Instructional Reading Project, Research Paper Example

Abstract

The following research project involves interviews and observations in a second grade classroom setting. The research conducted focuses on the effectiveness of various reading and writing teaching methods and how they are used in the classroom environment. As each aspect of the reading process is analyzed, new insights regarding learning style and the connection between teaching methods and phonemic awareness is examined. The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. The Common Core State Standards focus on core conceptual understandings and procedures starting in the early grades, thus enabling teachers to take the time needed to teach core concepts and procedures well—and to give students the opportunity to master them. One of the key requirements of the Common Core State Standards for Reading is that all students must be able to comprehend texts of steadily increasing complexity as they progress through school. There is also evidence that current standards, curriculum, and instructional practice have not done enough to foster the independent reading of complex texts so crucial for college and career readiness (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2012). This alarming statistic indicates that implementing effective methods of reading instruction during the first few crucial years of learning may be essential in fostering the academic success and career achievement in later years and throughout adulthood. As various methods, such as the word walk method for reading instruction is examined, new strategies for reading instruction are tested and reviewed.

Field Research

The classroom setting observed during the field research conducted consisted of 19, second-grade students who each seemed to play a different role in the classroom. Although most of the students observed appeared eager to participate in classroom activities and played an active role in asking and answering questions, students who appeared to be somewhat introverted listened more than they participated, however, this did not seem to affect their overall ability to learn and complete classroom tasks. The classroom was colorful, with various charts, visual aids, and posters, which seemed to be especially stimulating for visual learners. There were also various hands-on activities, such as a book case filled with books in a reading corner, puzzles, and various math and reading flash cards. Songs were also used to encourage memorization through repetition. As tools for visual, kinesthetic, and auditory learning styles were all implemented into the classroom setting, each child was able to participate in various activities in a manner that would supplement individual learning style; therefore, enhancing learning ability.

The reading programs used during this observation involved a classroom reading group, which involved a new theme each week in order to encourage discussion and group participation.
The reading group seemed to focus heavily on reading comprehension through encouraging students to pinpoint the story’s main idea and supporting details, takingturns reading out loud, and discussing the story in further detail. The students appeared eager to generate anticipate what may happen next and formulate conclusionbased on their personal interpretations of the story. Although the classroom reading group seemed to encourage participation and increase reading fluency by giving each student a chance to read out loud, a few of the introverted students may have had a difficult time actively participating in a large group setting and appeared to feel “unheard” or “lost.” However, laterin the day, students were broken up into smaller reading groups which provided individualized help and offered a more suitable environment for the children who thrive in a smaller group setting. This seemed to encourage a greater level of participation with the students who were more introverted and preferred smaller group discussions. The smaller reading groups were alsoable to provide reading materials that were aimed at various reading levels; making reading fluency and comprehension more successful within each group. The small group reading centerswere also useful in appealing to kinestheticlearners. These small group reading centers provided hands on materials, such as letter games and phonics chats, which allowed each student to actively engage in learning opportunities that were interactive and appealing.

Based on personal observations and teacher feedback, it seems that although both the large and small reading groups provided various opportunities for learning, thesmall groups tend to be better tailored to fit individual classroom needs. Learning to reading by increasing phonemic awareness was another focal point on the small groups.Using age appropriate reading materials, each student was encouraged to participate in one lesson a day in which you spend 15-20 min. sounding out letters. It starts very simple with 1-3 letters a day, and progresses to longer words, paragraphs and 1-2 page stories by the end of the book.  They have to read the story two times, answer questions about the story for comprehension, and practice writing three to four sentences to summarize the reading material.This activity appeared extremelybeneficial in increasing reading fluency regardless of learning style as it seemed to encompass various methods of learning. Although each child learns differently, providing options for visual, kinesthetic, and auditory learning styles are able to be incorporated in order to fit each child’s
individual need.

Some of the most important aspects of the classroom setting observed seemed to be the classroom setting and the way it accommodated various learning stylesthrough visual aids, auditory stimulants, and hands-on activities. The large reading groups took place in the center of the classroom. The teacher used voice fluctuation when reading aloud to students in order to provide attention-grabbing engagement while increasing student’s understanding regarding language fluency and sentence structure. The small reading groups were conducted at small tables with various visual aids and hands-on activities. Many of these props seemed to spark small group discussion and exploratory learning. This was an essential element for encouraging participation within the group. The students especially seemed to value the hands-on
activities, which encouraged positive social interactions and mild, healthy competition. The teachers seemed to focus most of their efforts in methods for teachingreading comprehension, such as encouraging each student to ask and answer questions about the story, identifying the main characters and setting, and summarizing the story’s focal points. However, there may not have been enough value placed on writing activities, such as focusing on proper sentence structure and grammar.

