Early Reading Matters: A Study of Effective Reading Strategies for Every Learner by Maria Hatziminadakis by Maria Hatziminadakis ED , Spring 2008 ED , Spring 2008

Table of Contents: Introduction Statement of the Problem Review of Literature Hypothesis Methods Participants Instruments Procedure Results Discussion Implications

Introduction Today kindergarten is a dynamic place for a child. There is a lot of learning that takes place; it is integrated and multi-leveled, especially in literacy. Young children come to school and they are full of questions. They want to explore and learn. Children need to have many language experiences. Oral language, vocabulary, and other language concepts are crucial foundations for success in reading. In order for a child to develop language, they have to be exposed to discussions such as, talking about previous experiences they had, and making predictions. When a child is curious about things, a teacher must take this opportunity and link it to teaching, especially to reading.

Statement of the Problem: Statement of the Problem: Comprehension is the reason for reading. If readers can identify the words but do not understand what they are reading, they have not achieved the goal of reading comprehension.

Review of the Literature: “The kindergarten Dilemma” When is a child ready? Ackerman & Barnett (2000) Hill (2004)

Review of the Literature: Home environment: Limited exposure to English Steensel (2006) Coyne & Harn (2006)

Review of the Literature: Techniques that will increase children’s reading comprehension Gray & McMutchen (2006) Dickinson & McCabe (2001) Moore (1998) Foy & Mann (2006) Zeece (2006) Richards, Leafstedt & Gerber (2006) Cunningham & Shagoury (2005) Fuchs & Fuchs (2005) Myers (2005) Pinnell (2007) Jalongo & Ribblett (1997) Rule, Dockstader, Stewart (2006) Doyle &Bramwell (2006)

Review of the Literature: Other factors: Dyslexic parents Elbro & Petersen (2004) Behavior, social neurological factors Noble &McMandiss (2005)

Hypothesis: HR: Ms. H’s reading skills and strategy methods will improve the reading comprehension for 17 ELL kindergarten students.

Methods Participants: The participants are 17 ELL Kindergarten students from K-3 at P.S 105 in district 20. More than ½ of the participants have low reading skills and relatively little reading experience with adults or others at home. Instruments: -Parental questionnaire -Student questionnaire -Consent form -Benchmark assessment -Interview

Threats to Internal Validity History Maturation Testing Instrumentation Differential Selection of subjects Multiple treatment Ecological Validity

Procedure March 13 th – Parental Questionnaire/ Consent Form March 20 th – Student Questionnaire March 27 th – Interview Students April 1 st – Pre-test April 17 th – Post-test

Fluency & Comprehension Fluency & Comprehension Read-aloud Shared reading Guided reading Independent reading Phonics Word study -provide instruction that gives children the opportunity to experience and enjoy authentic texts and to practice the skills and strategies necessary for fluency and comprehension.

The knowledge and skills that children need for proficiency in reading: Oral language Prior knowledge and experience Concepts about print Phonemic awareness Letter-sound relationships Vocabulary for reading Semantics and syntax Metacognition and comprehension strategies Higher- order thinking skills

Predicting Making connections Personal World Text Synthesizing Inferring Thinking about what will follow while reading continuous text Searching for and using connections to knowledge that readers have gained through their personal experiences, learning about the world, and reading other text. Putting together information from text and from the reader’s own background knowledge in order to create new understandings. Going beyond the literal meaning of a text to think about what is not there but is implied by the writer.

Research Design Quasi Experimental: Pre-test, Posttest -single group is pretested (o), exposed to a treatment (x) and posttested (o) -symbolic design: OXO One designated treatment group -individuals are not randomly assigned

Survey Q: (Parental Questionnaire) I have reading aids for my child at home such as, “read and write mini books”.

Implications Use these findings with a larger sample size Further research is needed