Curriculum (QCC) was part of QBE. The QCC

provided students opportunities to experience a continuum of

activities with appropriate emphasis in each instructional

area: fine

arts, foreign language, health, language arts, mathematics, physical

education, science, social studies, and vocational education.

The

QCC for language arts, which included reading, was

a helping

influence because all Georgia's public school children could expect

to be taught the same core content regardless of their geographic

location or the economic conditions of the school district.

The QCC

objectives in language arts for second grade were given to all the

second grade teachers (Appendix B, page 133).

One part of Standards that was a hindering influence

was the

standard dealing with curriculum guides.

The standard applying to

curriculum guides stated: "A locally approved curriculum guide

existed for each subject and/or course offered for which the system

earned FTE funding" (p. 66).

The system approved the state

curriculum guides to meet this standard.

The state curriculum guide

in language arts was published in 1984, and it has not been revised

since then.

The language arts curriculum guide that was used to

meet Standards was published before the QBE act was passed in

1986.

Another written policy that affected the reading program at

Woodbine Elementary School was the standard relating to remedial

education.

This standard stated: "A remedial education program for

eligible children in grades two through five and in grades nine

through twelve was established and implemented" (p. 83).

The

standard about remedial education was viewed as being both a

helping influence and a constraining influence in the reading

program

at Woodbine Elementary School.

Remedial education was available to second grade students

who, during the month of March of their experience in first grade,

scored below the 25th percentile on the reading portion of the

Georgia Criterion Referenced Tests.

A constraining factor was that

eligibility for remedial education in reading was determined by

student performance on a single test.

It was a helping influence in

identifying children who needed remediation in reading,. but it also

identified children for remediation who did not necessarily need it.

Anothur written policy that had an effect on the second grade

reading program was the Chapter 1 program.

Chapter 1 of the

Educational Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA) was a

federally funded program which was designed to meet the identified

needs of the educationally deprived children in eligible Chapter 1

schools.

Woodbine Elementary School was an eligible Chapter 1

school because of the high percentage of children who were below

grade level in reading and mathematics in second through fifth

grades.

Since Woodbine Elementary School was a Chapter 1 school,

an educational program in reading had to be designed to meet the

special needs of the children who qualified for Chapter 1

services.

This was a helping influence, in that the identified children in

reading received special help from a teacher who had been

designated to teach Chapter 1

reading.

The classes were small, with

a maximum of 12 students in each class, and the Chapter 1 teacher

was provided additional funds to purchase supplementary materials

for instruction.

The students stayed with the Chapter 1 teacher for

all components of language arts.

It was a hindering influence

because the children were homogeneously grouped.

A limiting factor was the county reading policy requirement.

This policy stated that for a child to be promoted to the next grade,

a minimum level in the HBJ Bookmark Reading Program must have

been met.

This was the policy that caused most of the children who

were retained each year, from first to fifth grades, to lepeat their

grade or attend summer school.

It was a hindering influence because

teachers set their expectations for their students based on this

policy.

The teachers used the minimum reading requirements as

their maximum expectations for the students in their classrooms.

Once a child completed the minimum reading requirements, that

child had met the teacher's expectations, and then the teacher

concentrated on helping other children who had not met the minimum

reading requirements.

Norms fsu Behavior, Values, Traditions

One tradition at Woodbine Elementary School that affected the

reading program was the grouping of students for reading.

Teachers

in all grades at the school had traditionally grouped students

according to their reading ability.

The homogeneous grouping of

students for reading started with the students who had been

identified as being qualified for Chapter 1 reading and/or the

Remedial Education Program (REP). Most of the students who

qualified for REP, which was state funded, also qualified for Chapter

reading, which was federally funded.

In second grade, one of the teachers was designated as the REP

teacher for the year.

This designation changed from year to year so

that, as tradition went, each teacher would have an opportunity to

work with the lowest group of readers.

During reading, students

who were REP/Chapter 1 either stayed with the REP teacher or

moved to the Chapter 1 teacher for the language arts instruction.

This movement of REP/Chapter 1

students created the formation of

two classes of language arts which had a reduced number of

students in each of them compared to the other second grade

classes.

The average number of students in

REP/Chapter 1 class

was 12 or 13.

The regular classes of second grade students usually

averaged over 26 students each.

Students in the other second grade

classes were grouped according to ability, with each teacher having

two or three groups.

Each teacher usually had high, average, and low

groups for reading.

Another factor regarding REP students was the number who were

eligible for REP reading.

In the 1989-1990 school year, there were

43 students who qualified for RE,' reading.

Not all of them returned

to Woodbine Elementary School for the 1990-1991 school year, but

the majority of them did.

The number of REP students exceeded the

number that could be placed with the REP teacher or Chapter 1

teacher during the block for language arts.

Therefore, the other

second grade teachers were required to provide reading remediation

for the REP students in their language arts classes.

Formal and.

Informal InfluenQaa of Individuals and Groups

One hindering factor in the improvement of the reading program

in second grade at Woodbine Elementary School was the

pressure

teachers felt to improve reading and mathematics scores of their

students on standardized tests.

The standardized reading and

mathematics scores received more attention than the scores in

social studies and science.

From 1988 through 1990, at Woodbine

Elementary School, teachers in each grade level received an analysis

of the standardized reading and mathematics scores from the test

coordinator.

Another hindering factor in the improvement of reading in second

grade had been the failure of second grade teachers to actively plan

together.

Evidence of this came from lesson plans and observations.

A good example was the contrast between the planning of teachers

in kindergarten and those teaching in second grade. The

kindergarten teachers at Woodbine Elementary School met weekly to

coordinate their classroom instruction.

They developed lesson plans

together and shared ideas and teaching methods. On the other hand,

second grade teachers were planning independently until the

principal instructed them to meet weekly and plan together.

The students who were in second grade homerooms were not the

same group of students that the second grade teachers taught for

language arts.

Students moved from the homeroom for instruction in

language arts.

Therefore, it was important for the second grade

teachers to plan together for instruction.

Another influence that had been a hindrance to improving reading

instruction, not only in second grade but in a!I grades, was the

informal power of the older established teachers.

This was a small

group of 5 or 6 teachers who had been teaching at Woodbine for over

15 years and who were reluctant to change their teaching methods.

To reduce the informal power of this small group of veteran

teachers, many of them were reassigned to other grades for the

1990-1991 school year.

The reassignment of teachers for the 1990-

1991 school year resulted in a different distribution of teachers in

most grades (Appendix C, page 137). These changes were made to

strengthen the instructional program in the various grades.

For the 1991-1992 school year, seven teachers were scheduled to

be transferred from other elementary schools in Camden County to

Woodbine Elementary School.

There were more teachers requesting a

transfer to Woodbine Elementary School than to any other

elementary school in the system.

Because of the high number of

teacher transfer requests to move to Woodbine Elementary School

from other schools in the system, teachers from outside the system

had less of an opportunity to be employed at the school.

External Circumstances

One external constraint that affected the effort to improve the

reading program at Woodbine Elementary School was the low

socioeconomic status of many of the children who attended the

school.

Fifty-nine percent of the children who attended Woodbine

Elementary School qualified for the free or reduced price lunch

program.

Many of these children also participated in the breakfast

program at the school.

The low socioeconomic status of these

children could not be changed, but the faculty and staff had a

professional mandate to provide the very best instruction for these

children, and that included improving the reading program at the

school.

The lack of low socioeconomic parental participation in the

school program was another external constraint.

During the 1990-

1991 school year, 38 students in kindergarten and first grade

qualified for the SIA program.

Thirty of these children came from

families of low socioeconomic circumstances according to school

records from the lunch program.

The teachers were required to

contact the parents of the SIA students, and they had these parents

come to the school fa;

1 minimum of three conferences during the

school year.

The parents of the students from low socioeconomic

circumstances came in for conferences only 40% of the time, while

parents of the other children who qualified for the SIA program

came for all three conferences.

This external constraint was addressed as part of the solution to

improving the reading of the disadvantaged youths.

Efforts were

made to involve parents in the education of their children in an

attempt to improve the children's reading.

Construction on the new Woodbine Sementary School started

during January 1991. The old school dated from 1926. The new

school was located approximately two miles from the old site, and

it was ready for occupancy during the middle of the 1991-1992

school term.

Construction delays moved the opening date.

The

1991-1992 school year began in the old plant.

The new Woodbine Elementary School had a positive impact on the

community and the students who attended the school.

The faculty

and staff at the school were motivated by having a new facility.

There were new equipment, additional storage space, and a different

atmosphere.

The media center was much larger, and more services

were provided to students and teachers that were formerly denied

because of a lack of space.

More students and more teachers were at the school because of

the new facility.

The assignment of the new teachers and the

reassignment of experLinced teachers changed the atmosphere in the

different grades that were affected.

The reassignment of teachers

continued in order to provide the optimum level of instruction, not

only in reading, but in other subjects, too.

Chapter 4

Problem Conceptualization, Outcomes, and the

Solution Strategy

Bibliographic Research, and Review of

Literature,

The review of the literature revealed several categories that

were relevant to improving the reading program.

The categories

revolved around what the principal, teachers, and parents could do to

improve reading, not only at school, but at home, too.

Finn and McKinney (1986) gave several examples of how

principals could improve reading.

One principal visited each class

and read aloud to the students.

This principal also asked the

teachers to read aloud every day to the students, and the principal

wrote a letter to parents encouraging them to read aloud to their

children.

Another suggestion from Finn and McKinney was that the

principal could establish a reading climate in the school by

stressing the importance of reading.

One suggestion was to invite

persons in the community to talk about their occupations, such as a

detective who might get the children interested in reading

whodunits.

Another way for principals to encourage reading was for

children to make a paper caterpillar grow from their classroom to

the principal's office.

The caterpillar started out with just a head.

Each time a student read a book, a segment was added to its body.

When the caterpillar reached the principal's office, the children

received rewards.

Finn and McKinney also advocated reading aloud by both teacher

and child.

Teachers who read good stories whetted the appetites of

their students for reading, and good teachers gave their students

lots of opportunities to read aloud.

The authors also supported

independent reading.

They reported that independent reading

contributes significantly to reading achievement gains.

However,

students in a typical primary school class generally spent only 40

minutes a week on this type of reading.

One other important area that the authors covered was workbook

activities.

They stated that most students spent up to 70 percent of

their reading time on workbook activities, but there was little

evidence that such activities improved reading skills.

A suggestion

was made to cut the amount of time spent on workbook activities

and concentrate on reading.

Marinez, Vernon, Allen and Tea le (1991) reported on what

principals could do to promote voluntary reading.

They said that to

become proficient readers, children must practice reading.

Children

typically spent approximately one hour a day on reading practice, but

most of that time was devoted to completing worksheets and

workbook pages.

Children should spend the majority of their

seatwork time reading.

The authors gave the principal the responsibility for promoting

voluntary reading.

The principal must inform the teachers about the

value of voluntary reading to children's growth as readers.

The

children needed access to books in the classroom. The principal and

the librarian could establish procedures for teachers to check out

sets of books for their classrooms.

The principal could encourage

teachers to use public libraries to check out sets of books for their

classrooms, too.

The authors also stated that the principal could

encourage teachers in all grades to read aloud to their students.

reading aloud, the teacher served as a positive role model for

reading.

