Au Chin Teo Tan Assignment 4

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,
Joyce Teo, Pamela Tan
Introduction of Reading Strategies to

Support Independent Reading
4th Oct 2016
Abstract
The aim of this research is to investigate how the introduction of reading strategies can
assist children in learning to read independently. This research project incorporates the use
of storybooks carefully selected by the researchers as well as the introduction of two reading
strategies to assist children in independent reading. The reading strategies that will be
introduced are picture cues and contextual clues. The research project consists of 5
sessions, which are the pre-intervention, introduction of strategies [3 sessions], and a postintervention. The pre- and post-intervention sessions will use a set of rubric and rating scale
to record childrens level of independent reading, while the intervention sessions will be
recorded by the researchers on observation sheets, reflecting how the child read and applied
the reading strategies. These rating scales and observation sheets provide data which the
researchers can then analyse to see if the reading strategies were indeed helpful in assisting
childrens independent reading. The findings of the reading strategy interventions revealed
positive outcomes where the children had shown considerable improvements in their
independent reading despite the short amount of time that they have participated in the
research. These results are discussed in the literature and the findings suggest that the
reading strategies such as picture cues and contextual clues could be used with young
children who are weak in reading.
Keywords: pre-schoolers, reading, strategies


4th Oct 2016
Introduction
With Singapore being a highly competitive academic society, parents have begun
enrolling their children as young as 18 months old for enrichment and supplementary
classes in an effort to give their child a better head start in school. These enrichment classes
cover a range of academic subjects including phonics and reading (Philomin, 2014). This
however is is ill-advisable according to Gentry (2014), who states that for children below the
age of seven, the frontal lobe of the brain has yet to be fully developed and hence, is not
ready for formal reading instructions. Even if children are able to read by the end of
preschool through rote memorization, a learning technique based on repetition, it may not
help them in learning to decode or comprehend texts in future school work. This can be
supported by Lise Eliot, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at the Chicago Medical School
at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, who highlighted that there was no
scientific evidence that children benefit from early formal reading instruction either at home
or in preschool (Gentry, 2014, p. 18).
Apart from existing enrichment programmes, early childhood educators face
pressures and demands from their management and parents to teach young children how to
read despite the knowledge that it is developmentally inappropriate, being too early for
children to read. These parents concerns however are not completely unfounded as their
worry stems from the high academic standards in primary schools, hence giving way to
parents being anxious to give their children a leg up in school (Philomin, 2014). It is with
this knowledge that therefore the team of researchers have decided to embark on this
research topic to investigate how the introduction of reading strategies can make the
process of learning to read easier for children.
This research seeks to highlight the importance and benefits of reading strategies in
order to make reading easier and more comprehensible for children. In this research project,
researchers first identified and sought authorisation from a preschool. After receiving
consent from the school, the researchers worked together with the form teacher of the
kindergarten one class to identify the children that required reading assistance as well as to
2


4th Oct 2016
disseminate the consent forms to the parents of the children. Upon seeking consent from the
parents, researchers went forward and carried out a pre-intervention session, two
intervention sessions to introduce the reading strategies of picture cues and contextual
clues, concluding with a session for revision, and finally a post-intervention session. After the
implementation of the interventions, researchers analysed the data collected and compared
it against theories of how children acquire reading.
The data should yield positive results in the areas of childrens reading confidence,
and over a prolonged period of time, capabilities in reading. The goal of this study is that it
sheds light on how reading strategies can be adopted into the preschool classroom by
teachers as a way to help children learn to read in a meaningful way.
Literature Review
A study by Juel (1988) indicated that unskilled and skilled readers use
different strategies to unlock or decipher unknown words. Unskilled readers
become stuck with strategies such as guessing or trying to memorize every
new word and therefore are not as successful as learners who have
internalized a wide range of helpful strategies. (Cecil, Baker & Lozano, 2005,
p. 4).
Reading is an important life skill that without it, a child may be denied access to a
wealth of literature, from stories and poems to information texts, both on screen and on
paper (Jolliffe, Waugh, & Carss, 2015). They will also be unable to participate in most areas
of the curriculum that requires them to recognise words, such as reading for instructions
(Jolliffe, Waugh, & Carss, 2015).
Children read in order to find meaning and to understand (Cecil, Baker & Lozano,
2015). In learning how to read, the child goes through various stages of awareness and
understanding. These stages, according to the Singapores Kindergarten Curriculum
Framework (Ministry of Education, 2012) are Letter-shape knowledge, the ability to
distinguish letters based on visual features (i.e. lines, curves, direction); Letter-name


