The authors used teacher action research with the design experiment (A. Brown, 1992) to investigate the effects of working with parents in small groups on kindergarten children's emergent literacy performance. The authors randomly assigned 56 children enrolled in the morning and afternoon sessions of the first author's kindergarten class in a rural public school in central Pennsylvania to either the treatment (parent input) or the comparison (no parent input) condition during small-group language enrichment. The authors made pre- and posttreatment assessments on the children's emergent literacy. The authors also interviewed the children for their reactions to having parents in their classroom. Eighteen parents (15 mothers and 3 fathers) who served to a varying extent as classroom volunteers over 5 months, and other parents who returned questionnaire surveys but did not volunteer in the classroom, also were participants. Results indicated that children in general had positive perceptions of parents' presence in the classroom and that children in the treatment group outperformed comparison-group children on posttreatment measures of word, but not letter, recognition. On the basis of parent self-reports, results also indicated that parents' current reading practices with their children--but not parents' early literacy experiences from their own childhoods--were associated positively and significantly with extent of their classroom volunteer participation. Recommendations for working with parents in the classroom are proffered on the basis of these direct experiences.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Heldfref Publications: www.heldref.org
The effects of graduate students' peer orientation on achievement and motivation to learn with cooperative learning strategies while enrolled in a 1-semester educational research methods course were investigated. During 15 weekly lessons (2 hr and 50 min each), students with high and low peer orientation were exposed to cooperative-learning instruction that involved face-to-face promotive interaction, positive interdependence, individual accountability enforced by group members, collaborative skills, and group processing. At the end of the course, the students' achievement and motivation levels were assessed. Differences in the achievement of students with high and low peer orientation were not statistically significant. However, students with high peer orientation were significantly more motivated to learn than were students with low peer orientation. Potential causes and ramifications of the findings are discussed.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Heldfref Publications: www.heldref.org
This study investigated the interactions of 16 first-grade children during one academic year as they participated in literacy events with their peers. Of particular interest was how children with different levels of acceptance from their peers and different levels of reading achievement experienced collaborative peer-only literacy events. A sociocultural perspective guided the investigation. Constructs related to the individual psychology of the children were also considered to gain insights into experiences of individual children. Data included 138 hours of classroom observations, video and/or audiotapes of the children as they participated in collaborative literacy events, assessments of the children's reading ability and assessments of the children's acceptance by their peers. A constant comparative method guided the data analysis. The analysis suggests that issues related to peer acceptance and reading competence complicate children's interactions during collaborative literacy events. While interactions during these events are a source of support for some, they may be a source of stress for others. Concepts critical to understanding how children with different levels of acceptance from peers and different levels of reading achievement experience these events are presented. Implications for classroom teachers and for researchers are presented.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the International Reading Association.
Research in children's oral language and early literacy learning currently emphasizes the facilitative role of social context. This study examined the sequential interactions of first-grade students during collaborative writing to determine the ways in which peer collaboration relate to literate language use. Same gender dyads of seven- and eight-year-old children were observed during collaborative writing tasks and measures of oral language were collected. Sequential analyses of social interaction suggested that children's use of literate language during collaborative writing tasks is related to various forms of social regulation such as offering assistance, checking, or guiding. The data support the proposition that social forms of regulation elicit literate language and self-regulation strategies. The results are discussed in terms of the role of social regulation in the context of peer collaboration.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
The aim of unpaid volunteer classroom assistants is to give extra support to children learning to read. The impact of using volunteers to improve children's acquisition of reading skills is unknown. To assess whether volunteers are effective in improving children's reading, we undertook a systematic review of all relevant randomised controlled trials (RCTs). An exhaustive search of all the main electronic databases was carried out (i.e. BEI, PsycInfo, ASSIA, PAIS, SSCI, ERIC, SPECTR, SIGLE). We identified eight experimental studies, of which seven were RCTs. One of the RCTs was excluded because it did not meet the inclusion criteria. One RCT randomised intact classes and the other six studies randomised individual children and could therefore be included in a meta-analysis. All of the trials were fairly small, with the largest including 99 pupils. Four of the trials showed a positive outcome, while three showed a negative effect and the remaining study was equivocal. We pooled the four most homogeneous trials. The pooled data indicated an effect size of 0.19, which was not statistically significant (p = 0.54, 95% confidence interval = -0.31 to 0.68). Overall, volunteering appeared to have a small effect on reading outcomes. However, the confidence intervals were wide, which could conceal a potentially large benefit or a harmful effect. Thus, more good quality RCTs are required in order to provide more conclusive evidence.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the Taylor & Francis Group: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
This study provides insights into the design and implementation of successful volunteer-based youth mentoring programmes. Dubois et al conducted a meta-analysis of 55 empirical studies of youth mentoring programmes in which the programmes' outcomes and elements were compared to a list of several dimensions. Findings from this study showed that five dimensions were particularly important to positive outcomes: programmes with a self-monitoring components, that train mentors on an ongoing basis, and that include structured activities for mentors and mentees showed more positive results than did programmes that did not include such practices. Furthermore, programmes that encouraged parents to be supportive and become involved were effective as were programmes that recruited mentors from a helping background (e.g. teachers). Youth programmes were also more likely to show positive effects when mentoring occurred in the home or in the community rather than at school. Overall, this analysis showed that mentoring programmes using the right ingredients can have positive effects on youth.