Additional suggestions from the authors included the principal

promoting voluntary reading by sending congratulatory notes to

parents, noting individual reading accomplishments.

The principal

could also arrange for a period of free reading time to be set aside

each day.

The principal could take the lead in initiating parent/child

reading partnerships, in which parents agreed to read aloud to their

children for 15 minutes a day, at least 5 days a week. The principal

could also invite members of the community into the classrooms to

read to or with the children for 30 minutes.

Having an adult read

aloud was a treat for the children.

A study by Hal linger and Murphy (1985) gave characteristics of

highly effective elementary school reading programs.

They

developed a model that described how high expectations for student

achievement were translated into school policies and practices.

The

schools they studied were considered instructionally effective

based on their performance on an annual statewide test.

Some of their findings showed a number of common school

practices that supported reading instruction.

They found a high level

of coordination between classrooms, not only at particular grade

levels, but across grades.

The schools had written policies

regarding the amount of time spent on instruction each day.

Teachers integrated related reading activities into instruction

other subjects, such as writing, science and social studies.

Teachers did not limit the reading instruction to the basal series.

Teachers had developed extended literature series to supplement

replace basal series to meet student needs.

The authors also reported that students frequently had free time

to read, and all classrooms had a wide variety of books at var'ous

levels of difficulty and were easily accessible.

One school

implemented a program in which the whole school spent the first 15

minutes after lunch reading silently.

Students kept logs of the

books they read, and they earned small rewards and public

recognition for reaching milestones in numbers of books and

pages

read.

Other reading activities included assigning homework that

focused on reading.

Homework was assigned by all teachers every

week night.

Students were expected to read every night, even if no

homework was specifically assigned.

Basal reading series came under attack by several authors.

making improvement in the reading program, the effect of using

basal reading series must be examined.

Although basal reading

series will continue to be the dominant means by which reading is

taught, teachers must become aware of the limitations of basal

readers.

Breaking away from the basal readers was advocated by Bingham

and Allen (1986).

They encouraged teachers to make their own

decisions about when to use, or not to use, basal readers.

They said

that basal readers were popular because they were easy to

manage.

Teachers ussd them like cookbooks; they follow the recipe.

The authors suggested the principal go into the classroom to help

children enrich the basal materials through writing, speaking, and

listening activities.

They also suggested having a Read-In-Day

where local VIP's were invited to participate in the reading

program.

An article by Caaenhead (1987) gave examples of teachers

breaking away from basal readers.

One primary teacher decided to

use the basal program only four days a week. On the fifth day, the

children were grouped according to types of literature.

Books were

selected of different types that were appropriate for children with a

range of reading abilities.

Through this approach, children read

several books on their own.

The children were led through different

kinds of literature, and at the same time, the requirements of

teaching the basal were met.

Another teacher grouped children around four themes in

children's literature.

Books varying in difficulty were selected on

each theme.

Children read the books, had individual conferences

with the teacher, and participated in discussion groups in which

questions calling for analysis and synthesis were stressed.

After a

few weeks, some children read from all themes.

Cadenhead stated that teachers must be freed from the slavish

adherence to basal programs and be encouraged to make decisions

about children's performances.

Teachers should encourage children

to read materials of varying difficulty, rather than lead the children

through programs based on a theme of control instead of challenge.

In a research study by Fry and Sakiey (1986), they found that

basal readers did not always teach the most common words.

Their

criterion was 3000 of the most common English words, and they

surveyed five major American basal series.

They found that the

highest percentage of these common words taught by any of the

basals was 59%. The lowest percentage taught was 50%. They

suggested that teachers should supplement the basal readers and

encourage students to do much extra reading.

Lehman and Crook (1988) gave a rationale for children's

literature

in the curriculum.

They reported that through literature,

children were exposed to written language at its best and in its

many forms, unl!ke many basal reading series.

For example, six

primary basal reading series were analyzed for story structure; 87%

:of the stories fell

into three categories: confrontation with a

problem, episodic and plotless.

Significantly, more dories fell into

the plotless category for those series which heavily emphasized

decoding skills.

If exposure to story structure facilitated prediction

and comprehension, then predictable, natural-language children's

books were more appropriate than plotless, decoding-oriented basal

selections.

The authors said that including children's books in the

curriculum could increase teacher effectiveness.

High-interest reading material was important in promoting a

good reading program. The use of reading material other than the

basal readers could provide high-interest.

Several authors reported

that the use of high-interest reading material had positive effects.

Holbrook (1988) wrote about sex differences in reading.

She said

that the research had shown that girls read better than boys through

elementary school, and they tended to have higher reading scores.

However, boys scored as well as girls on material they rated

highly interesting, but scored below girls on materials of low

interest.

In a paper about phonics, Carbo (1987) said that phonics did not

always work.

She said that phonics, however simple and quickly

taught, could not work for all students.

Phonics should be taught

early, simply, and it should be completed by the end of second grade.

Garbo also said that no single reading method was appropriate for

every child.

Poor readers needed to be taught using high-interest

reading materials, instead of relying primarily on the visual and

auditory methods now taught.

Teachers were a key factor to improving the reading program.

The literature revealed several articles or studies that suggested

ways teachers could make a positive difference in the reading

program.

An article by Nessell (1987) suggested ways teachers could

better approach asking comprehension questions.

The author

suggested a questioning strategy that focused on prediction

as a

powerful tool for developing and enhancing comprehension at all

grade levels.

According to Nessell, the teacher must identify one

two major turning points in each story and use these as discussion

starters.

During the discussions, the teacher must encourage

disagreement by playing devil's advocate, and the teacher must

press students to use evidence from the text to justify their

60 89

predictions.

The goal was to elicit good reasoning.

Pinnell (1990) reported that success for low achievers in reading

could be accomplished by providing intensive one-to-one tutoring for

30 minutes each day, in addition to classroom instruction.

This

intensive tutoring program included procedures for teaching

children, recommended materials, and a staff development program

directed by a reading specialist.

The goal for this system was to

help children learn to use what they knew to get to what they did not

know.

An article by Miller and Gildea (1987) discussed how children

learn words.

According to the authors, the average child learned at

the rate of 5000 words per year, or about 13 per day.

Children with

large vocabularies probably picked up new words at twice that rate.

In school, children were taught about 100 to 200 words per year;

therefore, learning was far ahead of teaching.

The authors

maintained that many of the words learned were acquired through

reading.

The best way to facilitate vocabulary growth in school

children was to have them read as much as possible.

A study by Peterman (1988) showed that many teachers may be

aware of the benefits to be derived from reading stories to children,

but they did not know how to present the stories to the children.

The author said that teachers could be trained to plan and implement

effective presentations which have a positive, significant effect on

children's understanding.

She suggested that teachers discuss

experiences the children have had that are similar to the ones in the

story, and teachers should ask children to make predictions about

the story based on their own experiences.

A research study by Klug (1986) focused on an approach of using

children's literature in the classroom to promote optimum

development of students' appreciation and involvement in literature.

The author gave steps for the teacher to use in reading stories to

children, the first of which was to prepare the listeners for this

listening experience.

The second step was the actual reading,

telling, or dramatizing a story.

The concluding stage incorporated

aspects of collecting or creating objects to extend the story

presented to help children recall the stories they had heard.

Including storytelling in the reading program was promoted by

Nessel (1985).

She said that storytelling invited listeners to

imagine, to create mentally the picture that made the story vivid

and meaningful.

Storytelling was an effective way to forge the link

between listening and reading, two. facets of the complex process of

comprehension.

Nessel gave a list of procedures for learning a story:

1), Choose a

story you especially like and want to tell:

2), Read the story a few

times until you are familiar with it:

3), Study the story structure:

4), Visualize the story from beginning to end, picture all the rich

details of the settings, bring the characters and action to

life with

your own imagination, play the story out in your mind:

5), Go back to

the book and read the story aloud with expression:

6), Close the book

and tell the story again, using your voice to bring the characters and

action to life as you imagine them.

An article by Morrow (1985) stated that retelling stories was

another activity procedure that may aid comprehension, concept of

story structure, and oral language.

Several studies showed that

active involvement in

different forms of storytelling facilitated

language growth.

A study by Karweit (1989) described the development of a story-

reading program and its effects on the language and comprehension

of disadvantaged prekindergarteners and kindergarten children.

The

results of the story-telling were positive.

The author stated that story reading in school situations had been

shown to increase children's vocabulary, awareness of print, and

comprehension skills.

She pointed out that in a typical classroom

usage, story time may not contain many of the elements that make

story reading successful; that is, high verbal interaction between

adult and child, physical closeness of materials and print, and the

chance for the child to ask questions or provide interpretation of the

story as it progresses.

Frequently, teachers will simply read a story

and then assign a follow-up art activity, with little opportunity for

students to actively participate

in the story or to reconstruct it.

Cliatt and Shaw (1988) reported that children who were read to

became better listeners.

Listening to stories could also help

children to develop better listening skills.

As they thought about

the stories they heard, children learned about logical thinking,

cause-and-effect relationships and sequencing.

Stories expanded

children's experiences and helped them to develop rich imagining

skills.

They also enabled children to began to understand the

feelings of others.

An adult could tell stories to children, or

children could tell stories to adults or to each other.

Storytelling

helped children develop their receptive and expressive language

skills.

The authors promoted the use of props to enhance

storytelling.

By using props, teachers could add extra interest and

variety to stories.

Props could be as simple as an overhead

projector to create interesting, bold effects for storytelling, or the

props could be more elaborate, such as costumes and life-sized

story characters.

The search of the literature revealed several articles concerning

giving incentives to children to help promote reading.

The use of

such incentives seemed to be a common practice in many schools.

Several samples of reading incentive programs were given by

McGinnis, Moore, Morgan, and McGrath (1986). One incentive reading

program was publicized by providing laminated table tents to local

restaurants listing reasons for parents to read aloud to their

children. One school had a Century Reading Club of students who

became members when they read over a hundred books. Members of

the Century Reading Club scored an average of one year higher on

reading achievement tests than nonmembers. Another school had

corporation donate a book to the school library when a child read 12

books and discussed them with an adult volunteer.

The donated book

had a bookplate naming the child as the donor.

McGrath (1987) reported a reading incentive program. Through

the Reading Incentive Program, students who read and reported

on a

book received a certificate redeemable at a local ice cream store.

When a student completed 12 books, a new books was placed in the

school library with a bookplate announcing it as a gift of that

reader.

Starting the day with a good book was the theme for a reading lab

started by Distad (1987). A reading lab was opened 20 minutes

before the morning bell.

A series of incentives were developed to

maintain student interest.

After 15 visits to the lab, students

received a bookmark.

Another 35 visits earned them a button; 50

more entitled them to a book; and readers who continued in the

program were rewarded with a surprise party.

Another component of

the reading lab was to stamp the students' hands, so that they could

show classmates and teachers that they had visited the lab.

The involvement of parents in the education of their children,

especially in reading, was the topic of many articles and studies

found in the search of the literature.

One of the methods of

improving reading that was repeated in the literature was reading

aloud to children by their parents.

Parent participation in the school was promoted by Corner (1986).

He said programs that involved parents in the schools could play a

major role in creating a desirable context for teaching and learning.

Corner pointed out that there were obstructions in the way of parent

participation in the schools.