4th Oct 2016
knowledge, the understanding that a letter is a symbol and that it has both an uppercase and
lowercase form; and Letter-sound knowledge which is the understanding that letters
represent sounds. As a reader, the child decodes printed words to attempt understanding
what the author is trying to say, then proceeds to make meaningful personal connections to
the world and what they already know (Pearson, 1993). The primary goal for beginning
readers is firstly to make the connection between the spelling of the word to both its
pronunciation and meaning. Being able to establish this connection and retaining it in
memory, children will be able to recognize the words immediately upon seeing them in or out
of text.
As children progress in their reading, they may attempt to use decoding, analogizing,
or prediction strategies to read unfamiliar spellings, this activates letter-sound connections
and initiates bonding so that the words can be read from memory (Ehri, 2014). Seeing how
no child is the same, each child would also learn in a different way. As Ehri (2014) states,
children learn to read through a variety of methods. This makes it evident that children
should not be learning how to read in one fixed way, but instead be introduced to different
strategies that they can use to suit their own learning.
Picture Cues
Following the principle of Mayers Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (2009), it
highlights how people are able to internalise learning better when words are accompanied
with pictures, instead of words alone. Pictures and prints play a vital and functional role
across cultures and communities in the world (Neumann, Summerfield & Neumann, 2014). It
provides a symbolic meaning that supports the print, if any (Luongo-Orlando, 2010).
According to Piaget, children construct knowledge better when they are first exposed to
concrete objects, to pictures and then to text as they grow (Halpenny & Pettersen, 2015).
Although infants do not look at print and read it as an adult does, they try to figure out what
is going on as the adult reads aloud or talks about the pictures (Cecil, Baker & Lozano,
2005, p. 35). Due to this, young toddlers become aware of the representational nature of
4


4th Oct 2016
pictures in books, even before they can decipher texts (Cecil, Baker & Lozano, 2005).
Children grow to see that pictures are symbols for real objects and actions that are
relatable to their experiences (Cecil, Baker & Lozano, 2005). Text and graphics together
appear to boost childrens independent reading and comprehension skills (Dsiron, 2014),
hence for beginning readers, it will be a more meaningful experience when reading a book
with pictures as compared to one with none.
Contextual Clues
When a child is reading for meaning, the context (the surrounding
information in the sentence) in which an unknown word is met can often be
useful in suggesting what that word might be. At times, only a few words
could possibly complete the sentence (Cecil, Baker & Lozano, 2005, p. 7).
Research has shown that young children who possess limited alphabet knowledge
can gain meaning from and identify environmental print through its contextual cues
(Neumann, Summerfield & Neumann, 2014, p. 424). Contextual clues are also important in
helping children to broadly comprehend text as well as for specifically learning new words
(Greenwood & Flanigan, 2007, p. 249). Contextual clues assist children in learning to read
by relating to their own experiences and/ or using words that they know in the rest of the
sentence to help them determine what the unknown word means, and how the word is read
(Cohen & Cowen, 2008). For children to link their own experiences to new words, they have
to be surrounded by context-rich texts or sentences so that they are able to practice this
strategy when learning to read independently (Cohen & Cowen, 2008). By providing
definitions of the context while reading aloud, children acquire vocabulary with meaning
naturally while making a connection of context with prints (Cecil, Baker, Lozano, 2015).
Greenwood & Flanigan (2007) also explained that children should be introduced to various
contextual clues in order to understand that the words each author choose has its purpose
and gives meaning to the story.


4th Oct 2016
Research Project Question

How does the introduction of reading strategies support childrens independent reading?


