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This study
compared the reading growth of two groups of struggling first-grade
readers during a twelve week period. A group of five first-graders were
exposed to a modified Reading Recovery approach as an
intervention, while a group of
four first-graders were exposed to the Early Reading Intervention
program as an intervention. The Control group received instruction
only from the classroom teacher who is using the 2005 edition of the
Houghton-Mifflin program to instruct reading. The modified Reading
Recovery group and the Early Reading Intervention (ERI) group also
received instruction from the classroom teacher. At the beginning and
end of the twelve-week study, the twenty students in this first-grade
class were given the
Developmental Reading Assessment
(DRA),
and the
Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early
Literacy Skills (DIBELS). Clay's
Dictation subtest from the
Observation Survey was given at the beginning, in the middle, and
at the end of the twelve-week period to provide information on students'
sound-symbol knowledge. A
data
sheet was used to analyze each child's Dictation subtest. An
observational checklist
analyzing students' attentional abilities in the classroom during the
literacy block was completed on each student at the beginning, in the
middle, and at the end of the twelve-week period. Anecdotal
notes/observations were made during the modified Reading Recovery
lessons. Running records were conducted monthly on the modified
Reading Recovery group in order to help determine which strategies
needed to be stressed or prompted for during lessons. At the end of the
twelve week study, the modified Reading Recovery group made the greatest
growth in the following areas: reading level, phoneme segmentation
fluency, and attention. The ERI group made the biggest growth in nonsense word fluency.