Many schools simply did not want

parents present, and many parent were reluctant to become

involved, as well.

One important aspect of Comer's findings was

that parent participation

in a well-structured, well-managed

program could help eliminate harmful stereotypes that staff

members may harbor about the community served by the school.

Another aspect that Corner found was that many of the parents who

participated in school programs become energized and returned to

school to finish their own education.

An article by Rasinski and Fredericks (1991) looked at

a reading

project pairing parents with children.

Paired reading allowed

parents to provide structured practice in contextual reading for

their children.

In paired reading, parents read along with their

children in a book of their child's choosing.

The authors stated that

children engaged in paired reading for only 5 to 15 minutes a day

made significant gains in fluency and comprehension.

In this reading project, teachers made home visits to train

parents who could not attend the training sessions held in the

school.

After the training, parents and their children signed

contracts in which they agreed to engage in paired reading.

During

the program, parents and children read one book chosen by the child

each week.

Children chose books from their schools and libraries

that appealed to them and were consistent with their reading levels.

In their evaluation of paired reading, teachers found parents

overwhelmingly positive.

Many of the parents said that paired

reading not only improved reading performance, it also helped to

improve children's desire to read and strengthened the bond of

affection between parents and children.

Rich (1985) said that parents could be helped in order to help

their children learn.

She promoted a home involvement program, but

she said it could not work without support from teachers and

administrators.

According to Rich, one way the school could help was to send

home learning activities for the parents and children to do together.

Another way was to distribute home learning activities at

workplaces, churches, gas stations, and grocery stores.

She said

that parent involvement must be viewed as a legitimate activity of

the school, and reaching the family must be considered as important

as reaching the child.

Effective parent practices were reported by Becher (1985). She

said that reading to the child was the best-known, most researched,

and most frequently recommended parental practice that was

significantly related to positive attitudes towards reading and

reading achievement.

Parents were more likely to seriously value

reading to their child

if teachers pointed out the specific benefits to

be gained from this activity.

Many parents were surprised to learn

that reading to the child had been shown to significantly increase

children's listening and speaking vocabularies, letter and symbol

recognition abilities, length of spoken sentences, literal and

inferential comprehension skills, number and nature of concepts

developed, interests in books and reading, and view of reading as a

valued activity.

Becher indicated that children whose parents read to them on a

regular basis, that is, at least four times a week and preferably

daily, for 8-10 minutes at a time, exhibited more positive attitudes

and higher achievement levels in reading than did children whose

parents did not read to them.

Another finding from Becher was that

parents who initiated talks with their children about the books they

were reading had children with significantly higher reading

achievement scores and more highly developed and expanded

concepts than children whose parents did not.

Becher's implication was in order for parents to be effectively

involved in promoting reading to their children, teachers needed to

be specific in their requests and recommendations.

They needed to

discuss the amount of time that should be invested, and they needed

to take particular care in explaining that this process should be a

cognitive or thinking activity for the child rather than a listening

activity.

Teachers needed to develop specific examples of questions

to ask and points to discuss for some of the children's favorite

books and give them to parents. Teachers should also provide

information to parents about high-interest, worthwhile reading

material.

They could provide a list of resource materials on

children's books which parents could use as a reference and guide in

assisting their children in selecting books.

Teachers could assist

parents in developing effective reading instruction techniques,

including appropriate ways of listening to their child read.

Another of Becher's findings was that children with more

positive attitudes and higher achievement levels in reading

came

from homes in which there was a wide range of reading materials

available.

A study by Clary (1989) showed that parents should become

involved in their children's efforts to learn to read.

She said that

parents must set examples, and they must follow up on reading and

become part of the instructional program in their child's school.

She

promoted parents reading to their children.

Clary gave suggestions for teaching children to read by doing

things with books.

These things could be fun activities, such as

having a neighborhood book characters' parade or writing family

plays about books.

She suggested that parents help youngsters write

and bind their own books.

The final responsibility she gave parents

was for them to find out about, participate in, evaluate, and make

requests of the instructional program in their child's school.

In a paper presented by Dwyer and Isbell (1988), the authors

reported that reading aloud to children provided opportunities for

introducing children to good literature and encouraged language

development.

Through hearing stories and even factual information

from books, children could substantially increase awareness of the

world around them.

Raading to children enhanced their vocabularies.

This was particularly true for children from homes where

experiential background in language was limited.

The authors stated that the reading program should contain three

parts: direct instruction, sustained silent reading and reading aloud.

They concluded by giving components of oral reading: 1),

an effective

lead-in; 2), eye contact; 3), adequate volume and clear enunciation;

4), logical phrasing; 5), a sense of drama; and 6), enthusiasm.

Griffin (1988) promoted reading aloud to students by inviting

community leaders to participate in Read Aloud Week. Over 100

community leaders participated in this program in a Massachusetts

community.

Griffin reported that reading aloud to children

strengthened their language development, the growth of their

imagination, and their love of literature.

A research study by Haney (1988) reviewed the research on the

value of reading aloud to others.

Haney said that reading aloud not

only produced growth in language development, vocabulary, and

comprehension, but in the attitudes of children toward reading.

There was evidence of the direct relationship between reading aloud

to children and their reading performance, language development and

development of reading interests.

Haney found that reading aloud was more effective with children

in the lower socioeconomic status, and that the children at the

lowest extremes of reading achievement showed the most growth in

reading scores.

She also found that regardless of the child's

socioeconomic status, the children that were read aloud to in the

home had higher achievement scores in all aspects of reading.

A study by Radecki (1987) examined the literature for the

importance of adults reading aloud to children.

Radecki reported

that studies over the past 30 years had consistently shown that

adults reading aloud to children positively affected or correlated

highly with children's reading ability, both in the cognitive and

affective domains.

Radecki made the following recommendations: 1), Reading by

adults be made part of each elementary school day:

2), Schools

should prepare a plan to train, evaluate, and schedule students who

volunteer to read to younger pupils:

3), Reading aloud workshops

should be made available to the parents of all children in the

elementary schools.

A research study by Bustin (1989) was designed to increase the

amount of time parents read to their kindergarten children.

Parents

selected for the study participated in a series of teacher-presented

workshops to discover the value of reading aloud, learning

strategies for presenting literature, and practicing reading aloud to

their children.

The results of the study indicated that presenting

workshops for parents would help them increase the amount of time

they read aloud to their children.

The presentation of the workshops

enhanced parents' knowledge of reading aloud.

This promoted the

increase in the amount of time that parents read to their children.

A guide developed by Daly (1987) provided suggestions and

activities that parents could follow at home to help their children

read,

The author stated that regularly reading aloud to and with

children was an important way for parents to help improve

children's reading, writing and thinking skills, and, at the same

time, enhance the parent-child bond.

A study by Miller (1986) reviewed research on parent

involvement in. reading and discovered positive ways in which

parents could participate in promoting reading achievement with

their children.

Results of the study indicated that children's

achievement can be increased through parental involvement.

Parent

attitude surveys revealed that most parents want to be involved in

their children's education.

Reading to children and listening to them

were found to be the most significant ways parents could increase

their children's achievement.

A descriptive study by Watt (1989) examined whether reading

aloud to children regularly, beginning at infancy, would have an

effect on their future disposition to reading.

A questionnaire was

sent home with 487 kindergarten through fifth grade students.

The

results of the study showed that a strong background of being read

aloud to, beginning during infancy, had several positive effects.

Among them were stronger and more positive attitudes toward

books, a larger scope of reading materials, and the introduction of

more involved reading matter at earlier ages than their peers.

Roser (1989) gave specific suggestions, based on research, to

help parents encourage their children to become readers.

She said

that parents should read to children regularly, and they should

continue to read to them once they learn to read.

They should talk to

their children about what was read.

Roser also suggested that

parents should make sure that children had their own books.

An article by Smith (1988) gave facts about the impact parents

had on their child's reading.

Smith reported that the most powerful

influence on children's success in elementary school was the amount

of time they saw their parents reading.

Parents build images in the

minds of children.

The parent becomes a visual model for the

children to

imitate.

Smith said that most parents needed help in knowing how to

encourage their children to read.

The school needs to provide the

direction and encouragement to parents to help them know what to

do about their children's reading.

A study by Sullivan (1988) examined whether reading aloud to

kindergarten children on a regular basis had an effect on their

attention span.

Results indicated that the read aloud treatment to

kindergarten children five times per week had a positive effect

their test scores relating to auditory memory and attention span.

The results also showed that reading habits in the home affected the

child in positive ways.

A study by Prater (1985) showed that many children were

spending a full day in child care centers while working parents

were

contending with time pressures and limited opportunities to

interact with their children.

The author suggested that, since many

children spend more daytime hours in preschool settings than with

their parents, child care workers must share the responsibility for

introducing young children to the joy available in good books.

Staff

members needed to know quality literature and make books readily

accessible to children and parents.

Data, Gathered Through Consulting with Others

An on-site visit to Woodbine Elementary School by Fueyo (1P91)

provided feedback on the children who were at-risk in the primary

grades.

Fueyo suggested that the reading improvement program be

concentrated in grades kindergarten through second.

She said that

the data from the Georgia Criterion Referenced Tests would no

longer be of much use for charting the progress of first grade

students.

The Georgia CRT would be eliminated from use in first

grade starting in 1991, and it would no longer be available.

Fueyo

suggested using the ITBS, which is administered to all second

graders throughout the state, as the measurement standard for

determining reading improvement of second grade students.

She said

the ITBS would also continue to be administered to all fourth grade

students in Georgia, and the reading progress of second grade

students could be determined after two years by comparing their

reading ITBS scores from fourth grade with their second grade

reading scores.

Holland (1991) met with the principal to discuss a concept

paper

submitted to the Innovation Program which addressed the Georgia

Board of Education's educational improvement priority: Increasing

the rate of school completion by students.

This program, when

funded, will provide free books to students in kindergarten through

second grade at Woodbine Elementary School whose parents

participate in workshops that will teach them how they can help

their children with reading.

Holland suggested using Fueyo to

conduct one of the workshops for the parents.

McKenna (1991) met with the principal concerning the Innovation

Program. He was concerned about the evaluation design for the

program.

Although the Innovation Program grant for Woodbine

Elementary School will be funded based on preventing school

dropouts, the grant proposal was written by the principal as an early

intervention program.

The Georgia Department of Education did not

want to wait for 10 to 12 years to determine if this program will

help keep students in school until they graduate. McKenna suggested

using test scores to evaluate the reading progress of the students in

the lower grades.

He also suggested that the degree of participation

by the parents may be a factor used to determine progress.

The principal contacted Christmas (1991) about conducting

workshop for the teachers and paraprofessionals at Woodbine

Elementary School on effective read aloud techniques. She

was

excited about the reading improvement program planned, and she

gave several examples of things that could be done with the teachers

and the paraprofessionals.

The principal and the media specialist met with Trelease (1991)

about the reading improvement program planned for the school.

Trelease was asked the best ways to get parents involved in a read

aloud program.

He said that if parents understood the benefits their

children would receive from being read aloud to, there should not be

much of a problem getting them involved.

He said that once the

reading improvement program started, other parents would hear

about it, and the number of parents reading aloud to their children

should increase.

Tre lease gave another suggestion about children reading. He said

that parents should provide a reading lamp at the bedside of their

children.