4th Oct 2016
Methodology
Study Design
This research project was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative data
collection methods. Quantitative data was collected from a rubric and rating scale designed
by the researchers. To ensure that the quantitative data collected from the rating scale is
accurate, observations recorded by the researchers as well as interviews with the
participants and their teacher will provide qualitative data for triangulation. The observations
will be conducted and recorded during the intervention sessions whereas the interviews will
be conducted during the pre and post-assessments. The interviews will provide insights to
whether the children were able to understand the use of reading strategies as well as if
children felt more confident to read knowing these strategies.
Participants and Sampling Procedure

This research project was conducted in a Kindergarten where 9 child participants
were recruited as they required reading assistance based on the observations made by their
form teacher. The participants selected were from the Kindergarten One class where they
range between the ages of four to five years old during the implementation of the research
project. In the kindergarten, children in the Kindergarten One class are taught how to read
mainly through rote memorisation, and were not exposed to any other forms of reading
strategies.
The relevant consent forms with the Outline of the Research Project were then
disseminated to the parents. The consent forms were signed by the parents in approval of
their child participating in the research project and duly collected by the researchers. Out of
the nine children that gave consent in participation, two children were absent for an
extended period of time during the research project, hence, the data collected was
contributed by the remaining seven participants.


4th Oct 2016
Data Collection Tools and Analysis

Researchers decided to employ various tools in order to attain a more
comprehensive and holistic result, aiding in the triangulation process of collecting data and
its analysis. Researchers conducted teacher and child interviews, used a rubric and rating
scale to measure each participants level of independent reading, as well as documented
observation records for every participant each session.
During the data collection process, the researchers made observations on the
progress of the participants independent reading as well as noting down the strategies that
the participant adopted when faced with a word they were unsure of. The researchers also
created a rating scale based on key experiences such as skipping or misreading a word in
the sentence, which are essential in informing the researchers whether or not the
participants were learning to apply the reading strategies taught to them for independent
reading.
The data collected from the pre-intervention assessment will serve as baseline data,
while data collected in the post-intervention assessment will be used to measure the
magnitude of improvement or the lack thereof. Higher scores on the criteria of the rating
scale from the post-intervention assessment will suggest that the interventions have been
successful and effective in helping participants read independently. On the other hand,
should there be no improvement in scores, the interventions will be deemed as ineffective.
To ensure that the quantitative data collected from the rating scale is an accurate
measure of the effectiveness of the interventions, interviews conducted with the participants
and teachers, as well as observations made by the researchers will be taken into
consideration as well. These interviews will be conducted before and after the intervention
sessions. The responses from both the teachers and participants will provide valuable
insights to whether the participants have truly picked up the reading strategies and if they
are now more confident in their reading ability.


4th Oct 2016
During the three intervention sessions, researchers will be recording their

observations of participants reading behaviour on whether the participants require
facilitation with words that they have difficulty in reading. The observations will allow the
researchers to keep a record of the participants progress in terms of their ability to read
independently. Participants requiring less facilitation gradually and/ or increasing their usage
of the reading strategies are indicators in showing improvement.
Procedure
The participants were partnered with the researchers on a one-to-one basis
throughout the pre-intervention session, interventions, and post-intervention session. Each
session lasted around 10-15 minutes where the participants read a book chosen by the
researchers. The researchers would simultaneously carry out the necessary observations
and assessments.
In the pre-intervention session, the participant would read a designated book
selected by the researchers. The researcher will not provide any facilitation to the participant
so to assess authentically the level of independent reading of the participant. While the
participant is reading the book, the researcher would assess the participant using the rubric
and rating scale. After the participant is done reading, an interview would be carried out with
the participant and teacher individually by the assigned researcher; regarding the type of
strategies that the participant may already have been using, or areas of improvement in
reading. This process would be repeated and done the same in the post-intervention
session.
For the three intervention sessions, two would be used to introduce reading
strategies, while the last one would be used as a revision for the participants to recap and
exercise the strategies that have been introduced to them. Throughout the intervention
sessions, the researcher would first introduce the reading strategy, and when the participant
is unsure of a word while reading the book, the researcher steps in to facilitate and remind
participant of the strategy. The researcher will record in the observation notes of instances
9


4th Oct 2016
where the participant required facilitation, and the frequencies that the strategy was adopted
by the participant.
10