As an educator, implementing more effective methods and strategies in teaching proper writing mechanics will enhance the learning environment and contribute to the overall level of each student’sacademic success. Furthermore, creating a learning environment that fosters learning should also include a level of comfort for the students, which may have been overlookedin the large reading groups. Many of the students, especially those who struggle when reading aloud, seemed to feel safer in trying to read new things when it’s one on one or in a small group, rather than in front of the whole class. It’s important to have materials that are high interest, but at a comfortable reading level. For example, for children who may read below the standard reading levelmay benefit with age-appropriate interest material, with simplified words and sentence structure, even if this means rewriting the material into simpler terms while keeping the grade level content.Encouraging students to read aloud as well as silently and stopping often to have them figure out meanings can also be implemented in orderto encourage reading comprehension while increasing vocabulary.

Poems and rhymes are great for teaching letter combos, word meaning, and for increasing phonemic awareness. It appears that students’ who learn how to hear (through music and dance), to move (dance and sports), and to see (visual/plastic arts) all have advantages in reading and writing because they learn a sense of focus.  However, it does seem that the best of these varies from kid to kid, and that it’s important that young people have exposure to all of them in order to find what they like best, which generally reflects their personal learning styles.  It’s also good to have direct instruction and practice in arts areas that aren’t their favorite, because they can learn to activate different parts of their brains, and can rewire their own brains to become better learners. Movement and arts are great ways to help this process along while accessing visual, kinesthetic, and auditory methods of learning. Although there are various methodsof teaching reading and writing, and each of these method’s success level may be dependent on individual differences, these differences in learning should be embraced and tailored to fit the needs of each student whenever possible. Furthermore, as learning to read and learning to write seem to be intertwined, many children seem to lag behind with writing skills even when their reading skills are sufficient. However, the reverse does not seem to be true. This seems to indicate a greater
need of focus in the areas of writing and language arts. Placing a higher level of focus on writing mechanicswhile implementing reading strategies, may be more effective for boosting each student’s classroom success.

Literature Review

Definition of teaching reading:
When children grasp a story, they are able to attend to what is important, anticipate what is to come, and build meaningful patterns from a variety of detail. Reading and understanding grows stronger when it is regularly exercised. Using an engaging approach while reading to child aloud enables the teacher to scaffold the children’s experience, leading them to an understanding they could not achieve on their own. Interactive reading intended to build comprehension can include using story structure, graphic organizers, and open-ended questions. In addition, familiarity with story structure is likely to help build comprehension because it provides children with a mental map they can use to organizeall the details of a story that they read or heard (Moore & Hall, 2012). However, teaching reading fluency is far more complex than just teaching astudent to decode letters and words in linear order. Reading involves several aspects of knowledge and language development in order to fully comprehend texts. Although a focus on letter sound relationships may appear obvious, which has led to the persistence of the belief that reading problems may be solved bysounding out letters; this is a misleading assumption. Miscues are any unexpected renderings a reader makes with respectto a given text, which should not be judged as mistakes, but should analyzed as information that shows patterns in a reader’s activity (Brown, Koomi, & O’Brien-Ramirez, 2012).

Although phonemic awareness may be useful for sounding out words that may be difficult for the reader to decipher, stumbling upon these words without the language compression to make an accurate assumption, may cause further confusion and cause the reader to misinterpret the text. This may cause a problem with the relationship between what the reading is attempting to say and language expectations. Meaning-oriented instruction, which focuses on vocabulary, sentence structure, and word meaning, allows broadening meaning to inform the reader regarding semantically acceptable language, the quality of the miscues changes, and a degree of concern formeaning as they become clear. Failure to incorporate story meaning by focusing primarily on phonetic sound and fluency may cause confusion for the sake of speed and fluency, creating semantically unacceptable substitutions; further disengaging the reader from the text. Syntactic knowledge, word meaning knowledge, linguistic knowledge of the structures possible in the language, and what the language means in the context of the story should all be implementedwhen teaching students to sound out difficult letter combinations. Instruction that recognizes and accommodates the contributions andinterrelatedness of all aspects of a reader’s experience of a language is critical to understanding how a reader interprets a text. For reading instructionto be meaningful and effective for young children, the complexities of readingmust be understood by teachers and reflect a view of reading that understands the activity of the reader (Brown, Koomi, & O’Brien-Ramirez, 2012).