Parents should tell their children that they can stay up 30

minutes longer if they read a book.

He said that most children will

read if they can stay up longer.

Practicum Outcomes

The objectives for the reading improvement program at Woodbine

Elementary were directed at the administration, teachers, students,

and parents.

The objectives were as follows:

As a result of intervention from July 1, 1991, the

beginning of the project, through January 31, 1993, the

second grade students at Woodbine Elementary School

receiving a read aloud program will increase their

auditory vocabulary percentile from 32.7 to 40.9, as

measured by the SDRT auditory vocabulary subtest.

As a result of intervention from July 1, 1991, the

beginning of the project, through January 31, 1993, the

second grade students at Woodbine Elementary School

receiving a read aloud program will increase their reading

comprehension percentile from 27.4 to 34.3, as measured

by the SDRT reading comprehension subtest.

As a result of intervention from July 1, 1991, the

beginning of the project, through January 31, 1993, the

second grade students at Woodbine Elementary School

receiving a read aloud program will increase their word

reading percentile from 29.6 to 37.0, as measured by the

SDRT word reading subtest.

For all three objectives, the SDRT was administered by

classroom teachers to the first and second graders at Woodbine

Elementary School during May 1991. Of the entire battery, the

Auditory Vocabulary, the Word Reading, and the Reading

Comprehension subtests were used in order to provide baseline data

in the areas of children's vocabulary and reading ability.

For the objective to improve the auditory vocabulary or listening

ability, the SDRT Auditory Vocabulary subtest was given.

While

ostensibly limited to vocabulary, this instrument required students

to comprehend entire sentences before responding and, therefore,

provided an adequate index of listening ability.

The SDRT Word

Reading and Reading Comprehension subtests were given to measure

students' reading ability.

These subtests were administered to

provide overall indicaurs of the project's effectiveness at

increasing reading achievement.

Proposal Solution Components

To improve the reading program at Woodbine Elementary School

and to increase student performance on the SDRT Auditory

Vocabulary, Word Reading and Reading Comprehension subtests,

strategies were developed to attack the root of the problem.

Research had shown that one on the best ways to increase student

reading performance was to get parents involved in the reading

program of the school. One of the main focal points of the reading

improvement program was parental involvement, but other

strategies were also initiated.

The principal played a major role in the efforts to improve

reading.

One of the first things accomplished by the principal

was

the staffing of classrooms for instruction.

Although every principal

determines where teachers will be placed for instruction,

it was

very important that the professional staff be assigned to the grades

most suitable for them and for the students they taught.

The

assignment of teaching responsibilities was made by the principal,

with the interests and needs of the students being the most crucial

factor.

Grouping for reading was a responsibility of both principal and

the teachers.

The principal's role was to group students

heterogeneously in each grade.

No longer were the lowest achieving

students in a grade placed in one homeroom, as had been the practice

at Woodbine Elementary School in the past.

For reading instruction,

students in second through fifth grades moved to either a Chapter 1

teacher or a homeroom teacher.

Individual teachers determined

their reading students.

The principal determined school policies that affected the

reading program.

For example, a period of sustained silent reading

for fifteen minutes for all students was required as part of the

efforts to improve reading.

Students and teachers were allowed to

read for pleasure during this time.

Grade level meetings were required each week for all grades.

Those teachers in grades two through five invited the appropriate

Chapter 1 teachers to their grade level meetings. The grade

chairperson turned in weekly reports of the grade level meetings to

the principal.

As a role model for reading, the principal read aloud weekly to

groups of students.

This activity was coordinated with the teachers

and the media specialist.

The principal would read to students

either in classrooms or the media center.

As the instructional leader in the school, the principal promoted

the read aloud program, especially the benefits children receive by

having parents read aloud to them. The principal spoke to the PTA,

community clubs, professional groups and other organizations about

the read aloud program at Woodbine Elementary School.

Reading workshops were held for the kindergarten through second

grade teachers at Woodbine Elementary School through the SIA

program. The content of the workshops were on read aloud methods

and how to involve parents in the read aloud program.

Other reading

related workshops were conduct'd on storytelling.

The storytelling

workshops gave the teachers strategies for improving their read

aloud methods.

The teachers supplemented the basal readers by having sets of

library books in their classrooms.

This activity was coordinated

with the media specialist.

The teachers also purchased trade

storybooks from reading clubs for use in their classrooms.

These

books were purchased through SIA funds and through an innovation

grant.

The test coordinator for the school presented an inservice

81 so

program on the analysis of standardized reading test results for the

teachers in each grade.

Teachers used these results in assigning

students to reading groups for the school year.

The number of worksheets used in the classrooms of the teachers

was reduced. The teachers were given the number of photocopies

they made the previous year, and they were required to reduce the

number of photocopies by 10%.

In order to accomplish this goal, the

teachers made greater use of chalkboards and overhead projectors.

The teachers in kindergarten through second grade actively

recruited parents to read aloud to their children at home. The

teachers held individual confer,nces with parents about the benefits

their children would receive by parents reading aloud to them.

The

teachers also gave parents tips on how to read aloud to children and

what to read to

The teachers encouraged the parents to enroll their children in

the Woodbine Read Aloud Club, an innovation program designed to

involve parents in the education of their children.

Parents who

enrolled their children in the Woodbine Read Aloud Club were

encouraged to read aloud to their children for 10 to 15 minutes ew.:h

day, as often as they could, preferably five times a week. The

parents were also required to .keep simple reading logs of their read

aloud activities with their children which were turned in to the

teachers at the beginning of each month.

For the read aloud efforts

82 91

of their parents, children received a free storybook from the

principal each month.

Teachers read daily to their students for 10 to 15 minutes.

The

teachers were required to keep reading logs of their classroom

reading.

Each month, teachers received storybooks of their choice

from the principal for their classroom read aloud efforts.

Paraprofessionals worked with the teachers to improve the

reading program at Woodbine Elementary School.

In kindergarten

through third grade at the school, each teacher had a

paraprofessional.

In the fourth and fifth grades at the school, each

grade had a paraprofessional.

The paraprofessionals worked with

individuals or small groups of students to improve their reading

skills.

Students at Woodbine Elementary School, as part of the reading

improvement program, participated in several writing experiences.

Some of :hose were either local or statewide writing contests.

Other writing experiences included writing for the school

newspaper

or the county newspapers.

Students in second through fifth grades at the school

participated in a recreational reading program sponsored by the

media specialist.

Students who participated in the program kept

reading logs, and they would periodically receive incentives from

the media specialist for their reading accomplishments.

Parents of children in kindergarten through second grade were

given a calendar of activities.

The calendars had activities the

parents could do with their children throughout the year.

The

purpose of the calendars was to promote parental involvement with

children.

The media specialist at Woodbine Elementary School was an

active member in promoting reading and improving the reading

program at the school.

The media specialist encouraged children to

use the library, and she helped them select books on their individual

levels.

Teachers were also encouraged to use the media facilities to

help improve the reading program.

High-interest books were

displayed in a prominent area in the media center by the media

specialist.

This display was changed frequently by the media

specialist or the media clerk.

A reading lab for students was established in the media center.

Students used the reading lab in the morning before school officially

started.

Students were allowed to visit the media center and read

silently during this time in a special section of the media center.

Volunteers from the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base

came to the

school throughout the school year and read aloud to small groups of

children.

Upon arriving at the school, the Navy volunteer was

directed to the media center to read aloud to a small group of

children. Upon a prearranged schedule among the teachers and the

9 3

media specialist, a small group of students could be sent from a

classroom to the media center anytime during the school day.

In addition to the volunteer efforts of the U.S. Navy at the school,

other community members were involved in the reading improvement

program.

Community members and parents were invited to come to

the school and read aloud to children and to provide tutoring

services.

The media specialist, principal and the teachers

coordinated these activities.

Chapter 5

Action Plan and Chronology

Original Action Plan

The original action plan for the project was to improve the

reading performance of second grade students at Woodbine

Elementary School as measured by the SDRT Auditory Vocabulary,

Word Reading, and Reading Comprehension subtests.

Research had

shown that one of the best ways to increase student reading

performance was to get parents involved in the reading education of

their children.

Corner (1986) and Rich (1985) both promoted

parental involvement in the reading improvement of their children.

Becher (1985), Clary (1989), Dwyer and Isbell (1988), Griffin

(1988), Haney (1988), and Radecki (1987) all advocated reading

aloud to children.

Many other authors also suggested that reading

aloud to children would increase reading comprehension.

The school administrator's role in the efforts to improve reading

was part of the original action plan.

Finn and McKinney (1986) gave

several examples of how the principal could help improve reading.

The principal was responsible for heterogeneous grouping of

students in all grades.

A period of sustained silent reading was

planned, and

reading aloud to small groups of students by the

principal was also part of the action plan.

The establishment of a

read aloud p, 'gram by the principal involving parents, teachers, and

students was the main focus of the action plan.

Children's literature in the curriculum at the school was to be

promoted by the media specialist.

Sets of library books for teachers

to use in their classrooms would be provided by the media

specialist.

The media specialist would also sponsor a recreational

reading program. Lehman and Crook (1988) advocated children's

literature in the curriculum, and Fry and Sakiey (1986) suggested

that teachers should supplement basal readers and encourage

students to do much extra reading.

Griffin (1988) promoted community leaders to participate in

reading aloud to children.

The action plan for the project focused on

reading aloud to children.

Volunteers from the community would

visit the school and read aloud to groups of children. A read aloud

program would be established with parents and their children, and

teachers would read aloud to the students each school day.

Chronology of Implementation Activities

The action plan for strategy implementation for the reading

improvement project at Woodbine Elementary School began in July

1991.

The reading improvement project included many strategies

that were designed and implemented for all grades at the school.

However, the second grade was the one chosen

as the focal point to

concentrate reading improvement efforts and to measure changes in

reading ability through a testing program.

The following is a

narrative of the action plan for reading improvement at the school.

The faculty and staff handbook for the 1991-1992 school year

was written during July 1991, and it contained components of the

reading improvement program. The handbook was printed and

distributed to each member of the faculty and staff when they

returned for preplanning during August 1991.

In addition to the

faculty and staff handbook, student schedules were given to the

professional staff during preplanning.

The student schedules were

based on teacher assignments.

For the 1991-1992 school year,

several teachers were assigned to teaching positions other than

ones they had previously held.

During July 1991, the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (SDRT)

was scored, and averages were determined.

The entire battery of

the SDRT including Auditory Vocabulary, Auditory Discrimination,

Phonetic Analysis, Word Reading, and Read Comprehension was

administered to first and second grade students the previous spring.

The results of three of the subtests of the SDRT were used to

compare the scores of second grade students who were tested in May

1992.

"Travel the World With Books," a recreational reading program

sponsored by the school media specialist, was included in the school

curriculum for the 1991-1992 school term.

This recreational

88 9 7

reading program involved students in second through fifth grades.

As a reward for their reading, students periodically received

incentives from the media specialist. The teachers received

materials about this program from the media specialist during

preplanning.

During July 1991, notification was received at the school from

the Georgia Department of Education concerning an innovation grant

that had been awarded to the school.

