Jan Perney

Developmental Spelling as a Predictor of First-Grade Reading Achievement

Observant first-grade teachers have long realized, at least on an intuitive level, that there is an important relationship between childrens early reading and spelling ability. Such teachers notice, for example, that, as beginning readers progress in learning to read words, there is a corresponding growth in their ability to write or spell words, even in the absence of direct instruction in spelling. Over the past 10 years, researchers (Bissex 1980; Chomsky 1979; Clay 1979a, 1979b; Henderson 1981; Henderson & Beers 1980; Read 1971, 1975) have begun to explore in some depth the developmental relationship existing between early reading and spelling ability. Though this is a relatively new area of research, it can safely be said that the findings reported thus far have been of provocative interest to theory builders and classroom

Helping Low Readers in Grades 2 and 3: An After-School Volunteer Tutoring Program

In this article we describe a small but effective after-school tutoring program in which adult volunteers work, one-to-one, with low-achieving second- and third-grade readers. Specific attention is given to (1) the need for such a tutoring effort, (2) the design of the program (including how the tutoring was supervised), (3) an empirical test of the programs effectiveness, and (4) the generalizability of the tutoring concept to other educational settings.

Early Steps: Replicating the Effects of a First-Grade Reading Intervention Program.

This study examined the effectiveness of Early Steps, a lst-grade reading intervention program. Forty-three at-risk 1st graders, identified in September, received an average of 91 1-to-l tutoring lessons during the school year. The work of the tutors was carefully guided by a trainer who made 9 site visits. At the end of the school year, the Early Steps group outperformed a comparison group on a variety of reading measures, including oral reading accuracy, comprehension, and pseudoword decoding. Moreover, Early Steps tutoring made the largest difference for those children who were most at risk (lowest in reading ability) in September. In discussing the intervention model, emphasis is given to its systematic word study component and to the critical role of the trainer of tutors.

Kindergarten Predictors of First- and Second-Grade Reading Achievement

In this study we examined the ability of 6 kindergarten prereading skills to predict later reading achievement. The prereading skills of 102 children were assessed at the beginning, middle, and end of kindergarten, and reading achievement was assessed at the end of first and second grade. Results showed that (1) 4 kindergarten skills (alphabet recognition, concept of word in text, spelling with beginning and ending consonants, and word recognition) effectively predicted success in first-grade reading (R = .77); (2) effective predictions of first- and second-grade reading achievement could be made at the middle of kindergarten; and (3) a phonemic spelling task was superior to an oral phoneme segmentation task in predicting success in beginning reading.

Exploring the Concept of "Spelling Instructional Level" Through the Analysis of Error-Types

The present study explored the concept of spelling instructional level in the elementary grades. Spelling lists (1 at grade level, 1 below, and 1 above) were administered to 252 students in grades 2-5. It was hypothesized that there would be a significant positive correlation between the number of words a student could spell correctly on a given list and the quality or sophistication of his/her errors on the same list. Results supported this hypothesis. Correlations between spelling accuracy and quality of misspellings ranged from .55 to .79 across the grade levels. Better spellers, 60% + accuracy on a list, not only misspelled fewer words but also demonstrated good orthographic strategies on the words they did misspell (CABBEGE, MEASHURE, EXPRESION). Conversely, poor spellers, below 40% accuracy, misspelled more words and showed a dearth of orthographic or spelling-pattern knowledge in their errors (CABIG, MESHUR, ECSPRESHEN). The results were interpreted as lending support to the idea of an instructional level in spelling. That is, low-accuracy spellers (below 40% on a grade-level list) not only have more words to learn in a school year but also seem to be deficient in the very orthographic or rule-governed knowledge that underlies the ability to learn new spelling words. The idea of grouping students for instruction according to spelling ability level deserves further attention.

Teaching Low-Achieving Spellers at Their "Instructional Level"

In this study we tested the notion of an instructional level in spelling. In September, we used curriculum-based pretests to identify 48 low-achieving spellers in 7 third-grade classrooms. 24 of the low-spelling third graders (intervention group) were then taught for most of the year in a second-grade spelling book. The other 24 low spellers (comparison group) were taught for the full year in a third-grade spelling book. Results showed that the intervention group scored higher than the comparison group on the second-grade posttest (75% to 64%), scored almost as high on the third-grade curriculum-based posttest (47% to 50%), and scored higher on the third-grade transfer test (47% to 36%). We explain the posttest results in terms of instructional level theory and then discuss implications for classroom practice.

Technology and At-Risk Young Readers and Their Classrooms

This study examined the ways in which 18 first-grade teachers and their students in 11 high-risk urban schools began to use literacy-focused technology. The goal of the study was to observe the technology in use by the students, to observe the classroom dynamics and teachers’ instructional choices centered around technology use, to look at student learning, and to investigate student and teacher perceptions and beliefs as they began to use technology for literacy. Analyses of classroom and pupil observational data and of student performance data indicated positive effects of the literacy technology on classroom instruction and student literacy achievement. Further, interviews of students and teachers confirmed that the literacy technology was perceived as engaging and effective by both groups of stakeholders. The study also generated implications for further research and practice in schools struggling to make change.

Validating Craft Knowledge

This longitudinal study investigated childrens performance on several informal reading and spelling tasks. Students (n = 274) in a rural North Carolina county were assessed across grades 2 to 6 on the following measures: isolated word recognition (timed and untimed), oral reading accuracy, reading comprehension, reading rate, and spelling. Statistics (means and standard deviations) were reported for each measure each year. Overall, the results tended to support traditional performance criteria in reading diagnosis. Two findings that deserve further study were (1) word recognition–timed proved to be a good predictor of oral reading rate at each grade level (median r = .68), and (2) both oral and silent reading rates, after increasing steadily from grade 2 to 4, began to taper off between grades 4 and 6. This second finding is in contrast to previous reading-rate data reported by Hasbrouck and Tindal and by Taylor.

Factorial and Predictive Validity of First Graders' Scores on the Early Reading Screening Instrument

The factorial and predictive validity of the Early Reading Screening Instrument was examined for 105 first grade students. Analysis indicated that the test is unidimensional and can predict first grade reading skills at the end of the school year with at least a moderate amount of accuracy. A previous study indicated predictive validity coefficients of .66 and .73 when the criteria were word recognition and reading comprehension. The current study yielded predictive validity coefficients of .67 and .70 for these criteria.

Determination of Mastery Scores When Instructional Units Are Linearly Related

A procedure is described for the determination of individual mastery scores when instructional units are sequenced in a linear hierarchy. It is deemed appropriate when test data for these units have already been collected. Based on an overall evaluation for the whole sequence, a mastery score for the last unit is determined first. Using the resulting mastery classification for the last unit, a mastery score is then computed for the preceeding unit. The process is continued until a mastery score is finally obtained for the first unit. By determining the mastery scores in the manner described above, one is provided with an objective way to make (future) decisions on which students to advance to the next unit in the said sequence of instructional units.