Education Case

Dana Knight

April 2, 2011

A study was done on data from children who received a one-on-one intervention called Reading Recovery during the first half of their first-grade school year. The point of the study was to see if the intervention results would help to determine how the students would perform during and after having the Reading Recovery lessons. The students were assessed with Text Reading Level (TRL). The results of the study showed that the students who completed the lessons of Reading Recovery at a quicker rate and had the same TRL at the mid-year were shown to have a higher TRL score at the end of the year. Two of the men conducting the study found that children who had difficulty with literacy skills early in the school career would fall behind their peers. Even after strategies were put into place most did not show to be effective. An early intervention approach showed to be effective. They also found without the intervention early in their schooling the students who struggled with literacy would fall behind their peers in most areas.

The students taking part in this survey consisted of a total of 20,722 students. Of this total 18,861 were boys (61.2%) and 11,965 girls (38.8%), 63.3% White, 17.6% African American, 16.5% Hispanics, 2.1% Asians, and 1.5% Native Americans or Hawaiian students. With this total, 11,336 (54.71%) received free or reduced lunch because of low income families. They began the intervention in the fall and ended mid-year.

To participate, teachers identified the lowest 20th percentile in reading and were recommended for one-on-one tutoring. The tutors were specially trained in Reading Recovery. The students went for thirty minutes each day for 12-20 weeks. As soon as they were reading at the average range of their classmates the program was stopped. The sooner they finished the lessons the better the outcome.

I feel that the study was accurate. If a teacher is ever able to work one-on-one with a student and provide the scaffolding that occurred in this study most children are going to succeed. The scaffolding process enables the student to receive the help in the exact area they are struggling. I also agree that an early intervention is the key for these students. The sooner a struggling reader is reached out to, the better the chance for success. The only issue I have with this article is it is not realistic in my teaching district, to receive that one-on-one tutoring. The money is not available. We are lucky to be able to have the teachers we have.

Reference:

Bufalino, Janet, Chuang Wang, Francisco X. Gomez-Bellenge, and Garreth Zalud. "What's Possible for First-Grade At-Risk Literacy Learners Receiving Early Intervention Services." Literacy Teaching and Learning 15 (2010):