The innovation grant was for

one year in the amount of $21,641 for implementation of the

Woodbine Read Aloud Club. This innovative program was designed to

promote academic and recreational reading by involving parents in

reading aloud to their children at home, while teachers read aloud to

students in the clazsrooms. This two-fold approach was intended to

foster a love of reac:ng in children at an early age and give them an

academic boost to help them reach their maximum educational

potential.

The Woodbine Read Aloud Club, as part of the reading

improvement program, was explained and promoted during August

1991, at the Woodbine Elementary School PTA's first meeting for

the school year.

At this meeting, teachers talked to parents about

the Woodbine Read Aloud Program. Handouts on reading aloud were

given to the parents, and they viewed samples of the storybooks

used in the program.

4 s

The new school term of 1991-1992 involved the implementation

of a new basal reading series in the Camden County Schools. During

preplanning in August, teachers in kindergarten through third grade

from Woodbine Elementary School attended a county inservice

program on the newly adopted basal reading series. The newly

adopted basal reading series was from Macmillian.

An after school child care program, the After School Club,

existed at the school. The after school child care program served

the needs of working parents whose children required adult care

immediately after normal school hours and before parents concluded

their work.

At the beginning of the school year, personnel from the

After School Club were given access to the media center to utilize

the books and other services. They were encouraged to read aloud

daily to the children in their care.

The Woodbine Read Aloud Club was explained to the faculty and

staff during preplanning in August.

Teachers were given

instructions for implementation of the program in their classrooms.

They were assigned their roles in recruiting parents to read aloud to

their children and to become involved in their children's education.

The teachers in kindergarten through second grade began contacting

parents of children in their classrooms and encouraging them to read

aloud to their children.

The teachers contacted the parents by phone,

in person, or by letter.

Parents were invited to visit the school for

conferences with their children's teachers, the media specialist, and

the principal.

Parents were given information on the benefits of

reading aloud to their children and on techniques for reading aloud.

This activity began at the opening of school and continued

throughout the school year as additional students were enrolled at

the school.

Parents who enrolled their children in the Woodbine Read Aloud

Club agreed to read aloud for 10 to 15 minutes daily as often as they

could. They were encouraged to read five times a week or more. The

Woodbine Read Aloud Club form (Appendix D, page 138) was used to

enroll students in the program.

As part of the read aloud program,

the parents were required to keep simple reading logs of their read

aloud efforts with their children.

The reading logs were turned in to

the teacher at the beginning of each month (Appendix E, page 139).

For the monthly read aloud efforts of their parents, the children

each received a free storybook from the principal.

At the beginning

of each month, children would come to the principal's office and

select a storybook of their choice.

Bookplates were placed in the

books with the children's names, dates, and the principal's

signature.

Children were given an additional reading log form to

take home for their parents to use before for the next visit to the

principal's office. This activity continued throughout the school

year.

91 i Go

While the parents were encouraged to read aloud to their children

at home, the kindergarten through second grade teachers read aloud

daily to children in their classrooms.

The teachers kept the same

simple reading logs as the parents.

Each month, the teachers turned

their reading logs into the principal, and they received storybooks

just as the children did.

The teachers used the newly acquired

storybooks in their classrooms.

This activity continued throughout

the school year, and it was an important aspect of the reading

improvement program at the school.

Not all the children received

the benefits of being read aloud to at home; however, at school the

teachers read aloud to all the children.

During initial conferences, teachers gave parents activity

calendars.

Each child's parent received a commercially produced

calendar of activities that the parent and child could do together at

home. The teachers explained various activities in the calendar with

parents to help them understand how the activities related to the

reading program and enhanced the general education of their

children.

Beginning with the 1991-1992 school year, teachers throughout

the school were required to conduct weekly grade level meetings for

the purposes of planning and coordination of learning activities.

These regularly scheduled meetings were conducted during teacher

planning periods. The administrators frequently attended these

101

meetings especially to discuss the progress of the reading

improvement program.

A storyteller visited the school in October 1991, and presented a

workshop for the teachers.

The reading improvement program was

the focal point of the storyteller's presentation to the faculty.

She

explained how storytelling could enhance the read aloud program.

She gave examples about improving oral readings and using

expression in reading. The storyteller also visited the children in

their classrooms and told them stories.

During October 1991, the first edition of the Woodbine Read

Aloud Club Newsletter was printed.

This newsletter contained

information about the children in the read aloud program, and it gave

reading tips to the parents. The newsletter was issued throughout

the school year and sent home with every child in kindergarten

through second grade (Appendix F, page 140).

The Woodbine Read Aloud Club was promoted throughout the

reading improven;ent project.

The local newspapers printed short

articles about the program (Appendix G, page 142). Several times

during the project, a television station did news coverages of the

read aloud program. Information about the Woodbine Read Aloud Club

was presented to members of the Board of Education and the public

during regular Board of Education meetings. The local radio station

also featured the Woodbine Read Aloud on broadcasts. The program

93 102

was also promoted by the principal's speaking to local community

and civic organizations.

During the 1991-1992 school year, the principal of Woodbine

Elementary School received a School Bell Award from the Georgia

Association of Elementary School Principals (GAESP) at the GAESP

Fall Conference at Lake Lanier. The award was presented for the

"Travel the World With Books Program" initiated at the school as

part of the reading improvement program to improve recreational

reading. GAESP present the principal with a certificate and a

coveted school bell (Appendix H, page 146).

During the implementation of the reading improvement project,

students in kindergarten through fifth grade participated in county

and statewide writing activities and competitions.

Students were

encouraged to write articles for the Camden County Schools

Newsletter, local newspapers, and the school newspaper.

Children's

writings from Woodbine Elementary School were entered in several

statewide writing competitions during the project.

In March 1992, the Commander Submarine Group 10 from the

Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base adopted Woodbine Elementary

School.

The official adoption by the Navy recognized the

commitment of service personnel to work with 4...

.tudents and

faculty members at the school. Navy personnel served in the school

in many capacities. They read to children, listened to children read,

103

tutored students, and served as excellent role models for the

students.

In May 1992, six professional faculty members attended the

International Reading Association Conference in Orlando, Florida.

This conference enabled the teachers to attend workshops and

meetings listening and participating with outstanding leaders in the

field of reading. The teachers viewed exhibits, visited with authors

of children's books, and listened to noted speakers. Upon returning

to the school, these teachers shared their experiences and newly

gained knowledge with the other faculty members.

During the latter part of May 1991,

a team of certified

validators conducted an on-site review of the Woodbine Read Aloud

Club Project.

This on-site team visited the school for two days and

interviewed the principal, media specialist, classroom teachers,

parents, and students involved with the program.

After the on-site

visit, the team of certified validators submitted a report to the

Georgia State Department of Education (Appendix I, page 147).

As children left school for summer vacation, a summer read aloud

program was established.

Parents were informed that they should

continue reading aloud to their children during the summer months.

As a reward for their efforts, children of the parents who read aloud

to them during the summer months would receive a free storybook

for each month of parental read aloud activity.

95 104

In July 1992, notification was sent to Woodbine Elementary

School from the Georgia Department of Education about second year

funding of the innovation program, the Woodbine Read Aloud Club.

The school received funding in the amount of $24,784 to continue the

program for the final year with state assistance.

At the 1992-1993 school year began, plans were made by the

administration and the faculty for improving the project.

The major

improvements included orientation of new faculty members to the

reading improvement program, obtaining a greater amount of

parental involvement in the read aloud program, and a revision of

staff development plans for the faculty members. In addition, plans

were made to expand the Woodbine Read Aloud Club to include third

grade students.

For the 1992-1993 school year, additional teachers were

employed at the school. There were five teachers in kindergarten,

four teachers in first grade, four teachers in second grade, and four

teachers in third grade. Fourth and fifth grades each had three

regular classroom teachers. A full-time speech teacher was

employed at the school, and two more special education teachers

were employed to serve the needs of those children who qualified

for special education services.

The teachers in kindergarten through third grade were involved in

the Woodbine Read Aloud Club. These teachers were given an

105

orientation about the read aloud program during preplanning for the

1992-1993 school year by the principal.

Teachers who were

involved in the reading improvement program during the previous

year served as resource persons for the teachers who were new to

the school.

This included one kindergarten teacher, two first grade

teachers, and four third grade teachers.

All the second grade

teachers were involved in the reading improvement program during

the 1991-1992 school year.

However, one of the second grade

teachers served in first grade the previous year.

Teachers in kindergarten through third grade recruited parents to

read aloud to their children at home.

Parents were encouraged to

come to the school and have conferences with the teachers.

During

these conferences, the teachers explained the benefits children

would receive by having their parents read aloud to them.

As in the

previous school year, parents were encouraged to enroll their

children for the Woodbine Read Aloud Club.

The recruiting of parents to read aloud to their children was

easier during the 1992-1993 school year, because the majority of

the children in first through third grades had been involved in the

program during the preceding year.

Many of the parents of the

children enrolled in kindergarten for the first time were not

familiar with the read aloud program.

However, the kindergarten

teachers encouraged many of the parents of their students to read

97 106

aloud at home and keep simple reading logs.

The reading logs were turned in to the principal

at the beginning

of each month by the children.

Each child who turned in a reading log

was allowed to visit the principal's office and select a storybook.

A bookplate with the child's name

was placed in the book chosen.

The children kept the storybooks for their

very own, and each child

was given another reading log for the next month.

During the first four months of the 1992-1993 school

year,

participation in the Woodbine Read Aloud Club increased

compared to

the first four months of the 1991-1992 school

year.

Over 250

storybooks were given away to children each month.

Approximately

70% of the children were receiving free storybooks from

the

principal each month.

Over 3000 storybooks were ordered to give

away to children

during the 1992-1993 school.

The storybooks were of high quality

from a leading publisher.

Many of the titles were the

same ones

used by the teachers in the classrooms and available

in the school

media center.

After discounts, the average cost of each book

was

less than $2.00.

The media specialist selected

over 360 books, suitable for

reading aloud, to add to the media collection.

These books and the

storybooks for the children were purchased through

an innovation

grant through the Georgia Department of Education.

91107

Staff development opportunities for the kindergarten through

third grade teachers during the 1992-1993 school year were

provided on several occasions. Five teachers participated in a whole

language workshop in Savannah, Georgia, in October, and nine other

teachers participated in another whole language workshop in

January, in Brunswick, Georgia.

Two of the teachers participating

in the Woodbine Read Aloud Club attended the International Reading

Association Regional Conference in New Orleans in December.

The teachers who participate6 in reading workshops or

conferences shared their learning experiences with their colleagues

upon returning to school.

This was accomplished through school

staff development workshops. The results of these school

workshops on reading were positive. While only five teachers chose

to participate in the October whole language workshop, nine

additional teachers participated in the January whole language

workshop after being inspired by the teachers who attended the first

workshop.

The Woodbine Read Aloud Club and the reading improvement

project continued throughout the 1992-1993 school year.

Plans

were made to provide additional inservice opportunities for the

teachers and for the parents of the children in the program.

10 8

Chapter 6

Results

Overview pf Problem and Setting

Second grade students who attended Woodbine Elementary School

during 1988, 1989, and 1990, did not achieve average percentile

ranks on the reading portion of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills that

were above the Georgia statewide average percentile ranks in

reading nor above the average percentile ranks for reading for other

elementary schools in Camden County.

Woodbine Elementary School was the setting of the project.

