Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Summer Reading Lag


Annotated Research

Question: Will supplying self-selected books to students over the summer affect scores on a state test?

 Answer: Employs a longitudinal experiment to test the hypothesis that providing elementary school students from low-income families with a supply of self-selected trade books might ameliorate summer reading setback. Examines the reading performance of 852 students from seventeen high-poverty schools who were randomly selected to receive a supply of self-selected trade books on the final day of school over a three-year period compared to 478 randomly selected students from these same schools who received no books. Outcomes on the state reading assessment indicated a statistically significant effect (p = .015) for providing access to books for summer reading and a significant (d = .14) effect size.

Allington, R. L., McGill-Franzen, A., Camilli, G., Williams, L., Graff, J., Zeig, J., et al. (2010).
Addressing summer reading setback among economically disadvantaged elementary students.
Reading Psychology, 31(5), 411–427.

 Comment: I don’t know what to make of this finding. Just giving three self-selected books for summer reading would have this significant effect on a state test? Nothing else? The self-selection is probably important. I need to think about this. RayS.

Title:  “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” Richard Beach, et al. Research in the Teaching of English (November 2011), Internet. http://www.ncte.org/journals/rte/issues/v46-2.

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