The Vygotskian framework suggests that learning is influenced directly by social interactions and learn particular skills andmental processes when they engage in those processes with others (Flint, 2010). Scaffolding is the process in which themore capable peer or teacher provides a minimal amount of temporary structure or support inorder for the child to complete the task independently. Buddy reading, which allows a few students to read and discuss a book, allowsstudents to collaborate with other students in order to make sense of the words and meanings found within the texts they engage with. Buddy’ reading can promote literacy through social interaction, including the use of reading strategies to scaffold learning,making connections with and to the text in order to construct meaning, and using play as a type of social interactionand motivational method (Flint, 2010). In being able to discuss a text, students can construct their own meaning and begin to anticipatesentence and word meaning, even when stumbling upon difficult phonetic combinations. Guthrie and Wigfield (2000) presented an “engagement model” ofreading development, which suggested that development of reading
ability is closely linked to extensive engaged reading, that is, readingthat the reader wants to do, that is done for a purpose, and done withmotivation on the part of the reader; including enjoyment and self-efficacy (Smith, Smith, Gilmore, & Jameson, 2011).

Research indicates that teaching children vocabulary words in the context ofstorybook reading is essential for achieving high levels of reading success (Blamey &Beauchat, 2011). “Text Talk” is a teaching strategy that uses a one instructional approach to building comprehension and vocabularyin the context of storybook reading. After reading a story, the teacher involves children in directinstruction of targeted vocabulary words from the text. The teacher may remind students ofhow the targeted word was used and provide a definition of the word. The teacher may thenprovide opportunities for students to use the word or to respond to the teacher’s example of the word through discussion. As children are exposed to the same words multiple times, they are then able to use and understand the words in diverse contexts (Blamey &Beauchat, 2011). “WordWalk” is another strategy used which focuses on books that use a number of the same vocabulary words. The teacher may prompt students with pictures of the word meaningsor may have them act out the word concept. After reading, the teacher returns to
vocabulary instruction by first reminding children of the word(s) under studyby again showing the prop or picture or acting out the concept used before reading. Focusing on vocabulary words before, after, and during reading, allows the students to engage in meaningful dialect and social interactions that foster learningand promote comprehension while provoking independent thought and exploration. Rather than focus on vocabulary exclusively after reading, word walk
calls children’s attention to specificvocabulary words before, during, andafter reading (Blamey &Beauchat, 2011). This method seems to actively engage children through prompting, allowing students tofind new uses for using thee vocabulary words outside of storybook time.

Common themes

The international reading association and the national association for the education of young children (1998) collaborated on a joint position statement that suggested reading aloud to children is the single most important activity for building several literacy skills, including vocabulary and language (Blamey &Beauchat, 2011). Reading achievement is influenced by the amount of reading one does, which in turn is influenced by one’s motivation to read. Research that has found that engagement is associated with reading achievement, there is also work that indicates that levels of engagement decline during the adolescent years (Smith, Smith, Glimore, & Jameson, 2011). This seems to indicate that creating an engaging and interactive environment that fosters discussion through social interaction, is crucial for instilling reading enjoyment during the first few years of learning to read. As students begin to associate reading as a pleasurable activity that encourages self-efficiency, reading success during later years will continue to flourish in the areas of comprehension, fluency, vocabulary and other areas of academia. Focal points, such as building comprehension through discussion about reading materials, applying vocabulary words to real-life conversations and using those words repetitively, can help student’s to better anticipate and comprehend difficult reading materials,
even when sounding out unfamiliar words. These focal points of learning are not only useful for increasing a student’s level of reading comprehension, but will also help increase levels of reading fluency as unfamiliar words can be deciphered more quickly through understanding sentence meaning and structure.

