Supporting Young Children's Literacy Learning through Home-School Partnerships: The Effectiveness of a Home Repeated-Reading Intervention

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a home repeatedreading intervention on the reading achievement of eight low-performing secondgrade children in an urban school by taking into consideration their need to develop automaticity and the role their parents play in this process. Specifically we posed the following questions: Does participation in a home repeated reading intervention improve children's (a) reading accuracy, (b) reading fluency, and (c) reading skills on an independent reading task? When parents participate in a home repeated reading intervention, (a) what word-study strategies do they use to support their children's reading and (b) how do the strategies they use influence children's subsequent word errors? A multiple-baseline across-subjects design and a pre-post design were used to assess the effectiveness of the intervention. Results indicated that all participants made substantially fewer reading errors during the intervention as compared to their performance on baseline stories. All participants demonstrated decreased error rates from the first to the last reading of stories, and significant fluency gains were evident in all cases when comparing mean baseline fluency with mean intervention fluency. All participants made considerable gains in fluency from the first to the last reading of each story, and all children improved on an independent reading measure. All participants read more than 10,000 words during the home intervention. Parents monitored their children's home reading. Four parents provided substantial word-level support, and the children who received this support made fewer repeated reading errors.

Home language and literacy practices among immigrant second-language learners

“…These programs seek to include parents by emphasizing a home component in the school literacy activities in the hope of getting everyone – parents, teacher, and students – involved in literacy learning. For example, assignments drawing on parents’ L1 knowledge and skills are taken home; activities requiring parent–child interaction, such as joint reading first in class, then at home, are designed as natural extensions of class activities (Koskinen et al 2000; Hindin & Paratore 2007; Roberts 2008; Kim & Guryan 2010). Despite the generally positive results reported in these studies, the effectiveness of some programs for particular student populations must still be considered.…”

“…Reading Reading jointly at home and in school was the most commonly discussed program, but the overall effectiveness of joint reading is difficult to determine because of limitations of the research in these studies (Koskinen et al 2000; Hindin & Paratore 2007; Roberts 2008; Kim & Guryan 2010). Two programs with young L2-learning children in the US yielded positive literacy outcomes on oral reading (Hindin & Paratore 2007), listening comprehension (Koskinen et al 2000), and reading comprehension (Hindin & Paratore 2007). Both these programs emphasized the importance of integrating home reading and class instruction; in addition, Koskinen et al (2000) included a book-rich class environment.…”

“…Koskinen et al also found that L2 learners who took audiotapes of books home with them practiced reading the books more than those in the group who took the books home without audiotapes. Hindin & Paratore's (2007) small-scale school–home reading program involving both L2 learning and monolingual second graders focused on the overall impact of the program rather than the specific impact on L2 learning students.…”

“…One study examined whether the language of the books sent home made a difference; Roberts (2008) found that L2 learners improved their vocabulary equally whether the books read in class in English were taken home in English or in the child's L1 (Spanish or Hmong). Unlike Koskinen (2000) and Hindin & Paratore (2007), Roberts (2008) included training for parents in reading books to their children.…”

“…Unlike Koskinen (2000) and Hindin & Paratore (2007), Roberts (2008) included training for parents in reading books to their children.…”