The

school is located in City of Woodbine, which is in the southeast

coastal area of of Georgia. The school had a population of 440

students in grades K-5 and 65 faculty and staff members. Second

grade students at the school were the subjects of the study.

Results at Implementation

This research project was designed to improve the reading

achievement of second grade students at Woodbine Elementary

School.

Evaluation data presented on the following pages indicated

that the reading achievement of second grade students improved

during the intervention of the project.

In addition, the research

project contributed to an increase in involvement of parents in the

education of their children.

Finally, the research project

100 '109

contributed to the development and implementation of an innovative

read aloud program that was funded by the Georgia Department of

Education.

The evaluation process included a comparison of auditory

vocabulary, reading comprehension, and word reading scores after

project intervention with scores in the same areas for second grade

students tested in May 1991.

In addition, an analysis was made of

parental participation in the read aloud program from kindergarten

through second grade.

The following was the first of three objectives that were used in

the research project:

1. As a result of intervention from July 1, 1991, the beginning of

the project, through January 31, 1993, the second grade

students at Woodbine Elementary School receiving a read aloud

program will increase their auditory vocabulary percentile

from 32.7 to 40.9, as measured by the SDRT auditory

vocabulary subtest.

Analysis of the pre and post test scores of the SDRT auditory

vocabulary subtest indicated that the second grade students at

Woodbine Elementary School made substantial gains in auditory

vocabulary.

The non-reading auditory vocabulary subtest of the

SDRT assessed not only the extent of children's listening vocabulary,

but it did so through the use of sentence contexts so that the

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subtest was as much a measure of comprehension as vocabulary. The

auditory vocabulary subtest was selected because of the modality

tested; reading was not required.

Moreover, this language dimension,

more perhaps than others, would directly benefit from read alouds.

This was confirmed for project second graders who outperformed

second grades from the previous year whose test results served as

the controls.

The following table (Table 23) gives the test results

from the auditory vocabulary subtest of the SDRT that was given in

May 1991, to the second graders and the test results of second grade

target population students in May 1992, who received the read aloud

program:

Table 23

SDRT Auditory Vocabulary foi 2nd Grade Students

Date

N M%ile Rank

May 1991

6 5

32.7

May 1992 7 4 45.3

The results represented a 38.5% increase in auditory vocabulary

for the second grade students who received the program. This was

13.5% higher increase than originally projected.

These results were

supportive of the project's effectiveness.

The second objective of the project was as follows:

As a result of intervention from July 1, 1991, the beginning of

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111

the project, through January 31, 1993, the second grade

students at Woodbine Elementary School receiving a read

aloud program will increase their reading comprehension

percentile from 27.4 to 34.3, as measured by the SDRT reading

comprehension subtest.

Analysis of the test scores from the SDRT reading comprehension

subtest given to second grade students at Woodbine Elementary

School in May 1991, and to the target population, indicated that the

second grade students in May 1992, receiving the read aloud program

made substantial gains in reading comprehension. The reading

comprehension subtest presented students with tasks that were

mediated by decoding ability.

That is, poor decoders might be

expected to perform poorly even if the the read aloud program

sharpened their comprehension ability.

Nevertheless, gains could

still be reasonably expected across the entire population, and this

subtest was accordingly administered.

The results of the reading

comprehension subtest of the SDRT are given in Table 24.

Table 24

SDRT Reading. Comprehension far

Grade Students

Date N

M%ile Rank

May 1991

27.4

May 1992

40.1

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These results represented a 46.4% increase in reading

comprehension for the second grade students who received the

program. This was 21.4% higher increase than originally projected.

These results were supportive of the project's effectiveness.

The third objective for the project was as follows:

3. As a result of intervention from July 1, 1991, the beginning of

the project, through January 31, 1993, the second grade

students at Woodbine Elementary School receiving a read

aloud program will increase

their word reading percenti' 3

from 29.6 to 37.0, as measured by the SDRT word reading

subtest.

Analysis of the word reading subtest of the SDFIT indicated that

the second grade students at Woodbine Elementary School who

received the read aloud program made substantial gains in word

reading.

This subtest measured pupils' ability to recognize words

and attach meaning to them. Thus, it provided an assessment of

applied reading for pupils who may or may not read sentences or

paragraphs. Pupils were asked to identify words that described a

particular illustration.

This language dimension was selected

because students who were read aloud to had opportunities to

identify words in relationship to illustrations in the story books

they received through the program.

The following table (Table 25)

gives the test results of the word reading subtest of the SDRT for

104 113

the same 1991 and 1992 students:

Table 25

SDRT Word Reading fa 2.0si Grade Students

Date

M%ile Rank

May 1991

May 1992

7 4

29.6

42.5

These results represented a 43.6% increase in word reading for

the second grade students who received the program.

This was

17.5% higher increase than originally projected.

These results were

supportive of the project's effectiveness.

This project was designed to involve parents in the education of

their children by having parents read aloud to their children at home,

while teachers read aloud to students at school.

Engaging parents in

reading aloud to their children at home was not a simple task. The

kindergarten through second grade teachers contacted the parents of

their students, by letter, in person, or by phone.

Parents were

encouraged to come to the school for conferences during which the

teachers explained the read aloud program. The parents were also

invited to check out books from the school library to read at home to

their children.

The parents were given tips from the teachers on

techniques for reading aloud at home.

During the 1991-1992 school term at Woodbine Elementary School,

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the kindergarten through second grade teachers recruited parents to

enroll their children in the Woodbine Read Aloud Club.

These parents

were encouraged to read aloud daily for 10 to 15 minutes at least

five times a week and keep a simple reading log of their read aloud

activities.

The reading logs were turned in to the homeroom teacher

at the beginling of each month.

As a reward for their parent's read

aloud efforts at home, the children who turned in a reading log each

month came to the office and received a free storybook of their

choice from the principal.

Although almost all of the kindergarten through second grade

parents enrolled their children in the Woodbine Read Aloud Club, the

percentage of parents who read aloud to their children and turned in

reading logs each month varied considerably.

The following table

(Table 26) gives the percentage of kindergarten through second grade

children who were read aloud to at home during the 1991-1992

school year, according to reading logs turned in each month to the

principal:

Table 26

1991-12.92 Home Read Aloud Percentages

Grade

% of Children Read Aloud

Kindergarten 60.6

First Grade

55.8

Second Grade 56.1

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At the beginning of the project, the percentage of read aloud

efforts by parents was uncertain.

However, the teachers involved in

the program estimated that 25% of the parents would participate in

the program.

The percentage of parent participation at each grade

exceeded 50%. On a monthly basis, the percentage of parents reading

aloud to their children ranged from 26 to 88 in kindergarten, 19 to

88 in first grade and 42 to 79 in second grade.

The lowest monthly

percentage of parents reading aloud to their children occurred in

December, and the highest occurred in the month following efforts

by the teachers to send weekly reminders about reading aloud to the

parents.

The number of times children were read aloud to at home was

fairly consistent.

Parents were encouraged to read aloud to their

children 10 to 15 minutes daily at least five times a week.

Accordingly, each child who participated in the program would be

read aloud to at home 20 times a month. The average fell below this

figure. Kindergarten students were read aloud to at home 16.3 times

per month, while first and second grade students averaged 15.1

times a month.

From September through 3ecember of the 1992-1993 school year,

the percentage of children being read aloud to at home was again

measured by examining reading logs which were turned in at the

beginning of each month.

Table 27 gives the percentages of children

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in kindergarten through third grade who were read aloud to at home

by parents during September through December of the 1992-1993

school year:

Table 27

1992-1993 Home Read Aloud Percentages

Grade

% of Children Read Aloud

Kindergarten

75.2

First Grade

68.1

Second Grade

67.3

Third Grade

62.4

The percentage of children read aloud to at home during the first

four months of the 1992-1993 school year increased for each grade

compared to the 1991-1992 home read aloud percentages.

The

average increase in read aloud participation at home was

approximately 20%.

This increase in parents reading aloud at home

was probably due to the parent, students, and teachers being

familiar with the program. The improved reading comprehension,

auditory vocabulary, and word reading scores of the second grade

students obtained during the 1991-1992 school year, as measured by

the SDRT, were used by the teachers in promoting and recruiting

parents to read aloud to their children during the 1992-1993 school

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year.

Summary of Accomplishments

The major accomplishment of the project was to improve the

reading performance of second grade students at Woodbine

Elementary.

Through the interventions of the project, this was

accomplished as measured by the result of the scores of the second

grade students on the SORT. However, other students in kindergarten

and first grade received the same reading interventions, although

test measurements were not determined for their grades.

As the

project extended into the 1992-1993 school year, third grade

students also received the same interventions as did the

kindergarten through second grade students.

This project centered upon reading aloud to children.

Teachers

read aloud to children at school, while parents read aloud to them at

home. The search of the literature contained many articles on the

benefits of reading aloud to children, but no studies were found that

involved as many children as this project did, and that produced the

same positive results.

Parental involvement in the reading improvement program at the

school was a key factor in the success of the project.

Over 50% of

the parents in kindergarten through second grade read aloud to their

children at home on a regular basis during the 1591-1992 school

year.

This percentage increased during the first four months of the

1992-1993 school year.

Children were read aloud to at home over

15 times per month throughout the project.

In addition, teachers in

the classroom read aloud daily to all their students.

Teachers in kindergarten through second grade recruited parents

to enroll their children in the Woodbine Read Aloud Club. These

parents responded to the challenge of the teachers, and they became

involved in their children's education by reading aloud to them at

home. Numerous authors, such as: Clary (1989); Becher (1985);

Rasinski and Fredericks (1991); Haney (1988); Radecki (1987);

Rustin (1989); Daly (1987); and Miller (1986) reported the positive

effects of parents and other adults reading aloud to children.

The

results of the intervention of parents reading to children of

Woodbine Elementary School indicated that this activity helped to

increase the children's reading comprehension, word reading and

auditory vocabulary.

The recommendations of Trelease (1991) were encouraging, and

they proved to be factual.

As parents heard about the read aloud

program at the school from other parents who were involved in the

program, the number of parents involved in the program increased.

The children of the parents not involved in the read aloud program

also contributed to an increase in parental involvement.

Children

who were not being read aloud to at home told about their

classmates turning in reading logs and receiving free storybooks.

addition, the teachers continued to contact parents and tell them

about the Woodbine Read Aloud Club.

The most prevalent probable causes of the low reading

achievement of children at Woodbine Elementary School involved the

low socioeconomic status of many of the families from which the

children came.

The parents of these children were not as involved in

their children's education as often as parents from higher

socioeconomic status.

This former group of parents provided fewer

books in the home for their children.

Through the interventions of

this project, many of the parents of low socioeconomic status

became involved in the education of their children by reading aloud

to them at home.

The children received free storybooks of their

choosing for their parents' read aloud efforts.

This project provided

storybooks to be put in the handy

children who may not have

ordinarily received them.

The project also addressed the probable cause of low reading

achievement as being an overuse of worksheets by teachers, thereby

reducing reading time of students.

The number of worksheets were

reduced, and children were provided additional opportunities to read,

such as, the sustained silent reading time.

Another probable cause

was addressed.

The ability grouping of students for reading was

reduced to some extent.

Reading groups in the regular classrooms

were heterogeneous; however, Chapter 1 reading classes continued

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to be homogeneous, according to county school policy.

