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The Efficacy of a Program for Teaching Parents How to Read to Low-Achieving School-Aged Children to Increase Thei-r lrÏord Recognition and Comprehension by Lisa Karen Soiferman A Thesis Submitted to the Facul-ty of the Graduate School- of the University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education September 1-991- Bibliothèque nationate H*H l¡åäX'.T"" du Canada Canadian Theses Serv¡ce Sefv-rr:e deS thèSeS canadiennes O(awa. Canada KIA ON4 The author has granted an inevocaHe rìorì- L'auteuraaccordé une licence inévocable et exclusive licence altowing the National Ubrary non exdusive permettant à la Et¡bt¡othèque of Canada to reproduce, loan, dsüibute orsell nat¡onale du Canada de reproduire, prêter, copies of his/her thesis by any means and ¡n disbibuer ou vendre des codes de ðd thèsd any form orformat, maldng h¡shes¡saræitabte de quetque manière et sous quelque forme to interested persons. que ce soit pour mettre des exemplaires de cette thèse à la disposition des personnes intéressées. The author retains ownership of the copyright L auteur consen¡e fa propriété du drc¡it d'auteur in his/her thesis. Neither the thesis nor qui protege sa thèse. N¡la thèse nides exhaits substantial extracts from it may be printed or substantiels de celle-ci ne doivent être otherwise reproduced without per- hilher!\ imprimés ou autrement reproduits sans son missìon. autorisation. ïsBru Ø-31,5-77Ø23-6 Canadä THE EFFTCACY 0F A PRocRAl"f FoR TEACHTNG PARENTS Hor^r TO READ TO LOI^/-ACHIEVING SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN TO INCREASE THEIR I.TORD RECOGNITION AND COMPREHENSION DI LISA KAREN SOIFERMAN A tlresis subnrirted to tltc Faculty of Craduate Studies of the urriversity of Manitoba in partial fulhllment of the requirerììents of tlre degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION o 1991 Permissio¡'¡ has been gra'red to the LIBRARy oF THE uNlvER. S¡TY OF MANITOBA to lend or selt copies of rl:is thesis. to the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CANADA ro rnicrofilnr this thesis and to lend or æll copies oi the fitm, and UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS to pubtish an absrract of rhis thesis. The author res€rves other publication righrs, and neither ttrc thesis nor extensive extracts frorn it may be pnnteC or other- wise reproduced without the author's wrif,te¡l permissiolr. ABSTRACT This study investigated the efficacy of a program desi-gned to teach parents how to read to their low-achieving school-aged children to heJ-p increase the childrenrs word recognition and comprehension. Parents whose chil-dren !üere receiving additional school assistance from a resource specialist were invited to enroll in the program. Grade placement of the students rang'ed from grades one to four. Fourteen parents hrere instructed once a week for eight weeks in two hour time blocks. Parents were advised to read to their children every day using techniques and strategies model-ed during classes. Resul-ts showed significant gains in aII areas of word recognition identifying words both in isol_ation and in context. There was al-so a significant increase in students' comprehension on both uncued and cued recall performance measures. As a result of the program, student attitudes towards reading also improved. Students read more, both in the cl-assroom and at home. In gieneral, the efficacy of a parent program to heJ-p low- achieving school--aged children was confirmed based on all measures of word recognition and comprehension. l- l_ ACKNOI^]LEDGMENTS The writer expresses appreciation to her advisor, DL. Beverley Zakaluk, without whose assistance and advice this thesis would not have been completed. Appreciati-on j-s al-so extended to members of the committee, Dr. Joan Vüalters, and Professor Jim Belford. In addition, acknowledgment is given to Mr. Robert Bal-shaw of the Statistical Advisorv Service for his assistance with data analysis. Thanks must be given to the administration, parents, and students of Royal school, for their backing and support. Especially appreciated in the preparation of the manuscript is the assistance of Mrs. Audrey Krutkevich. Acknowledgement j-s also due to Esther Larson for servingi as an independent judge in scorj-ng the reading inventory. Special- thanks are owed to rny farnily: my husband, Jacob and my chil-dren, Heather and Marc for their unconditi-onal support and encouragement. There hrere many times when I wanted to quit but they r¡/ere always there to keep me going. f would l-ike to dedicate this thesis to my parents. My father, Harry Venne, who is not here to read this but without his love and support a1t the years I was growing up I woul-d not have come this far. And to rny mother, Beatrice Venne, who has always