Implications for classroom practice/policymaking

Levels of reading engagement and self-efficiency are believed to be closely related and influential on reading achievement. Issues of engagement, self-efficacy, reading achievement, gender, age, and socioeconomic status will all play a role in learning to read, which in turn, will affect a student’s level of academic success in later years. Efficacy and enjoyment have a stronger relationship and it appears to be the case that students who feel they are better
readers enjoy reading more (Smith, Smith, Gilmore, & Jameson, 2011). Therefore, these students are more likely to practice their reading skills and engage in meaningful dialect of the material. However, students’ who demonstrate lower levels of self-efficiency may not reap the same benefits through the classroom practices used to facilitate reading and may be less likely to contribute to the conversation used to enhance vocabulary and comprehension.  These students will be less likely to findreading and writing activities enjoyable, and thereforewill be less likely to participate and practice these skills effectively. Children need varying degrees of support in order to move to the next level of learning independence (Flint, 2010). However, those students who may lacka degree of support may become disengaged and have a difficult time moving on to higher levels of academic achievement.

Literacy education in the USA may be in need of critical, theoretical and practical knowledge to support educators in resistinglegislative mandates that require prescriptive myopically-designed programs. Pre-service and in-service teachers often have unexamined prejudicialassumptions about readers and the reading process. The assumptions that reading is decoding symbols,that it is strictly sequential, are spread through public media-reported “commonsense” notions about reading instruction. Legislation comes to rely on research
that is questionably interpreted, although loudly proclaimed as ‘scientific’, andlimits reading to being a mechanical process and hence readers to a set ofunreflective and uncritical behavioral responses (Brown, Koomi, & O-Brien-Ramirez, 2012). This would question whether added attention toa graphophonics (letter-sound) regimen is instructionally productive since merely understanding phonetic sound arrangements do not indicatelanguage knowledge. In the US, the phonics/anti-phonics debateindicates the use of phonics in reading. Miscues indicate that this maybe overemphasized. The critical question is not whether readers should orshould not use a particular strategy, but whether it is appropriate to emphasizeone single aspect of reading instructionally, and judge the reading ofearly readers on the limited grounds of that single aspect. Within the USA, many teachers andstudents are required to use highly prescribed skill-based scripted reading programsand assessment tools. As such programs arebeing implemented in a variety of schools across the USA, the Office ofInspector General (Office of Inspector General US Department of Education,2007) reports that they are ineffective in helping children to develop readingcomprehension (Brown, Koomi, & O-Brien-Ramirez, 2012).

As a classroom teacher, implementing an instructional practice thatis meaningful and effective, consideration should be given regarding each student’s need level and ability. Theinteractions a teacher chooses duringstory time can help young childrensee patterns within a story and activelycreate meaning (Moore & Hall, 2012). Activities that promptthought and language development can help aid a student’s ability in understanding word meaning and the structure of a story. In turn, levels of reading enjoyment and self-efficiencycan develop and grammatical understanding can grow as a result of familiarity with sentence structure. It is through this understanding of sentence structure that effective writing habits will developwhen practiced and perfected. Although a variety of methods, including graphophonicknowledge can be used to foster the process of learning to read, instruction that recognizes and accommodates the contributions and interrelatedness of all aspects of a reader’s experience of language may promote the highest levels of reading achievement possible. An over-concern forreading words perfectly at first sight renders reading a tedious and unpleasantexperience (Brown, Koomi, & O’Brien-Ramirez, 2012). However, creating a reading environment which encourages exploratory learning, language development, and exploratory thought, each student’s level of comprehension will develop and reading will become viewed as an enjoyable learning process. Annotated bibliography

Blamey, K.L. &Beauchat, K.A. (2011). Word Walk: Vocabulary Instruction for Young Children. The Reading Teacher, 65(1), 71-75.

The authors in this text investigate the instructional techniques used for building vocabulary and comprehension in the context of book reading. The method of using “Text Talk”
researches the various methods of engagement that occurs in discussing vocabulary words used in the reading materials. Instructional activities are then implementedsuch as providing students’ with opportunities to use the word in sentences or to respond to the teacher’s example of the word through discussion. The method of”Word Walk” is also examined in order to examine the vocabulary instruction method that focuses on prompting specific words before, after, and during reading. Strong evidencesuggests that Word Walk and Text Talk are effective methods in encouraging students to apply new words to real-life situations.