4th Oct 2016
Results
The quantitative data collected from the rubric and rating scale would be presented in
the form of a bar graph. The qualitative data collected from the interviews and observations
would quote instances where the child had employed the use of reading strategies or signs
of independent reading.
Quantitative Data
The following bar graphs represent the data collected during the pre- and postintervention assessments, using the rubric and rating scale for each participant. The vertical
axis of the graph indicates the scores on the rating scale and the horizontal axis indicates
the participants involved in the research project. Each participant in the graph would have
two bars that are resulted from the pre- and post-intervention sessions, with the blue bars
representing the pre-intervention scores, and the orange representing the post-intervention
scores. In this section, an improvement of 2 points or more will be considered as a
significant improvement.
Criteria 1: Child is able to read independently
11


4th Oct 2016
Able to Read Independently
Pre-Intervention
Post-Intervention
Graph 1: Results of Pre- and Post-Intervention assessment for being able to read independently
From this graph, it can be seen that all seven of the research participants had
improved scores for the first criteria, being able to read independently. With six out of the
seven participants displaying a significant improvement in their ability to read independently.
The mean score obtained by the participants was 1.14 and 3.57 for the pre-intervention and
post-intervention assessment respectively. With the increase of more than 2 points, the
results indicate that since being introduced to the reading strategies, children are more likely
to attempt, and be able to read independently as compared to the pre-intervention.
Criteria 2: Child skips word(s) when reading
12


4th Oct 2016
Skips Word(s) When Reading
Pre-Intervention
Post-Intervention
Graph 2: Results of Pre- and Post-Intervention assessment for skipping word(s) while reading
For the second criteria, all participants with the exception of A, showed significant
improvement in their scores. The mean score for the pre- and post-intervention are 1.14 and
3.14 respectively. The improvement in scores among the participants ranged from 0 to 3
points. Results of improvement in this criteria suggests that the participants are less inclined
to skip words that they are unsure of or have difficulty reading, and instead, employ the
reading strategies to help them read.
Criteria 3: Child misreads word(s)
13


4th Oct 2016
Misreads Word(s)
Pre-Intervention
Post-Intervention
Graph 3: Results of Pre- and Post-Intervention assessment for misreading word(s)
In the pre-intervention assessment, the participants scored an average of 1.29 for the
third criteria of the rating scale. They fared better in the post-intervention assessment, with
an average score of 2.57. This result suggests that participants have employed the reading
strategies to help them guess the words and hence, seeing a reduction in the number of
misread words.
Criteria 4: Child refers to pictures for clues while reading
Refers to Pictures for Clues while Reading
Pre-Intervention
Post-Intervention
14


4th Oct 2016
Graph 4: Results of Pre- and Post-Intervention assessment for referring to pictures for clues while
reading
For the fourth criteria, the participants achieved high scores with an average of 4.71
in the pre-intervention assessment, and 5 in the post-intervention assessment. During the
pre-intervention assessment, participants were mostly looking at the pictures without reading
the text of the book. However, during the post-intervention, there were evidences to indicate
that participants referred to pictures when they came across a word they were unsure of.
This could be further understood under the qualitative results.
Qualitative Data
Pre-intervention Interview
During the pre-intervention interview with the form teacher, it was highlighted that
none of the participants could read independently. The form teacher also pointed out that
most of the participants were weak in alphabet awareness, letter-sound correspondence and
identification of sight words. Data collected from the pre-intervention assessment using the
rating scale supported the form teachers observations. For example, X.L and D.B both had
difficulty identifying various letters that were present in the book, mixing up the letters p, b,
and d. Common sight words present in the books such as the and is were also
challenging for the children and most needed help identifying them.
According to the form teacher, the participants would refer to the illustrations when
reading storybooks. However, they do not make use of the illustrations as a reading
strategy, merely looking at the pictures and making assumptions about what the book is
about. The form teacher also explained that the children read mainly through rote
memorization. This is because participants along with their peers in the class are given a set
of books known as readers which they will bring home every term to read with their families.
These books are read to them repeatedly to supposedly help them practice reading and to
show their families their reading progress. Having read the same book many times, the
children become fluent in reading the books. They are however, reciting the story from
15