told me, and continues to tell me, that I can do or be anything I want. rl-l- TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT -LI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix Chapter 1. NATURE OF THE STUDY 1 Statement of the Problem 4 Scope of the Study 6 Statement of the Hypothesis 9 Definition of Terms l-0 Assumptions L/ Orgianization of the Report 18 2. REVIEW OF THE LTTERÀTURE I9 Home Environment 1_9 Summary J+ Storybook Reading as a Routine J4 Summary +J Parents as Reading Models 44 Summary 3,1 Overall Summary and Concl-usions 52 Summary of the Research 53 Proqram Elements 54 l_v 3. PROCEDURES 57 Method 58 Parent Subjects 58 Student Subjects 60 Instructional- Material-s ol- Instructional Procedures 6I lest Instruments 63 Calcul-ating Cornposite Indices 66 Scores for Word Recognition 68 Scores for Comprehension Measures 69 Scoring for Change in Reading Level 69 Inter-rater Rel-iabilitv 70 Design and Analysis 7I Summary 72 RESULTS 73 Anal-ysis of Data 75 Testing of the Hypothesis 77 Hypothesis 1-.... 77 Hypothesis 2 84 Summary and Discussion 90 Hypothesis 3 94 Taped Sessions 10l_ Support Data 103 Summary t_t_0 V 5. SUMMARY, CONCLUSïONS, AND TMPLTCATTONS r]-z Summary of Research Findings t-l-8 Results for Chang:e in Word Recognition..118 Results for Change in Comprehension . .11-9 Questionnaires 1-1-9 Results for Change in Attitudes 1l-9 Conclusions L24 Educational- Implications L26 Concerns 1-27 Recommendations for Further Research 1,29 Recommendations for Future Proclrams l-30 REFERENCES 1-32 APPENDICES 143 A. Sample Passages from the Bader Reading and Lancruacre Inventorv. (re83) ..... 144 B. Pre and Post Training Interviews L48 C. Letter of Consent L54 D. List of Books used by Participant.... 156 E. List of Books used by Investigator 167 F. Suggestions to Maximize Story Reading .1-69 G. Sample Character Sketch L71, vl- LIST OF TABLES Table Page 3. l- Subject Number and Class Attendance Rate 59 3.2 Actual- Grade Placement of Students 60 4.L Means and Standard Deviations for Childrents Recognition of lrlords in Iso]-atj-on 78 4.2 Means and Standard Deviations for Chil-drents Recognition of Words in Context B1- 4.3 Means and Standard Deviations for Chil-drents Uncued Recall- (Story Retellings) of Passages 84 4.4 Means and Standard Deviations for Coml¡rehension as Measured by Cued Recal-l- (Questions) ót 4.5 Differences in Studentrs Attitudes to Reading as Indicated by Pre and Post Program Interviews .....95 4.6 Differences in Parent's Attitudes to Reading as Indicated by Pre - and Post Program Interviews 99 V]- I LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1, Pre to Posttest Gains in l,{ord Recognition and Comprehension .....76 4.2 Histograrn Depicting pre to posttest Gains in Word Recogni-tion as Measured by l,trords in Tsol-ation 80 4.3 Histogram Depicting pre to posttest Gains in Word Recognition as Measured by lriords Read Correctly in Context .......83 4.4 Histograrn Depicting pre to posttest Gains in Cornprehension as Measured by Uncued. Recall- ......96 4.5 Histogram Depicting pre to posttest Gains in Reading Comprehension as Measured by Cued Recall- ......89 vl_ l-.1_ Chapter l- NATIIRE OF THE STUDY Parents are the first teachers children meet (Grinnel, 1984; Morrow, L989¡ Potter, l-989). For the first five years of their childrenrs l-ives, before formal- schooJ-ing, parents are in the best position to shape Ìiteracy experiences. Based on her studies of parents and their preschool children Morrow (1989) found that: The success of the school literacy program frequently depends on the l-iteracy environment at home. Studies carried out in homes have been a major catalyst for the new l-ook in early literacy strategies. Because many children come to schoof already reading and writing, apparently without formal instruction, investigators began to study the characteristics of those children and of their homes. Such children v/ere said to have rrlearned to read naturallyr" a phrase that suggests that their abitity to read evolved l-ike their acquisition of language or their learning to walk. (p.23) I can attest to the important rol-e of the home in the deveJ-opment of early J-iteracy. My son l-earned to read when he was four years old. I didnrt formallyttteachrrhim to read so it roight be said that he learned to read rrnaturalJ-yrr in much the same way that he learned to walk and talk. From the time he was a few days old, Marc was ímmersed in print. Vùe read books on a daily basis, wê discussed signs in the environment, he watched as I wrote letters and university papers, wê discussed his books, and he sat beside me as f helped my daughter, Heather, with her homework. For Marc, Ìearning to read vlas as natural and as gradual as his acquisition of language.

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