Brown, J., Koomi, K. & O-Brien-Ramirez, K. (2012). What a teacher hears, what a reader sees: Eye-movements from a phonics-taught second grader. Journal of
Early Childhood Literacy, 12(2), 202-222.

The author in this article uses a case-study involving a bright second-grader with low scores of tests in phonics skills. Through this case-study, the author demonstratesthat reading should not be based primarily on decoding text and words in linear order, but is far more complex and should focus more heavily on vocabulary and comprehensionin order to become fully aware of the reading process and the structure involved in comprehending reading material and deciphering word meaning. As this author challengesthe traditional methods of teaching reading in the USA, it is suggested that comprehension is key to transacting with texts.

 Flint, T.K. (2010). Making Meaning Together: Buddy Reading in a First-Grade Classroom. Early Childhood Educ J, 38, 289-297.

This author examines the “buddy system” approach to reading instructional practices. The “buddy system” explores the ways in which social interactions and literacy,facilitatereading through engaging interactions amongst peer groups. The purpose of this research is to investigate the way social interactions that occur during reading can prompt meaningful discussion and empower young readers. As research indicated that implementing a social learning partnership enhancedthe reading successes of students’, insight into how children collaboratively
connect with text to construct meaning can enhance the overall reading processes. It is through these interactions that children are able to construct their views about the reading material while sharing prior knowledge and experiences in a real-life setting. 

The author of this article explores the ways open-ended questions can be used to making reading aloud engaging and interactive. Interactive reading intended to build comprehension are explored and implemented into reading lessons in order to help students’ organize details of a story.

Smith, J.K., Smith, L.F., Gilmore, A., & Jameson, M. (2011). Students’ self-perception of reading ability, enjoyment of reading and reading achievement. Learning and individual Differences, 22, 202-206.  

The authors in this article examine reading development and the ways in which the development of a student’s reading ability is related to extensive engaged reading. This article suggests that motivation on the part of the reader can be contributed to reading success and self-sufficiency within the classroom.

Application – Working with a Student Using the Word Walk Method

Alexis is a shy, second grade female of normal intelligence. Alexis lives with her Grandmother and four other siblings of whom she is the oldest. Alexis is from a low-income family and is not involved in any extra-curricular activities; however, she did express that she had an interest in playing sports. Alexis’ grandmother appears to be actively involved in her education and attempts to help her with homework when possible. Alexis’ grandmother has expressed concern over Alexis’ low test scores, especially in the areas of reading and language arts, but is unsure of what else she can do to help Alexis improve her grades. Although Alexis’ math skills are strong, she struggles in the areas of reading comprehension, reading fluency,
and vocabulary. Although Alexis receives after school tutoring with a private, professional reading-tutor, it does not seem to be beneficial in helping Alexis raise her grades. I choose to work with Alexis because I was interested in applying various methods of reading instruction to her learning experience, in order to help improve her overall academic outcome. When first sitting down to work with Alexis, I noticed that it was very difficult to get her to open up. Alexis was very quiet and did not talk much, and would usually just answer my questions with a very simple “yes” or “no.”

My first goal in working with Alexis was to build trust by finding what her interests were and incorporating her interests into our lesson plans. Although it was difficult to get Alexis to open up and verbalize her thoughts and feelings, her body language did seem to indicate that she began to feel more comfortable and relaxed after we made “small talk.” The reading instructional strategy I decided to use for my work was Alexis was the “Word Walk” method, which involves identifying vocabulary words from the reading materials and discussing these words through a variety of methods, before, after, and during the story-reading. I choose this method because I felt the discussions about the reading materials would allow Alexis the opportunity to practice speaking and verbalizing her thoughts while practicing new vocabulary words. This method also seemed to be beneficial for increasing comprehension and allowing Alexis to use the example words in a real-life situation. I started by asking Alexis to read a few short paragraphs from the selected age-appropriate reading material. We also used a few short worksheets following the reading that involved identifying the story’s main idea, supporting details, and identifying the story’s main characters, setting, and/or location.