4th Oct 2016
memory as they recall the sentence present on each page. When the same words in the
books were taken out of the context of the story, participants were not able to identify and
read the words.
When asked about her expectations of the participants showing any improvement by
the end of the research project, the form teacher mentioned that she has none, partly due to
the short period of intervention and lack of home support. She added that despite having no
expectations for the participants to improve in such a short time, she believes that their
participation in this research project will provide good exposure to such learning strategies,
since they are not implemented and taught in school or at home.
In the pre-intervention session, researchers carried out an interview with another set
of questions meant for the participants after reading the book. Questions such as What do
you do if you dont know how to read the words in a book?, or How do you know what the
story is about in this book?, with most of the participants giving similar replies such as I
dont know. Participants showed no knowledge of relating pictures to text in the book and
the existence of reading strategies that could help them to learn to read.
Observation Records
During the five-week intervention sessions with the participants, researchers have
closely monitored the progress of each participant. Observations of the sessions were
recorded for every participant.
16


4th Oct 2016
At intervention 1, the strategy, picture cues, was introduced prior to reading the book.
The book, Dressing Up, a book from PM Stories for beginners was chosen for participants to
read. This book was chosen for the strategy on picture cues as there is a direct relation
between picture and text, making it easy for the participants to use the strategy. In addition,
sentences are short, simple and repetitive. The book followed the sentence structure I am a
____ with the blank being replaced with a different word each page. It was observed that
most of the participants were familiar with this strategy. With some facilitation with the first
few words of the sentence, some participants were able to look at the picture before making
a guess of what the word in the sentence might be. DB was able to read words like I and a
independently, and he used the picture cues strategy to identify the word rabbit. In the
subsequent pages, he was also able to use picture cues to help him guess what the
characters were dressed up as. Similarly, FY needed facilitation with the first few pages. Due
to the repetition throughout the story, he was able to recognize the repeated words and used
pictures cues for the word in the blank that was changing within the sentence. At the end of
the intervention, when the researcher asked what he would do if he comes across a word
that he was unfamiliar with in future, he replied Look at the picture.
17


4th Oct 2016
The second strategy, contextual clues, was introduced during intervention 2. The
book used for this session is Everyone Eats by Brenda Parkes. This book is made up of
simple sentences that consists of pictures that are matched to the text, yet at the same time,
also requiring the use of contextual clues to be read. The book follows the sentence
structure A ____ likes to eat _____.
Similarly, the new strategy was introduced and explained to the participants prior to
reading. The researchers then facilitated participants in reading the book, pointing out the
pictures and reminding children how to use the reading strategies. For this book, the
researcher got the participant to practice using the first strategy of picture cues to identify the
animal on the page, filling the first blank. Following that, the researcher facilitated the
participants reading till the second blank where the participant would have to use the new
strategy contextual clues from the sentence to identify the last word. For example, D.B was
able to look at the page and read A bird likes to eat worms. Although some of the
participants were unable to correctly identify the word for the sentence, they would make
18


4th Oct 2016
attempts to use the strategy. For instance, E read that A giraffe likes to eat grass, which in
the book, the sentence was A giraffe likes to eat leaves.
In the revision session, the book chosen was This is a Fish, written by Cory Winesap.
This book consists of both picture cues that participants can refer to as well as short
sentences with contextual clues that require making informed guesses of the unknown word
in the sentence. With less intended facilitation provided in this session, participants were
encouraged to read independently. The researchers reminded them occasionally to use the
reading strategies when they were stuck with words that they were unfamiliar with. After the
first few pages when S.M. was attempting to read independently, he was able to recognise
the word a, then he recognised that the pictures in the book determined the animal that
was equivalent to the text he was about to read. He effectively used the first strategy picture
cues. Following that, he was able to use the second strategy contextual clues to identify the
action that the animal was performing in the book. An example of a sentence that he had
read independently was This is a camel. It can run.
Post-intervention Interview with Teacher
After the interventions, the researchers had a post-intervention interview with the
form teacher. She gave feedback that there were no visible changes to the way that
participants were reading independently according to her observations as she felt that it was
too short a period to see any changes. However, she noticed that the participants would
19