Abstract prepared by the National Literacy Trust
The study addressed at-risk first and second grade students' reading growth as they were tutored by minimally trained college students. The college students were volunteer work-study students participating in the recent national America Reads initiative. In all, 144 children received some amount tutoring. Thirty-nine tutors used a four-part instructional lesson with the children. For main analyses, 64 children who received the full complement of tutoring sessions were compared to 19 who received fewer sessions. The main conclusions were: (a) Comparisons using a within-program control group showed that, on average, children made statistically significant gains in instructional reading level that could be attributed to the tutoring. The average gain for children receiving the full term of tutoring was 1.19 grade levels during six months of tutoring. (b) The greatest impact of tutoring was in affecting children's ability to read words. Among the children who received the full term of tutoring, most of their instructional reading level growth occurred during the second half of the program. (c) Patterns of growth in instructional reading level were different for low-and high-gains groups of children.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the International Reading Association
Over the past three decades numerous studies from the English-speaking world have pointed to the advantages for young children of family involvement in their literacy development. However, their emphasis has always been firmly and almost exclusively upon parents working with children in specific ways and often using school-sanctioned materials. This article investigates the role played by young siblings close in age in each others' literacy development and argues for a unique reciprocity in learning between older and younger child. Thus it steps outside hitherto recognized paradigms of 'scaffolding' and 'collaborative learning'. This reciprocity of learning I refer to as a synergy whereby siblings act as adjuvants, stimulating and fostering each others' development. Using examples from Bangladeshi and Anglo children living in East London, the article traces ways in which synergy takes place between dyads through play activities in home and community contexts.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage Publications Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
This article reports an evaluation of the effectiveness of a volunteer tutor reading intervention. Volunteers were provided with instruction and supervision in order that they might assist class teachers in the teaching of reading. A strong emphasis upon phonological awareness and storytelling underpinned the programme. Intervention took place in reception classes in three socially disadvantaged schools that could provide parallel classes to serve as controls. Assessment immediately after the intervention, and 3 years later, indicated that children receiving the volunteer intervention failed to make greater progress than same-school controls. The article considers a number of possible reasons for the apparent failure of the intervention and concludes by cautioning against simplistic expectations that additional adult support should necessarily lead to gains in children's learning.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the Taylor & Francis Group: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
The America Read Challenge Act of 1997 makes a national commitment to the goal that every child will read independently and well by the end of the third grade. The primary means of achieving this goal are to place 1 million volunteers in schools to tutor children in reading. This article reviews both the quantitative and qualitative findings of 17 programs/studies in volunteer tutoring. Only 3 of the programs had an evaluation comparing equivalent treatment and comparison groups to determine the effectiveness of the programs. Five of the programs had no evaluations at all. The limited research does indicate that volunteers can be successful if they are trained and follow specific guidelines. Important aspects of volunteer tutoring programs are summarized. Considerably more research needs to be done to ensure that tutoring by volunteers will result in meaningful benefits to children.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the International Reading Association.
This study describes social aspects of the literacy learning process among young peers and synthesizes distinct strands of research on socially constructed literacy. Fourteen 7-to 9-year-old children in a third-grade urban classroom wrote four stories individually and three stories collaboratively with a partner over a 3-month period. Analyses of the children's individual and collaborative stories and transcripts of their collaboration processes as they composed together were done to identify children's expertise as writers and to trace any transfer of knowledge about the structure of stories between partners. Analyses of the 7,512 talk turns in the collaborative composing sessions showed that 95% of the story elements added after collaboration had been the focus of children's talk as they composed together. Furthermore, children who demonstrated even minimal ability to write stories transferred basic aspects of story structure to each other. To learn more about the social nature of literacy development, we related these children's collaboration processes to those identified as important in teacher-student collaborations (Collins, Brown & Newman, 1989). Like expert-novice pairs, young peers used generative processes and reflective processes, yet, they also did considerable repeating, which seemed to serve them well. This study shows that the literacy learning process involves intense engagement among young peers who share their relative expertise as they focus intellectual an social energies on the text they create together.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: www.leaonline.com
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