Exploring Efficacy of a Community-Based Reading Programme for At-Risk ChildrenJanet Siew Poh LAW

Year 2015, Volume: 7 Issue: 2, 251 - 272, 17.01.2016

Janet Siew Poh Law Noel Kok Hwee Chıa

Abstract

This study reports an exploratory evaluation of a community-based reading programme kidsREAD. Children (N=186) aged 4 through 8, of different ethnic groups, from 12 reading clubs, were exposed to one hour of reading intervention with trained volunteers at various locations. For one year, volunteers read stories to children once a week in groups less than 30, then divided them up into smaller groups to engage in a variety of reading-related activities. Paired t-tests and inter-correlation analyses were conducted. Parent survey was collated for triangulation. There were significant improvements in use of English language, individual participation and peer interaction, and reading skills, at post-programme evaluation. Effect size analyses pointed to a significant impact of programme participation on changes in reading-related behaviour. Results from the analysis were used to predict the reading success for the programme, illustrated through the equation: RgA à [(UEL)(PAI)(RS)] à RgS. 

Keywords

KidsREAD, low-income; at-risk; reading; volunteer

References

• Allington, R.L. & Cunningham, P.M. (1996). Schools that work: Where all children read and write. New York: HarperCollins College Publishers.
• Anderson, R. C., Wilson, P. T., & Fielding, L. G. (1988). Growth in reading and how children spend their time outside of school. Reading Research Quarterly, 23(3), 285–303.
• Arizpe, E. & Blatt, J. (2011). How responses to picturebooks reflect and support the emotional development of young bilingual children. In Bettina Kümmerling- Meibauer (Ed.), Emergent literacy - Children’s books from 0 to 3. Series: Studies in written language and literacy (13). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Beck, I.L., & McKeown, M.G. (2001). Text talk: Capturing the benefits of read-aloud experiences for young children. The Reading Teacher, 55(1), 10–20.
• Biemiller, A., & Boote, C. (2006). An effective method for building meaning vocabulary in primary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(1), 44-62. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.98.1.44
• Bravo, M.A., Hiebert, E.H., & Pearson, P.D. (2007). Tapping the linguistic resources of Spanish/English bilinguals: The role of cognates in science. In R.K. Wagner, A.E. Muse, & K.R. Tannenbaum (Eds.), Vocabulary acquisition: Implications for reading comprehension (pp. 140-156). New York: Guilford.
• Brozo, W.G. (1990). Learning how at-risk readers learn best: A case for interactive assessment. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 33(7). 522-527.
• Bryan, T. H. (1978). Social relationships and verbal interactions of learning disabled children. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 11(2): 107-115.
• Burney, V. H., & Beilke, J. R. (2008). The constraints of poverty on high achievement. Journal for the Education of the Gifted. 31(3), 295-321.
• Bus, A,G., Belsky, J., van Ijzendoorn., Crnic, K. (1997). Attachment and book-reading patterns: A study of mothers, fathers, and their toddlers. Early Childhood Research Quarterly. 12(1), 81–98.
• Campbell, D. T., & Stanley, J. C. (1966). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.
• Chall, J. S., Jacobs, V. A., & Baldwin, L. E. (1990). The reading crisis – Why poor children fall behind. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
• Cipielewski, J., & Stanovich, K. E. (1992). Predicting growth in reading ability from children's exposure to print. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 54(1), 74-89. doi: 10.1016/0022-0965(92)90018-2
• Clark, C., & de Zoysa, S. (2011). Mapping the interrelationships of reading enjoyment, attitudes, behaviour and attainment: An exploratory investigation. London: National Literacy Trust.
• Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Cook, T.D. & Campbell, D.T. (1979). Quasi-experiment: Design and analysis issues for field settings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Cook, T.D. & Campbell, D.T. (1986). The causal assumptions of quasi-experimental practice: The origins of quasi-experimental practice. Synthese, 68(1), 141-180.
• Cox, K. E., & Guthrie, J. T. (2001). Motivational and cognitive contributions to students’ amount of reading. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 26(1), 116-131. doi:10.1006/ceps.1999.1044
• Creswell, J.W. (2008). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
• Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power, and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
• Cunningham, P. M. (2006). High-poverty schools that beat the odds. Reading Teacher, 60(4), 382–385.
• Cunningham, A. E., & Stanovich, K. E. (1991). Tracking the unique effects of print exposure in children: Associations with vocabulary, general knowledge, and spelling. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83(2), 264-274.
• Dickson, D.K., de Temple, J.M., Hirschler, J.A. & Smith, M.W. (1992) Book reading with preschoolers: Co-construction of text at home and at school. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 7(3), 323-346.
• Dickinson, D.K., Griffith, J.A., Golinkoff, R.M., & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2012). How reading books fosters language development around the world. Child Development Research, 2012, 1-15, doi:10.1155/2012/602807
• Fantini, A. E. (1985). Language acquisition of a bilingual child: A sociolinguistic perspective. San Diego, CA: College-Hill Press.
• Gopinathan, S., Chin, L. F., Quah, M. L., Chang, S. C., Suen, Y. C., Wong, H. Chong, T. H.,…Eng, C. H. (1978). A measure of reading: IE survey of reading interests and habits. Singapore: Institute of Education.
• Guthrie, J.T. (2000). Engagement and motivation in reading instruction. Paper presented for the National Invitational Conference on Successful Reading Instruction sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and the Laboratory for Student Success at the Temple University Center for Research in Human Development and Education, November 12–13, 2001, Washington, DC.
• Guthrie, J. T, Schafer, W., & Hutchinson, S. R. (1991). Relations of document literacy and prose literacy to occupational and societal characteristics of young black and white adults. Reading Research Quarterly, 26(1), 30-48.
• Halmari, H., & Smith, W. (1994). Code-switching and register shift: Evidence from Finnish–English child bilingual conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 21(4), 427–445. doi: 10.1016/0378-2166(94)90013-2
• Hayes, D., & Ahrens, M. (1988). Vocabulary simplification for children: A special case of “motherese”? Journal of Child Language, 15, 395-410.
• Heaton, J. B. (1979). Report on reading habits and difficulties of primary IV pupils. Singapore: Institute of Education for the Associated Schools.
• Jiang, B., & Kuehn, P. (2001). Transfer in the academic language development of post-secondary ESL students. Bilingual Research Journal, 25(4), 417-436.
• Johnston, I.C. (1981). Reading levels in Singapore schools: A preliminary skirmish. Singapore: National Institute of Education.
• Justice, L.M., McGinty, A.S., Piasta, S.B., Kaderavek, J.N., & Fan, X. (2010). Print-focused read-alouds in preschool classrooms: Intervention effectiveness and moderators of child outcomes. Language, Speech & Hearing Services in Schools, 41(4), 504-520, doi: 10.1044/0161-1461(2010/09-0056)
• Kaderavek, J. and Justice, L.M. (2005). The effect of book genre in the repeated readings of mothers and their children with language impairment: A pilot investigation. Child Language Teaching and Therapy. 21(1): 75–92. doi:10.1191/0265659005ct282oa
• Karim, K. (2003). First language (L1) influence on second language (L2) reading: The role of transfer. Working Papers of the Linguistics Circle (WPLC), University of Victoria. Volume 17 (pp. 49-54). Retrieved from: http://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/WPLC/article/view/5164/2136
• Kinnear, P. R. and Gray, C. D. (2010). IBM SPSS statistics 18 made simple. New York:
• Psychology Press.
• Krashen, S. (2004). The Power of Reading. (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
• Kyratzis, A. (2004). Talk and interaction among children and the co-construction of peer groups and peer cultures. The Annual Review of Anthropology, 33, 625-649.
• Lane, H.B. & Wright, T.L. (2007). Maximizing the effectiveness of reading aloud. The Reading Teacher, 60(7), 668-675.
• Leow, S. W., & Yeo, S. L. (2010, March 25). English boost for more pupils – Schools say English language facilitator scheme has improved kids’ reading ability. The Straits Times. p. B5.
• Mashburn, A. J., Justice, L. M., Downer, J. T., & Pianta, R. C. (2009). Peer effects on children’s language achievement during pre-kindergarten. Child Development, 80(3), 686–702.
• McKool, S. S. (2007). Factors that influence the decision to read: An investigation of fifth grade students’ out-of school reading habits. ProQuest Education Journals, 44, 111-131.
• McLeod, S. A. (2008). Correlation. Simply Psychology. Retrieved from: http://www.simplypsychology.org/correlation.html.