4th Oct 2016
point to the words while reading, showing one to one correspondence of speech to text,
indicating that the participants seem to be more conscious of the words they were reading.
The participants were interviewed as well with the same set of questions asked
during the pre-intervention session. For questions such as What do you do if you dont know
how to read the words in the book?, The majority of participants gave similar answers like
Look at the fish (picture of the fish in the book) or look at the picture.
Discussion
In the case for the research participants in this study, most were still in the stages of
learning the foundations of early literacy. This limited the number of strategies the
researchers could use with the children as their alphabet and phonological awareness were
not developed yet. One of the important findings from this research is that there is a
sequential process to how children learn to read. In order for a child to learn how to read
successfully, they need to be developmentally ready and have the foundational skills already
established such as having book and print awareness as well as knowing their letters and
sounds. Parents and teachers can refer to some of the key skills presented in the Language
and Literacy section of the Nurturing Early Learners Guide (Ministry of Education, 2013), in
checking for the signs of reading readiness. Another alternative would be to assess
childrens foundational skills using checklists found in the book, Striking a balance: A
comprehensive approach to early literacy, written by Cecil, Baker, and Lozano (2005). One
of such assessment would be checking for childrens ability in isolating beginning sounds by
asking What is the first sound in dog? (Cecil, Baker & Lozano, 2005, p. 379). Being
unprepared for reading may cause a reverse effect where a child loses his enthusiasm for
reading and risk doing poorly instead of giving him a legs up in primary school (Healthy
Children, 2015).
Another important finding in our research would be the importance of introducing and
facilitating reading strategies at the stage where children are learning to read. The general
trend of improved scores by the participants in independent reading shows the effectiveness
20


4th Oct 2016
of the interventions. Teachers and parents that want to aid their children in reading could
follow the steps in introducing the reading strategies to children who are ready to learn how
to read.
The first step would be taking a Picture Walk, where children look through the pictures of
the book to have an idea of what the book might be about. Teachers or parents (facilitator)
would ask children questions such as what do you think the person in this picture is doing?
to facilitate thinking during the picture walk. Next, the facilitator would read the book once,
then having the child to read it next. While reading, pointing the words would help children to
relate speech to text with one to one correspondence. When children are stuck with words,
facilitators can use the picture cue strategy, in referring to the picture and thinking of a word
or action that makes the most sense in completing the sentence. Another strategy which was
the contextual clue would come in handy when the child is able to read the whole sentence
except for one word which, the rest of the sentence may already have provided a context.
The child would only have to fill in the word with what he thinks suit the context the most.
Repeated uses of the strategies would encourage children to be more conscious of what
they are reading; reading would also be more meaningful instead of having to pick words
from what they memorised, making reading a chore.
Challenges
Based on the results gathered from the pre-assessment, researchers found that most
of the participants struggled with reading mainly from their limited knowledge of the alphabet
and the lack of phonological awareness. This prompted the researchers to adapt their action
plan accordingly and make several changes to the interventions (reading strategies) that will
be introduced to the children. One proposed change that was made was the removal of the
third reading strategy of phonemic decoding. This was done as the children had difficulties
with letter sounds and identifying the letters of the alphabet, which were the basis of the
phonemic decoding reading strategy. If the children were unable to identify the alphabets
and the letter sounds, phonic decoding would not be an applicable strategy for them. This
21