I started by asking Alexis to read out loud so that I could get a general idea of her reading level. I could hear the frustration in Alexis’ voice and she struggled to phonetically sound out each word. It became clear that the over-emphases she was placing on sounding out each word perfectly was distracting her from what the story was actually about. I had remembered in my literature review that when a child’s language expectations do not match up with the words they are trying to sound out phonetically, it can be very difficult for them to make sense of the sentence or words being read. As Alexis paused often in attempts to sound out the words, she seemed to forget the words she read before the pause; making comprehending the sentence almost impossible. Habits of the mind can be described as a child’s active interactions with a story with a story such as attend to what is important, anticipate what is to come, and build meaningful patterns from the many details (Moore & Hall, 2012). In listening to Alexis’ attempts to read a story and make sense of what she was reading, led me to believe that the reading habits of the mind needed to be a primary focus in order for Alexis be able to identify the important elements of a story and to be able to anticipate what may come. Since Alexis’ language expectations and vocabulary level were somewhat behind her grade level, the Word Walk technique will allow Alexisto learn to identify difficult words based on how the word would fit into the sentence rather than through merely sounding them out phonetically. By focusing on a few vocabulary words, we were able to pinpoint how these words would fit into sentences in order to make a story complete.

As Alexis was reading, I noticed that she struggled to read the words “exciting” and “field.” As Alexis paused in attempts to sound out the words “exciting” and “field,” she read them as “exit” and ‘felt.” Based on this observation, it became obvious that Alexis had spent so much time trying tosound out these words that she had forgotten what the sentence was actually saying. So using the Word Walk method, we identified these two words as our focus vocabulary words of the day. Going back to the sentences that used our targeted words, I asked Alexis to read the sentence out loud once again. The first sentence, which read: “Our trip to the zoo was exciting.” I asked Alexis to say the word out loud and give an example of something she found exciting. Then I asked her to verbally use the wordin a sentence. Alexis responded with, “Christmastime with my family is very exciting.” Using the word walk method, I quickly had Alexis draw a picture of a Christmas tree and a happy face to illustrate the word “exciting.”
I also gave her an example of other words that mean exciting, such as “happy.” This time, I read the paragraph out loud to Alexis and had her follow along. When we came to the sentences that used our identified word, I stopped and had Alexis read the identified word; “exciting.” Alexis read the word correctly. I wanted Alexis to begin to anticipate difficult words based on the way they are used in each sentence instead of trying to sound them out. Instead of the
sentence reading, “our trip to the zoo was “exit” she now understood that saying “our trip to the zoo was “exciting” could be anticipated in relation to the story. In being able to anticipate what a word may say based on sentence meaning, Alexis shouldbe able to increase her level or reading comprehension and grasp a story’s main concept. After providing Alexis was positive feedback on successfully reading the sentence, we moved on to the next targeted word; “field.”Alexis had originally read the sentence, “Our class “felt” trip was fun.” Using our identified word, I asked Alexis how that sentence might make more sense. She responded with, “Our class field trip was fun.” Alexis was quickly learninghow to anticipate words in a sentence and build meaningful patterns from the various other story details.

Although there are various methods of reading instruction that are widely used across the USA, the traditional methods of teaching,which places emphasis on phonemic awareness, may prove to be more beneficial when combine with methods that focus on the overall reading process, such as understanding and compression.As observed in the field research involving Alexis, the second-grade student who struggles to read, it was not it until she was able to make a connection with the reading material and her own awareness regarding language, that she was able to make a connection between her own thoughts and the written text. As Alexis learned to identify a wordthrough its meaning and its relationship to a sentence, she was then able to grasp the concept and meaning of the written material and fully comprehend sentence meaning.

References

Blamey, K.L. &Beauchat, K.A. (2011). Word Walk: Vocabulary Instruction for Young Children. The Reading Teacher, 65(1), 71-75.

Brown, J., Koomi, K. & O-Brien-Ramirez, K. (2012). What a teacher hears, what a reader sees: Eye-movements from a phonics-taught second grader. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 12(2), 202-222.

Common Core State Standards Initiative (2012). The Standards. Retrieved September 27, 2012 from http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards

Flint, T.K. (2010). Making Meaning Together: Buddy Reading in a First-Grade Classroom. Early Childhood Educ J, 38, 289-297.

Moore, M.R. & Hall, S. (2012). Listening and Reading Comprehension at Story Time: How to Build Habits of the Mind. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 40(2), 1-9.

Smith, J.K., Smith, L.F., Gilmore, A., & Jameson, M. (2011). Students’ self-perecption of reading ability, enjoyment of reading and reading achievment. Learning and individual Differences, 22, 202-206.