First-Graders' Responses to Three Questions about Reading

This study examined students' perceptions of themselves as readers and the strategies they used to solve reading problems. Data was collected over a two-year period at two reading clinics from elementary grade level students (N = 72). Subjects were interviewed about the types of reading difficulties they experienced and described how they attempted to remediate these difficulties. Additionally, subjects described the type of reader they wanted to become, how they might improve, and why a particular classmate was a good reader. All subjects except one was able to describe a reading difficulty. The most frequently stated perception was the ability to read words (77%), followed by the ability to comprehend text (14%). Most perceptions were confirmed by assessment data (75%). Whenever perceptions were not confirmed, problems either were found in another domain (word recognition vs. comprehension or vice versa) or were school-related (e.g., the inability to work successfully as a member of a reading group). A comparison of the word recognition and comprehension strategies students generated revealed differences in levels of knowledge they possessed. Students with word recognition difficulties knew that they had difficulty reading words and had developed strategies to deal with their problems; however, they lacked sufficient knowledge about why their strategies were ineffective and when they should use another one. Students with comprehension problems generally were unaware of their reading difficulties and frequently lacked any strategy to remediate them. Regardless of their reading difficulties and the strategies they used to remediate them, most students viewed word recognition as central to the reading process. Discussion focuses on how these findings can be used by clinicians to develop alternative assessments and by classroom teachers to develop strategy-based instruction.

Section: Perceptions Of the Reading Processsupporting

confidence: 91%

Asking Students about the Nature of Their Reading Difficulties

Miller

Yochum

1991

“…This interview is a set of questions designed to assess children's understanding of the language of instruction, and their understanding of the way books operate. Clay (1966), Downing (1970Downing ( , 1971, Reid (1966), and Denny and Weintraub (1966) have all interviewed young children and found that they do not have clear concepts of many of the terms used in initial reading instruction, such as alphabet, letter, word, and sentence. Knowledge of the appropriate referents for these terms appears to be an indication of emerging cognitive clarity in young children learning to read.…”

Section: Purpose and Task Rationalementioning

confidence: 99%

Children's Written Language Awareness and Its relation to Reading Acquisition

Evans

Taylor²,

Blum

1979

Abstract. Describes the development of an instrument which identifies what children who are just beginning first grade reading instruction know about the written language code and relates this knowledge to beginning reading achievement. A battery of seven tasks was developed to assess [a] discrimination of real writing from geometric shapes and letter-like forms; [b] segmentation of aurally presented sentences; (c) segmentation of visually presented sentences; (d) equation of oral written word lengths; (e) ability to predict from pictures; (f) completion of aural sentences with and without graphic cues and (g) competence with the metalinguistic aspect of reading. Tasks were administered to 53 first grade children and scores were analyzed by stepwise multiple regression on standardized reading test scores. Findings indicate that linguistic awareness tasks do predict reading achievement, particularly those tasks which stress the interrelationship between oral and written codes rather than those which tap characteristics specific to the writing system.

“…Research by Clay (1979), Denny and Weintraub (1966), and Reid (1966) has indicated that many children upon school entry have inexact and sometimes incorrect notions about the purposes of print. Other studies, however, have suggested that within meaningful, contextualized settings, preschool children respond in ways which indicate an expectation of semantic intent to signs and labels (Goodman & Goodman, 1979;Harste, Burke, & Woodward, 1981;Harste, Woodward, & Burke, 1984;Hiebert, 1981;Smith, 1976).…”

Section: Development Of An Understanding That Print Conveys Meaning Amentioning

confidence: 99%

The Development of Written Language Awareness in Black Preschool Children

Morgan

1987

The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of written language awareness in black preschool children enrolled in a day-care environment. Subjects were three-, four-, and five-year-olds from an urban community. Data were collected in three individual interviews using environmental print, printed stimuli, manipulative materials, and storybooks in a sequence of semistructured tasks. Additionally, samples of the subjects' attempts at writing were analyzed. The following concepts pertaining to written language were measured: knowledge about the purposes of print, awareness of the conventions of the writing system (e.g., linearity, horizontality, directionality), development of book orientation concepts, development of letter and word concepts, knowledge of the letters of the alphabet, evidence of beginning reading. The children's performance indicated both general and specific information about their written language competence, with five-year-olds performing significantly better than three-year-olds on some measures.