4th Oct 2016
proposed change was discussed with and approved by the primary investigator on the
grounds that the participants are still not capable of using the reading strategy. This change
led to the removal of two criteria on the rating scale for the children reading capabilities,
namely (4) Child sounds the initial/ending sound of an unfamiliar word while reading and (5)
Child demonstrates phonemic awareness (decoding) while reading.
Another challenge the researchers faced were the participants limited knowledge of
sight words. Sight words, also known as high frequency words are words that commonly
appear in text and sentences that a proficient reader is able to recognise without having to
decode (Coleman, Cherry, Moore, Park, & Cihak, 2015). Some examples for sight words
include the words the, is, a and I. From the results of the pre-assessment, researchers
found participants were still behind same-aged peers in terms of sight words recognition,
which made it difficult for them to use the second strategy, contextual clues. Thus, an
adaptation the researchers made to cater to the needs of the children was to use simpler
books with more repetition. The sentence structure for these books were simple and
repetitive throughout the story. This made it easier for the children to identify the various
words and effectively implement the first two reading strategies of using picture cues and
contextual clues to read the words in the book. The rationale for selecting simpler books with
a repetitive sentence structure is to allow children to focus on applying the reading strategies
instead of the struggle of trying to read. This enables them to achieve success in reading
and thus, being more confident in applying the reading strategies while reading even when
presented with a book that they may find challenging.
As reading is a skill that takes both time and practice, researchers were also faced
with the challenge of helping children acquire the two reading strategies within a very short
period of time. With the intervention sessions being conducted in the school setting only
once every week, it was challenging for the children to acquire and effectively practice the
use of the two reading strategies that were introduced. Coupled with the lack of support at
home, it was even more challenging to observe significant improvements to the participants
reading capabilities with only three intervention sessions.
22


4th Oct 2016
Conclusion
This research topic was selected by the team as it is something highly applicable in
the preschool sector in Singapore. Many educators are faced with the pressures to help their
children read and even more so when parents are overly anxious about their child lagging
behind same-aged peers, resulting in getting their children enrolled into multiple enrichment
classes. Hence the topic was selected to see if a change could be made. The implications of
this research would highlight the importance of having a variety of reading strategies to help
children not only grasp the concept of reading but to also foster a deeper sense of autonomy
and independence in their learning. The results from this research have reaped positive
outcomes as the children displayed effective use of the various reading strategies. These
results would be able to benefit many preschool educators that have children struggling to
learn how to read as they may choose to employ some of the strategies in their own
classroom.
Through the various data collection methods, the researchers were able to collect a
sufficient amount of information that could be used to answer the research question. Based
on the results collected, the researchers were able to infer that the introduction of reading
strategies have been useful to children in learning how to read. That being said however,
due to the short span of time the research was conducted in, it makes the data collected not
fully comprehensive of the effectiveness the reading strategies had on the children. Had the
duration of the study been longer, with more sessions for the children to exercise using the
strategies, more comprehensive data could be collected to show more accurate results.
Another area the researchers felt could have made the study more comprehensive
was if all the strategies that were initially planned for the children could have been fully
utilized. This change in the intervention timeline was made as the researchers found, during
the pre-interviews and assessments, the participants had a very weak foundation of their
knowledge about the alphabet names and sounds. This resulted in the researchers having to
simplify much of the interventions and cutting out the reading strategy of phonetic decoding.
23


4th Oct 2016
Additionally, the sample size of the study was also small with only seven children
participating. This makes it difficult to gauge if the strategies are effective to the general
population of children or whether it was simply successful for these seven children. Other
than having a small sample size, the intervention strategies were carried out on a one to one
basis where each child has adequate time and attention from each of the researchers. This
begs the question if the strategies can be effectively communicated to children if it is taught
in a large group setting. This is a cause for concern with the high teacher to child ratio in
Singapore. This follows the Ministry of Family and Social Development [MSF] (2016)
guidelines which effectively allows for a typical class of kindergarten one and two children to
have a teacher ratio of 1 teacher to a maximum of 25 children. With such a high proportion
of children to teacher, it places great pressure on the class teacher to manage the various
leading needs of all her children, on top of having to complete her regular curriculum. It is
therefore a question if the teacher would be able to afford the time, effort and energy to carry
the various reading strategies effectively in his/her classroom.
Aside from the limitations mentioned above, one aspect of the research that puzzled
researchers about the research topic was whether childrens understanding and
comprehension of the story increased alongside their ability to read more independently.
Although the data gathered from the action research shows significant improvement in the
participants independent reading capabilities, the design of the action research does not
encompass assessing childrens comprehension of the text that they have read. In addition,
the researchers are also curious whether the introduction of reading strategies will have a
lasting effect where the participants will be able to catch up to their same-aged peers.
These highlighted areas can be adapted into future research topics should the
opportunity arise. Although the focus of this action research is the effects of reading
strategies on childrens independent reading capabilities, researchers would like to explore
how we can assess and improve childrens reading comprehension in a future action
research. Also, to further extend on this research topic, alternative reading strategies could
be explored, for instance using technology as a strategy to help children learn to read. Books
24