• Mertens, D. M. (2010). Research and evaluation in education and psychology – Integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods. (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Miles, S.B., & Stipek, D. (2006). Contemporaneous and longitudinal associations between social behavior and literacy achievement in a sample of low-income elementary school children. Child Development, 77(1), 103-117.
• Nation, K., & Snowling, M. J. (2004). Beyond phonological skills: Broader language skills contribute to the development of reading. Journal of Research in Reading, 27(4), 342–356.
• National Library Board [NLB]. (2004). National Library Board and major community groups launch kidsREAD, a national reading programme for children from lower-income families. Media Release on 23 May 2004. Retrieved from: http://www.nlb.gov.sg/Corporate.portal?_nfpb=true&_windowLabel=PRHandler_1&PRHandler_1_actionOverrid...
• Neuman, S.B., & D. Celano. (2001). Access to print in low-income and middle-income communities. Reading Research Quarterly, 36(1), 8-26.
• Neuman, S.B., & D. Celano. (2006). The knowledge gap: Implications of leveling the playing field for low-income and middle-income children. Reading Research Quarterly 41(2), 176-201.
• Newton, E., Padak, N.D., & Rasinski, T.V. (2008). Evidence-based instruction in reading: A professional development guide to vocabulary. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
• Ng, S.M. (1980). The status of reading in primary 1, 2 and 3 in Singapore. (Occasional Paper No.5). Singapore: Institute of Education.
• Parcel, T. L., & Dufur, M. J. (2001). Capital at home and at school: Effects on student achievement. Social Forces, 79(3), 881–912.
• Ratner, B. (2009). The correlation coefficient: Its values ranges between +1 / -1, or dothey?” Journal of targeting, measurement and analysis for marketing, 17, 139–142.
• Ratner, B. (2012). The correlation coefficient. North Woodmere, NY: DM Stat-1 Consulting.
• Ray, J. W., & Shadish, W. R. (1996). How interchangeable are different estimators of effect size? Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(6), 1316–1325.
• Reyes, I. (2004). Functions of code switching in schoolchildren’s conversations. Bilingual Research Journal, 28(1), 77-98.
• Ringbom, H. (1992). On Ll transfer in L2 comprehension and L2 production. Language Learning, 42(1), 85-112.
• Stanat, P., Artelt, C., Baumert, J., Klieme, E., Neubrand, J., Prenzel, M., . . . Weiss, M. (2002). PISA 2000: Overview of the study. Design, methods and results. Berlin, Germany: Max Planck Institute for Human Development.
• Tierney, R. J., Readance, J., & Dishner, E. (1995). Reading strategies and practices: A compendium. (3rd ed.), Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
• Ting, S-H. (2010). Impact of language planning on language choice in friendship and transaction domains in Sarawak, Malaysia. Current Issues in Language Planning, 11(4), 397-412.
• Tyner, B.B., & Green, S.E. (2012). Small-grouped reading instruction: Differentiated teaching models for intermediate readers, grades 3-8 (2nd ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
• van Kleeck, A., Stahl, S.A., & Bauer, E.B. (Eds.). (2003). On reading books to children: Parents and teachers. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
• van Kleeck, A., Vander Woude, J. and Hammett, L. (2006). Fostering literal and inferential language skills in Head Start preschoolers with language impairment using scripted book-sharing discussions. American Journal of Speech-Language
• Pathology, 15, 85–95.
• Wasik, B. A. (1997) Volunteer tutoring programs. Phi Delta Kappan, 79(4), 282-287.
• Wasik, B. A. (1998). Volunteer tutoring programs in reading: A review. Reading Research Quarterly, 33(3), 266-291.
• Wasik, B., Bond, M.A., & Hindman, A. (2006). The effects of a language and literacy intervention on Head Start children and teachers. Journal of Educational Psychology. 98(1), 63–74.
• Wise, J.C., Sevcik, R.A., Morris, R.D., Lovett, M.W., & Wolf, M. (2007). The relationship among receptive and expressive vocabulary, listening comprehension, pre-reading skills, word identification skills, and reading comprehension by children with reading disabilities. Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research, 50 (4), 1093-1109.
• Zentella, A. C. (1982). Code-switching and interaction among Puerto Rican children. In J. Amastae & L. Ellas-Olivares (Eds.), Spanish in the United States: Sociolinguistic aspects (pp. 354–385). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.