This hindering

influence will not be overcome until the Chapter 1 program is

restructured.

Another hindering influence to the project was the county reading

policy requirement involving children at certain grade levels to

master levels set by the basal reading series.

The influence was

reduced somewhat by adopting a new basal reading series and

allowing the teachers to set minimum requirements for student

mastery.

As the instructional leader for the school, the principal was

supportive of the reading improvement program. The assignment

of teaching responsibilities was one of the first tasks of the

principal at the beginning of the program. There was a reduction in

the number of teachers allotted to the school for the 1991-1992

year, compared to the previous school term. Kindergarten and first

grade each lost a teacher. However, second grade retained three

teachers as during 1990-1991. A teacher was assigned the SIA

position for kindergarten and first grade. This teacher served in an

augmented position by working with small groups of students for

short periods throughout the school day. Classrooms in kindergarten

through second grade approached the maximum number of students

allowed under state regulations.

Under the circumstances of

crowded classrooms and with the students' educational interest in

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mind, the principal made the best possible teaching

assignments.

Sustained silent reading occurred throughout the

school. A study

by Hal linger and Murphy (1985) supported giving

students time for

sustained silent reading. Students and teachers at Woodbine

Elementary School read for pleasure each day for approximately

minutes.

Many of the teachers held their sustained silent reading

before beginning other activities for the day.

This did not allow all

the students to participate in sustained silent reading,

because

some teachers did this activity before school officially began for

the day.

Staff development activities

were conducted for the benefit of

the teachers involved in the reading improvement

program on several

occasions during the school year.

The activity that was reported to

be of greatest benefit to some of the teachers in

the reading

improvement program was their participation in the

International

Reading Association Conference in Orlando, Florida,

during May 1992.

This activity had its limitations in that only six

teachers from the

school attended the conference.

However,

the teachers who did

attend the conference shared their experiences

with the other

teachers at the school.

In addition, audio tapes of

some of the

speeches of noted authors were purchased and placed

in the school

library for the professional staff.

Plans were made at the end of the

1991-1992 school year to allow other teachers

to attend future

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reading conferences and workshops.

Weekly grade level meetings occurred throughout

the project.

Classroom teachers met with their grade level

colleagues each week

for planning purposes.

The grade level chairperson turned in

written

reports weekly to the principal concerning the

meetings.

The

principal occasionally attended grade level

meetings; however, he

read all the reports from the meetings.

These reports provided an

avenue of communication between the faculty and the

administration

that was unexpected.

The grade level reports would frequently

contain comments and questions about

teachers' concerns.

This

allowed the teachers partial anonymity

in asking the administration

questions or making suggestions.

The grade level meetings and reports

reflected issues involving

the reading improvement

program at the school.

The kindergarten

through second grade teachers discussed

the Woodbine Read Aloud

Club, improving reading test

scores, appropriate techniques for

teaching reading, and other strategies

for improving reading.

The media specialist

was a catalyst in improving the reading

program at the school. She sponsored the "Travel

the World With

Books Program," a recreational reading

program for second through

fifth grade students.

Students who participated in this

program

periodically received incentives from the

media specialist for their

reading efforts.

McGrath (1987) supported giving incentives

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students for their reading accomplishments.

During the 1992-1993

school year at Woodbine Elementary, this program was adjusted to

include only the fourth and fifth grades at the school, because the

Woodbine Read Aloud Club was expanded to include students from

kindergarten through third grade.

The media specialist established a morning reading lab in the

library during the first year of the project, but this was in

competition with the sustained silent reading that occurred at the

beginning of the school day in many classrooms. The reading lab

continued during the 1992-1993 school year, but students were free

to choose their reading site.

Having the media center opened before

school officially started allowed students additional time to select

books and use the library facilities.

Distad (1987) supported a

reading lab before the school day officially began.

Parents and other adults were encouraged to visit the school and

read aloud to small groups of students. Finn and McKinney (1986)

recommended that community persons be invited to read to children

at school, and Martinez, Vernon, Allen and Teak:, (1991) also

supported this activity. Adults from the Woodbine community were

encouraged to visit the school and read aloud to students.

Navy

personnel from the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base visited the

school and read to students frequently.

At the beginning of the

1992-1993 school year, the admiral from the Naval Base initiated

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the volunteer read aloud program by being the first volunteer from

the Navy Base.

Some teachers at Woodbine Elementary School identified children

in their classrooms who were not being read aloud to at home, and,

therefore, not receiving free story books each month.

To compensate

for the inactivity of parents who did not read to their children, adult

volunteers were recruited to read to small groups of these children.

The principal participated in the read aloud activities by reading to

students in classrooms and in the media center.

The number of worksheets given to students by their teachers

was reduced according to records of photocopying from the resource

clerk.

Observations in the classrooms by the administrators

revealed that, in general, teachers were employing other teaching

strategies in their lessons and using fewer worksheets than in

previous years.

Discussion

The increase of the auditory vocabulary of second grade students

at Woodbine Elementary School as measured by the SDRT was a

direct result of the interventions of the project.

The auditcdry

vocabulary percentile rank of the second grade students tested in

19V1 was 32.7, and the auditory vocabulary percentile rank of the

second grade students receiving the interventions of the project

increased to 45.3.

The increase in reading comprehension of these

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second grade students went from 27.4 to 40.1, and their word

reading went from 29.6 to 42.5, both measured by the SDRT. The

increase in all three of these measurements could be attributed to

the interventions employed during the project, especially the read

aloud component.

Although many interventions were employed throughout the

project, the main focus was the read aloud intervention which took

place at school and at home. The real aloud intervention produced

some side effects not anticipated.

One of these was the relationship

between the principal and the students.

Before and during the early

period of the project, many of the children, as reported by parents

and teachers, associated the' principal's office with discipline only.

As the project evolved, the attitudes of the children appeared to

change.

Children became accustomed to visiting the principal's

office and receiving free storybooks.

Their association with the

principal's office and discipline was changed to a more pleasant

association.

Another positive side effect of the project was the attitude of

the parents who were involved in the program. Many of the parents

expressed their appreciation to the principal, the media specialist,

and the teachers for involving them in the program.

They enjoyed

reading to their children, and they enjoyed having their children read

to them.

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126

One projection that was uncertain was the percentage of parents

participating in the project.

Although the percentage of parents

reading aloud to their children was much greater than originally

projected by the teachers,

it was anticipated by the administration

and the teachers that many of the children at the lower end of the

socioeconomic scale would not be read aloud to at home.

This turned

out to be factual, in some cases. To compensate for the lack of

parental involvement, children who were from lower socioeconomic

conditions and not being read aloud to home were identified.

Teachers of these children provided special read aloud opportunities

for these children at school by using adult volunteers to read to

them in small groups.

Another side effect that was not anticipated was the interest the

project created within the school system.

Other elementary

administrators and teachers asked the professional personnel at

Woodbine Elementary School about the project.

Several of the

elementary administrators wanted to know the results of the

project in terms of improved reading accomplishments.

The number of different storybooks that children were exposed to

through the project was not anticipated.

Throughout the project,

children visited the principal's office and selected free storybooks

from over 400 different titles.

In addition to the students, the

teachers at the school were also exposed to many books and authors

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new to them.

The teachers were allowed to select free storybooks

each month for their read aloud efforts in the classrooms.

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Chapter 7

Discussion

Recommendations

The solution to the problem of low reading achievement among

elementary students will continue to be a challenging one for

teachers and school administrators.

There is no single solution to

the problem of low reading achievement. Just as there are many

ways to teach reading, there are many approaches to improving

reading achievement for elementary students.

This project focused

on establishing a read aloud program involving the students, their

parents, teachers in the classrooms, and volunteers from the

community. Other strategies were employed at the school level that

were within the jurisdiction of the administrator and other faculty

members.

The Woodbine Read Aloud Club was funued by an innovation grant

from the Georgia Department of Education. This grant provided funds

for staff developmcnt and for the purchase of storybooks to give to

children. In addition, the grant provided funds for purchasing the

Stanford Diagnostic Reading Tests that were administered to

students in first and second grades.

Although funds were available

for this project through the Georgia Department of Education, plans

were formulated to implement this project using school funds, if

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123

necessary.

This research project will be continued through the 1992-1993

school year at Woodbine Elementary School. The Woodbine Read

Aloud Club will be continued after the implementation of the initial

project.

However, the project will be modified to involve just

kindergarten through second grade children in the project.

One of the results obtained during the 1992-1993 school year

concerned the reading habits and preferences of third grade

students.

Third grade students at Woodbine Elementary School

indicated that they preferred reading on their own rather than having

an adult read to them.

This was verified by third grade teachers who

stated that third grade students were becoming more confident in

their reading.

Implications

All school districts are continually striving to improve the

reading abilit

of children.

This project has produced positive

results for improving the reading comprehension of second grade

students at Woodbine Elementary School.

The solution strategies

used in this project could be adopted in most elementary schools

with few modifications to the established reading curriculum.

One of the key factors of the project was the ease of

implementation. The main focus was the Woodbine Read Aloud Club,

which involved recruiting parents to read aloud at home to their

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children while teachers read aloud to students at school.

Many

elementary teachers already read aloud to their students on a daily

basis.

The addition of having parents read to their children is a

matter of recruitment.

This is primarily a function of the

relationships between classroom teachers and parents of the

children they teach.

The storybooks given to the children during the project created a

financial consideration.

Although the storybooks given to children

during the project were purchased through a grant, other sources of

funding would have been employed if the grant funds were not

available.

Funding for the storybooks could have come from the

general school account.

Virtually every school system has funds

allocated for staff development.

The positive outcomes of implementing a read aloud program at

home and at school, as evidenced by this project, should encourage

other schools to adopt these strategies in their attempts to improve

the reading of young children.

Dissemination

Near the end of the 1992-1993 school year, state trained

validatws from the Georgia Department of Education will conduct an

on-site review of the Woodbine Read Aloud Club for state validation.

After the Woodbine Read Aloud Club has received state validation, it

will be eligible for adoption by other school systems in Georgia.

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School systems may apply for an Adoption Grant by completing an

Adoption Grant Application.

Innovation Program grant funds will

support part of the costs involved in implementing new programs. A

local financial effort is also required to receive adoption funds.

This project was funded as a developmental innovation project

which was to be field tested for two years and then validated by a

trained review team.

Once it is validated by the state, the Woodbine

Read Aloud Club will be advertised throughout the state by the

Georgia Department of Education through the Innovation Program.

School systems who adopt the Woodbine Read Aloud Club as part of

their reading improvement program will receive inservice training

and adoption funds from the state.

The amount will be

approximately $5000.

Local school systen3 will provide about 10%

of the funds for the project.

The funds received from the state are

seed funds, that is, funds to get the project started in their system,

and then they are expected to continue the program with local

funding.

It should be noted that some of the validated projects available

for adoption through the Innovation Program have been in existence

for many years. The probability of the Woodbine Read Aloud Club

being adopted by Georgia school systems for many years is very

good.

This project, through the efforts of the children, their

parents, and teachers at Woodbine Elementary School has the

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possibility of impacting the reading achievement of many children

throughout the state in the coming years.

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References

Amspaugh, L.B. (1990). How I learned to hate standardized tests.

