Reading through Read to Succeed Review and Action Plan:
Recommendations (May 2009) a report from the Read to Succeed Review
Committee for the Saskatoon Public School Division I noted the two main
goals:
·
to improve reading performance, and
·
to gain the confidence and skills necessary to
work at an independent level in the regular classroom setting.
During an interview with one of the Read to Succeed
committee members, she stressed the ‘bigger picture,’ or aim of the Read to
Succeed Program, specifically “building
confidence and capability” in our students while connecting reading,
writing and ways to find information and communicate. I became curious about student confidence, mainly
as students get older, how their confidence in reading (when it seems everyone
else is good at it) fades as they see themselves compared to others.
In Emily Calhoun’s book Teaching Beginning Reading and Writing: With
the Picture Word Inductive Model (1999), she writes:
“A positive aspect in addressing the literacy challenge is
that these older students, whatever their native language or home environment,
bring more knowledge with them than 6-year-olds. The older students are more mature; if they
choose to engage, they can make rapid progress, moving ahead in reading and
literacy much faster than the average 6-year-old,” (p. 103).
I think the reasons for the success of the Read to Succeed
program are:
·
students generate the words and information
from…
·
they learn from each other (as well as from the
teacher)
·
the concepts they already know and own about how
language works are used to support instruction and are extended upon
Unlike other programs, which may concentrate or begin with student
deficits, the Read to Succeed program appreciates and looks to what the student
already knows.
This approach to learning which involves the expansion of
and building on to what is already known, along with student-generated concepts
and starting places is very successful.
Both the Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT) and the Fountas and Pinnel
Benchmark Assessment System have shown double and triple student gains as well
as an average growth of 1.3 Grade Level Equivalency (GLE).
The program must boost student self-confidence and
self-esteem as well. So wondering about
the connection between motivation and confidence, and how one might measure or
get a sense of how student attitude toward reading can change or improve, I did
some investigating. The first resource I
found was a book titled, Improving Reading: Strategies and Resources by Jerry
L. Johns and Susan Davis Lenski (2001).
Their survey titled, Motivation to Read Profile: Reading Survey was to
be used as a starting point in planning as the teacher gained a sense of
student attitude toward reading. My
initial survey used many of the questions from the Motivation to Read survey and
consisted of 20 questions:
After giving some teachers (classroom and resource room
teachers) the survey Ias well as the 809 assignment, I anticipated their feedback
and suggestions. I also found the Rhody
Secondary Reading Attitude Assessment (http://employee.heartland.edu/icole/rhody/index.html)
and circled some questions from that survey that I thought I could add.
These are some of the
changes I made based on both the comments I received and the Rhody Secondary
Reading Attitude survey:
a) One of my
‘testers’ felt the survey was too long, and wondered where my open-ended
questions were. I omitted the first two
questions since the teachers giving the test knew the students and therefore
did not need the students to fill in their gender and age and began combing
through questions which could be re-written as open-ended or scale-rated.
b) Another teacher
pointed out, “If they do not like reading and their friends do not like
reading, I don’t think # 8 is relevant.”
Question #8 was,
I tell my friends that
reading is
Really fun
Fun
OK
No fun at all
This was a good point, so I removed #8 and #3 and kept these
two questions, pertaining to friends:
My friends think I am
a
Very good reader
Good reader
An okay reader
A poor reader and
My best friends think
reading is
Great
Really good
Okay
Boring
These questions seemed to indicate whether the student had
support from his or her peer group or if reading was something they ever talked
about or participated in outside of school.
c) It was also pointed out that kids usually get gift
certificates to pick out their own book these days, and that the question, When someone gives me a book as a gift…I
feel…might have been better stated, When
I receive a book on a topic that I like…I feel…so I changed the question to
If I got a gift certificate to buy a
book, I would be…(I should have used “received” instead of “got!” yikes!).
d) Another issue I thought of during our discussion was that
many students do not have their own bedroom or a bedroom at all to sleep in, so
changing the question from You have a lot
of books in your room at home to (Rhody
survey) At home, I have…was more
inclusive of all students.
e) Another teacher pointed out the use of the word “fun,”
and wondered if perhaps kids don’t equate fun to something more physical like a
game. The concept of reading as
something that is interesting or enjoyable, was agreed upon, but I decided to
use great, really good, okay and boring, since students would be filling
out the survey, I wanted the vocabulary to consist of words students would use.
My final survey is comprised of twelve questions which given
at the beginning of the Read to Succeed program, then mid way and at the end of
each students’ year would help determine any changes in attitude and interest
in the area of reading and competency.
I liked the layout
and design of the kwiksurvey website, however it did not allow for open ended
questions. When I wanted to reformat the
style of question, I could not, as the free
version only permitted multiple choice questions and would not allow a variety
of question types. The open-ended
questions in the final survey look like multiple choices, which might be
confusing.
* As a final bit of advice, one of the teachers suggested
reading the questions out loud, along with the students. She pointed out that if they have difficulty
with reading to start with, the survey may be stressful and I may not get
accurate feedback. “This isn’t a test to
see how much they know, we want to know how they feel about reading, and
themselves as readers.” Another teacher
pointed out that reading the questions out loud, might invite students to ask
questions throughout as well…but the overall consensus of the group was that
that was okay for better understanding of each question.
* Even though my survey was designed with grade 3,4,5 and 6
students in mind, I thought that teachers would be the best ‘testers’ as they
would have a sense of what I am hoping to gain through the survey and the best
indicators of confidence and competence in reading. I was curious about a student response, so I
gave the survey to a neighbor who is in grade 5. He thought it was fine, but on question #3 he
drew a picture instead of writing words and on #6 he scribbled
down…trilogy!!! He also added the words
“for money,” at the very end of the survey after checking off the box that read
I would do another one.
