Investigating Reading Recovery’s Impact on Students’ Motivation to Read

• In Event: Early Reading Motivation and Engagement: Intervention and Assessment

Abstract

Reading Recovery is a short-term early intervention for first-grade students who have the lowest achievement on measures of literacy outcomes. Students meet individually with a specially trained teacher for 30 minutes each day for a period of 12-20 weeks. The goal during this period is for children to develop a network of reading and writing strategies so they may independently perform within the average range of their class.

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of a year-long Reading Recovery (RR) intervention on struggling readers’ motivation to read with a group of students who received RR for only the spring semester and a group of students who were struggling readers but did not qualify for RR because they scored too high on the Observation Survey to quality.

Methods
Data were collected on three student populations: 977 students who participated in the year-long RR (RR full year) intervention; 110 students who participated in RR for the spring semester (RR half year) and 230 students who were identified as struggling readers and were tested for RR but were ineligible due to high scores on the Observational Survey (no RR).

Data Collection
All children were administered the six tasks of the Observation Survey in the fall. Reading Recovery, a scientifically based intervention, uses the Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement (Clay, 2005) as a screening and instructional tool. Following the intervention and prior to the end of school, the six tasks were administered again to all students, those who received the RR intervention and those who did not. At these same time points students were all also given the Me and My Reading Profile (MMRP) to assess motivation to read.

Data Analysis
The MMRP scores of the children in fall were subjected to a factor analysis to ascertain the factorial structure of the survey. All 20 MMRP items essentially loaded adequately (i.e., loadings of .30 or greater) onto one primary factor.

Results
On posttest, the students in the RR full year group had significantly higher scores on the MMRP than both control groups. The data were analyzed using a 2 X 3 split plot design with one repeated-measures factor (Test Time), by one between-subjects factor, Group. There was a significant Time by Group interaction, F(2, 1314)=6.83, p<.01. Follow up tests indicated that students in RR full year group, on average, had significantly greater improvement relative to the other two groups. The effect size was about .30 in relation to the RR half-year group, and about .20 in comparison to the no RR group, indicative of medium treatment effects.

The results of this investigation suggest that yearlong participation in RR results in increased motivation to read as compared to students who participate in RR for ½ year or receive no RR intervention. Results of this study will be discussed in light of theories of reading motivation and their relationship to reading interventions for struggling readers.

Authors

• C.C. Bates, Clemson University

• Linda B. Gambrell, Clemson University

• Jerome V. D'Agostino, The Ohio State University

• Anastasia Homer, Clemson University