Principal, E9.(5), 28-31.

Becher, R.M. (1985). Parent involvement and reading achievement: A

review of research and implications for practice. Childhood

Education, §2.(1), 44-50.

Bingham, A., and Allen, R.R. (1986). Breaking away from basal

readers.

Principal, U(1), 40-41.

Caldenhead, K. (1987).

Reading level: A metaphor that shapes

practice. Phi Delta Kappan, aa(6), 436-441.

Carbo, M. (1987).

Reading styles research: "What works" isn't

always phonics.

Phi Delta Kappan, §1(6), 431-435.

Christmas, A.

(1991, March).

Telephone conversation with Dr. Alice

Christmas, a professor of early childhood education from

Georgia Southern University.

Clary, L.M. (1989). Parents teaching reading too. Georgia Journal

Announcement. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED

310 359)

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Appendices

130

139

Appendix A

Classroom Teachers by Grade and Year

Teacher Grade

90-91 89-90 88-89

87-88 86-87

85-86 84-85

101

102

K x

x x

103

K x

104

K x x x

x x

105

106

x x x

107

K x x

108

K x x

x x x

x x

156

109

1st x

110

1st

x x x

111 1st x x x

112

1st

x* x

113 1st

114

1st

115

1st

x x

116 1st

x x

117 1st

x x x x

x x x

118

1st

119 1st x x

x x*

101 2nd

x x

120 2nd

121 2nd

x x

122 2nd x x x x

123 2nd x x

106

2nd x

124 2nd

x x

125 2nd

115 2nd

x x x

118 2nd x x x

x x x

126 2nd x x

101

3rd

127 3rd

x* x x

128 3rd x x x

x x

131

140

Teacher Grade 90-91 89-90 88-89

87-88

86-87

85-86 84-85

123

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

3rd

4th

x x

136

4th

x x x

137 4th x

x x

138

4th

139

4th

140 4th

x x

141

4th

142 4th

131

4th

x* x

143

4th x

144 5th x

145

5th

146

5th

147 5th

x* x

137 5th

148 5th x

x x

149

5th

x x x

150 5th x*

151 5th x

x x

140

5th

152

5th

153

5th

154 5th x x

103 Chap x

110 Chap x

1 55 Chap x

1 2 1 Chap x

1 22

Chap

1 40

Chap x *

1 26

Chap

*partial

year

Appendix B

Second Grade QCC Objectives in Language Arts

Topic/Concept A.

Oral Communications - Listening

1. Expands listening vocabulary.

2. Follows three-step oral directions.

3. Listening to a variety of language patterns and literary

sources.

4. Responds to questions on orally presented literature.

5. Recognizes various literary forms: fiction, nonfiction and

poetry.

6. Determines meaning of unknown words in context.

7. Recalls and interprets orally presented information.

Topic/Concept B.

Oral Communication-Speaking

Expands speaking vocabulary in daily experiences.

Communicates effectively.

Adapts language to various situations.

4. Retells stories and relates experiences.

Topic/Concept C.

Written Communications - Reading

Reads to obtain meaning from print.

2. Reads a variety of materials for information and pleasure.

Expands reading vocabulary through formal and informal

interactions.

4. Rereads for understanding.

133

142

5. Recognizes explicit main ideas, details, sequences of

events, and cause-effect relationships.

6. Recognizes implicit main ideas, details, st;quence of events,

and cause-effect relationships.

7. Identifies the main characters.

8. Makes predictions.

9. Follows written

instructions.

10. Interprets syntactic and semantic relationships.

11. Classifies and categories words.

12. Recognizes auditory similarities and differences in words,

including single vowel sounds and rhyming patterns.

13. Uses word families, consonant and single vowel sound-

letter relationships in word recognition.

14. Identifies grade vocabulary level vocabulary words by sight.

15. Distinguishes between fantasy and reality in stories.

Topic/Concept D.

Written Communication - Writing

1. Participates in

prewriting, drafting, revising, editing,

proofreading, and publishing.

2. Begins editing for capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.

3. Expands writing vocabulary.

4. Dictates and writes experiences and stories using

descriptive language.

5. Uses pictures, words and inventive spelling in personal

134

143

writing.

6. Express ideas in sentence form.

7. Organizes ideas for effective communication.

8. Prints legible.

Topic/Concept E.

Literature

1. Experiences traditional and contemporary literature through

a variety of media.

2. Demonstrates an interest in various types of literature.

3. Responds to literal,

inferential and critical questions about

literature.

4. Recognizes various literary forms: fiction, poetry, and

nonfiction.

5. Distinguishes between fantasy and realism.

6. Identifies the traits, feelings, and actions of main

characters.

7. Responds creatively to literature.

8. Recognizes that literature reflects human experiences.

Topic/Concept F.

Reference and Study Skills

1. Uses book parts, including title page, table of contents, and

glossary, as information sources.

2. Alphabetizes words to the second letter.

3. Uses guide words to locate words in dictionaries and topics

in encyclopedias.

135

144

4. Recognizes the organization of fiction and nonfiction books

in the media center.

5. Uses various sources (e.g., magazines, audio visuals,

software) for information and pleasure.

6. Uses the media center as a source of information and

pleasure.

136

145

Appendix C

Changes in Teacher Assignments

1989-1990

1990-1991

Grade/Section

Assignment

Chapter 1A

Chapter 1 B

Transferred to another school; not

replaced.

Moved to 2nd grade; replaced by

Chapter 1 teacher.

Moved to 2nd grade; replaced by

Chapter 1 teacher.

Moved to Chapter 1; replaced by

kindergarten teacher.

Moved to Chapter 1; replaced by

1st grade teacher.

Transferred to another school;

replaced by a new teacher.

Transferred to another school;

replaced by a new teacher.

Moved to kindergarten; replaced by

a 2nd grade teacher.

Moved to 1st grade; replaced by a

2nd grade teacher.

The following grades/sections did not experience a change in

personnel: KB, KD, 1A, 1B, 10, 2B, 3A, 3B, 3C, 5A, and 5B.

137

146

i"y

ood

APPENDIX D

The Woodbine Read Aloud Club

is an innovative program at

Woodbine Elementary School

that is designed to promote

academic

and recreational

reading through involving parents

in reading

aloud to their children.

Educational research has shown that

reading

aloud

children

one

the

best

methods

increasing a child's vocabulary

and reading comprehension.

It is

the aim of the school to

involve parents, teachers and students

in the Woodbine Read Aloud

Club.

Parents will be encouraged to

read aloud to their children at

home while teachers read aloud to

the children at school.

With this two-fold approach we hope to

foster a love of reading in

children at an early age and give

them

academic

boost

help

them

reach

their

maximum

educational potential.

Parents who enroll their

children in the Woodbine Read Aloud

Club are encouraged to read

aloud to their children daily for 10

to 15 minutes at least

five times a week throughout the

school

year.

The parent will also turn in a

simple reading log of their

read aloud activities to the

homeroom teacher at the beginning of

each month.

After the reading log is turned in each

month,

the

child will receive incentives

from the school; such as,

books,

bookmarkers, posters, pencils and/or

other incentives.

************************** **********

*****************************

I would like to enroll

in the

Woodbine Read Aloud Club.

I will agree to read aloud to my child

daily for 10 to 15 minutes as often as

possible and keep a log of

my read aloud

activities that

I will turn in to the homeroom

teacher at the beginning of each

month.

My child will receive

incentives from the school each month

during the school year as

long as I continue to read aloud to my

child.

Parent

Date

Phone Number

138

Teacher

Grade

147

APPENDIX E

Return:

W©ciclbOnG.

Ac4t)cl

,a0©

CEA

Reading Log

Student

Parerfs Signabire

Grade

Teacher

Month

We encourage you to read to your child as often as you can. Reading aloud to children improves

their reading

comprehension and listening skills.

Reading aloud provides quality time between parents and children.

It is

something your child will remember about you as he or she becomes an adult and reads to your grandchildren.

Read aloud as often as you can. Record what you read and date it. Use the back if necessary to record additional

books. Sign the log and return it to your child's teacher at the beginning of each month. Thanks for reading aloud to

a child.

Date

Books Read Aloud

139

148

APPEND 1 X

The Woodbine Read Aloud

Newsletter

October, 1991

The Woodbine Read Aloud Club is

an innovation program at Woodbine

Elementary School that is designed

to promote academic and

recreational reading through

involving parents in reading aloud

to their children. Educational

research has shown that reading

aloud to children is one of the best

methods of increasing a child's

vocabulary and reading

comprehension. It is the aim of

the school to involve parents,

teachers and students in the

Woodbine Read Aloud Club. Parents

will be encouraged to read aloud to

their childre. at home while

teachers read aloud to the children

at school. With this two-fold

approach we hope to foster a love

of reading in children at an early

age and give them an academic

boost to help them reach their

maximum educational potential.

Parents who enroll their

children in the Woodbine Read Aloud

Club will agree to read aloud to

their children daily for 10 to 15

minutes at least five times a week

throughout the school year. The

parents will also turn in a simple

reading log of their read aloud

activities to the homeroom teacher

at the beginning of each month.

After the reading log is turned in

each month, the child will receive

incentivies from the school; such

as, books, bookmarkers, posters,

pencils and/or other incentivies.

READING ALOUD TIPS

Begin reading to children at an

early age.

2. Try to set aside time every day

for reading aloud.

3. Vary the length and subject

matter of your reading.

4. The art of listening is an

acquired one that must be taught

and cultivated gradually.

MEMBERSHIP SOARS

Over 70% of

the students

kindergarten

through second

grade have

become members of the Woodbine

Read Aloud Club.

If your child isn't

a member, now is a good time to

enroll your son or daughter and

start reading aloud. Contact your

child's homeroom teacher for more

information.

STUDENTS RECEIVE

FREE BOOKS

During

September over

175 free books

were given to

students in

kindergarten

through the

second grade

who are

members of the Woodbine Read

Aloud Club. More books will be

given away in October as parents

who have been reading aloud daily

to their children, turn in reading

logs to the homeroom teacher.

new book is given to each

child when he/she is enrolled in the

Woodbine Read Aloud Club. Each

child is allowed to select his/her

book from a large variety of books

especially purchased to be given

away. A nameplates is placed in

each book the 'child receives.

Additional books are given to the

child each month as parents

continue to read aloud and turn in

reading logs.

**************************

Teach Your Child to

Respect Books by Taking

Care of Them!

140

149

THE WOODBINE.,..

READ ALOUD CLUB

NEWSLETTER '

::..

:.::;

....

NOVEMBER 1991

Sharing Books!

Sharing books helps create a

special bond between parents and

children.

It introduces children to

art through the illustrations.

Sharing books enhances children's

listening skills and develops

important language skills.

Introduces children to a wide

variety of experiences. and it

improves and enriches the quality

of cliald eies lives.

Sharing books

provides fun and enjoyment f or

children and adults.

How to Share Books

Find a comfortable place to sit.

Recite or sing rhymes from your

favorite books. Turn off other

distractions (TO. radio or stereo).

Hold the book so your child can see

the pages clearly. Involve your

child by having him or her point out

objects, talk about the pictures or

repeat common words. Read with

expression. Vary the pace of your

reading (slow or fast). Have your

child select books to read. Reread

your child's favorite books

whenever asked.