Effects of Guided Reading on Third-grade Students' Reading Ability

iii Literature Review. 1 Methods. 12 Research Design . 13 Participants . 15 Measures . 16 Procedures . 17 Fidelity. 19 Ethical Considerations . 19 Validity threats. 20 Results . 21 Discussion. 22 References . 25 Appendix A . 30 Appendix B . 34 Appendix C . 35 GUIDED READING AND READING ABILITY 1 Effects of guided reading on thirdLiterature Review Reading on grade level is important to the success of a student (Laquinta, 2006). Reading opens the door for continuous learning and helps students achieve success at higher academic levels. Inability to read may lead to stunted academic growth, which means the student remains at the same reading and/or grade level. Studies on reading have developed an increased understanding around numerous important elements needed for reading instruction including phonemic awareness, fluency, comprehension, phonics, and vocabulary (National Institute for Literacy, 2008; National Reading Panel, 2000; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Each of the aforementioned elements provide a unique construct and are critical when learning how to read. For example, phonemic awareness is the ability to understand, use and manipulate sounds. Furthermore, phonemic manipulate sounds and syllables in words and is a predictor of reading success (Yopp, 1992). When children are incapable of differentiating and properly using the sounds within words (e.g., that the w child will have problems identifying and acquiring more knowledge about the essential print to sound connection crucial to reading efficiently. In addition to phonemic awareness, vocabulary, the understanding of the meaning of words, is needed for students to comprehend what is read (Kamil & Hiebert, 2005). Therefore, to read new and advanced texts, students must also learn the meaning of new words contained in the text that may not be part of their oral vocabulary. Vocabulary is important for reading comprehension, as it is impossible to understand what is read with limited vocabulary knowledge (Hirsch, 2003). Furthermore, comprehension, GUIDED READING AND READING ABILITY 2 the ability to understand words read and appropriately respond to questions about the text (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996), and requires the student understand and make connections with what is read. Fluency, defined by Fountas & Pinnell (1996) as the ability to read text quickly, accurately, and with proper expression. Flulency is an integral part of the reading process because it finish reading assignments. Students who are not fluent readers often struggle to make sense of texts as their attention and concentration is generally more focused on trying to decode the words instead of the underlying information within the text. Preliminary stages of reading fluency happen when students can recognize words instantly without struggling. Being able to read fluently opens up the possibility for students to attain the greatest purpose of reading, which is comprehension (Samuels, 2007). Fluency is having the ability to easily and effortlessly read texts (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). Whereas, comprehension understand texts read and respond to questions pertaining to the texts (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). Both fluency and reading comprehension go hand-in-hand. For example, fluent readers read with ease without awkward pauses, as a result, their brains can easily comprehend the texts read (Scharer, Pinnell, Lyons, & Fountas, 2005). Therefore, fluency greatly affects comprehension skills and must be addressed when teaching reading to young children. Reading practice enables a learner to develop expertise, which is similar to the development of other skills that require organization of smaller actions as part of a combined process (Stahl & Kuhn, 2002). For example, an actor rehearses his/her lines, a musician daily goes over pieces that ultimately gets played, and a beginner driver spends as much time as possible behind the wheel to gain the experience needed to be skilled at the task (Rasinski GUIDED READING AND READING ABILITY 3 Homan, & Biggs, 2008). Usually, the process of practicing entails repetition of the actions. In this way also, achieving reading fluency requires practice. The benefits of implementing fluency based instruction must be recognized and implemented by instructors who have students with reading difficulties. Snow, Burns, and Griffith (1998) suggested teachers use instructional strategies that systematically present daily opportunities for modeling, guided practice, and repeated reading. Modeling (i.e., where a teacher demonstrates the action he/she wants the students to complete) of fluent reading provides the student with an example of how to read precisely, without errors, and with good expression and phrasing. Rupley and colleagues (2009) agree with Mathes and colleagues (2003) on what the most effective teaching strategies for struggling readers. The researchers agree that teacherdirected instructions are the best strategy for struggling readers. For example, Mathes and colleagues (2003) found using teacher-directed instruction to teach struggling readers in a small group was more effective than peer assisted instruction. This is likely because small group Struggling readers generally gain more from small group instruction, mainly because the individualized instruction affords the student to be taught at their own level (Klein, 2012). Generally, small group instruction targets fluency and comprehension skills as both are crucial components of reading and also the finish line of reading. Non-fluent readers struggle to finish long passages, and often once complete, there is little comprehension. This is because the students put so much time and effort into thinking how to read and have no time to think of what they are reading. Being focused on the first leaves no room for the later and therefore has a negative impact on comprehension. Improving fluency however, leads directly to improved comprehension as the student can easily read texts and therefore make meaning of the text. GUIDED READING AND READING ABILITY 4 Good readers are problem solvers; decoding unfamiliar words using context clues and the meanings of familiar words (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). Furthermore, fluent readers are prone to making mistakes too. It is not only unskilled readers who may read in a slow, and arduous way. Skilled readers may read this way too when reading texts containing unfamiliar words or at a higher reading level. Fluency however, makes it possible for students to go from word decoding to reading without practicing beforehand since it directly correlates with word recognition skills (Hirsch, 2003). More effort therefore goes into the student comprehending the text and moving forward rather than being stuck at the same reading level practicing. When this is not possible, it creates an environment where students are unable to focus on other methods to assist them in comprehending the text. A large study was done by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) focusing on the status of fluency achievement within American education (Pinnell et al., 1995). The study incorporated a nationally representative sample of 4th graders. Results indicated that 44% of the sample were disfluent even though they read texts within their own grade-level and under supportive testing conditions. Pinnell and colleagues (1995) found a strong correlation between fluency and comprehension skills, as students who read more fluently were found to have higher average scores on comprehension tests than their peers who were less fluent. This led the researchers to suggest that slow, less fluent readers tend to have lower comprehension, than faster more fluent readers (Pinnell et al., 1995). Therefore, students who are not fluent may have difficulty understanding what is read. Comprehension Comprehension, defined earlier, is the ultimate goal of learning to read yet many young readers s