The effectiveness of systematic reading programs on the achievement of students in grades K--2.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Over the years, there has been controversy about the best approach to teaching young children to read. Two groups of students in elementary school were studied to determine if two systematic reading programs, Project Read and Breakthrough to Literacy, increased student achievement as measured by the Test of Auditory Analysis Skills, the Basic Angling Skills Survey, the Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation, and a Qualitative Reading Inventory. Both groups of students were chosen from the same school district. The first group was instructed in Project Read in kindergarten through second grade and Breakthrough to Literacy in kindergarten and first grade. The second group of students was not instructed in either of these systematic reading programs; however, both School A and School B used the Houghton Mifflin series for the literature component of the language arts curriculum. Test scores on the survey instruments of phonemic awareness were obtained at the end of the students' first grade year, and their comprehension was evaluated at the end of second grade. The data revealed that students who had direct, systematic instruction in phonemic awareness performed better in reading than those students who did not have that type of direct, systematic instruction. These results suggest that interaction with print combined with explicit attention to sound structure in spoken words supports children in learning to read.