4th Oct 2016
with audio functions, electronic applications on the computer or iPad could also be
considered where the children can independently access and learn on their own.
We can therefore conclude that although we may have experienced some success in
our interventions, we have only just scraped the surface of whether the use of reading
strategies can truly be effective in the Singapore preschool classroom. There are still many
factors that would contribute to the success of a child learning how to read such as the
childs individual disposition to learning, their learning competencies, home support,
teachers awareness of reading strategies, interest in reading, etc. It is the researchers hope
that through this research, more emphasis can be placed on reading strategies to help
children in reading; with more educators seeing the effectiveness of it as well as applying it
in their classrooms.
25

4th Oct 2016

References
Cecil, N. L., Baker, S., & Lozano, A. S. (2015). Striking a balance: A comprehensive
approach
to
early
literacy
(5th
ed.).
Scottsdale,
Arizona:
Holcomb
Hathaway, Publishers, Inc.

Cohen, V. L., & Cowen, J. E. (2008). Literacy for children in an information age: Teaching
reading, writing, and thinking. Canada: Thomson Wadsworth.
Coleman, M. B., Cherry, R. A., Moore, T. C., Park, Y., & Cihak, D. F. (2015). Teaching sight
words to elementary students with intellectual disability and autism: A comparison of
teacher-directed versus computer-assisted simultaneous prompting. Intellectual and
Developmental Disabilities, 53(3), 196-210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1352/1934-955653.3.196
Dsiron, J. C. (2014). The influence of graphic-text correspondence and text coherence on
childrens reading comprehension and attitude toward reading. (Master dissertation,
California
State
University,
2014).
Retrieved
from
http://scholarworks.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.3/128496/MasterThesis_Juli
etteDesiron_Summer2014_v2.pdf?sequence=1
Gentry, J. R. (2010). How to teach your child to read and write - from baby to age 7: Raising
confident readers. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.
Greenwood, S. & Flanigan, K. (2007). Overlapping Vocabulary and Comprehension: Context
Clues Complement Semantic Gradients. The Reading Teacher, 61(3), 249-254. Doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1598/rt.61.3.5
Halpenny, A. M., & Pettersen, J. (2015). Introducing piaget: A guide for practitioners and
students in early years education. New York, NY: Routledge.
Healthy
Children.
(2015).
Is
your
child
ready
to
read?
Retrieved
from
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/preschool/Pages/Is-Your-ChildReady-to-Read.aspx
Jolliffe, W., Waugh, D., & Carss, A. (2015). Teaching systematic synthetic phonics in primary
schools (2nd ed.). California: Learning Matters.
26


4th Oct 2016
Luongo-Orlando, K. (2010). The cornerstones to early literacy: Childhood experiences that

promote learning in reading, writing, and oral language. Ontario, Canada: Pembroke
Publishers.
Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia Learning (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press.
Ministry of Education. (2012). Nurturing early learners: A curriculum for kindergartens in
Singapore.
Retrieved
from
https://www.moe.gov.sg/docs/default-
source/document/education/preschool/files/kindergarten-curriculum-framework.pdf
Ministry of Education. (2013). Nurturing early learners: A curriculum for kindergartens in
Singapore
Language
and
Literacy.
Retrieved
from
https://www.moe.gov.sg/docs/default-source/document/education/preschool/files/neledu-guide-language-literacy.pdf
Neumann, M. M., Summerfield, K., & Neumann, D. L. (2014). Visual attention to print-salient
environmental print in young children. Reading and Writing, 28, 423-437. Doi:
10.1007/s11145-014-9531-2
Philomin, L. (2014, September 29). More parents enrolling children in pre-school enrichment
classes. Today. Retrieved from http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/more-parentsenrolling-children-pre-school-enrichment-classes
Winter, K. K. (1974). Contextual influences on sentence reading. http://eric.ed.gov/?
id=ED090504#?
27

Au Chin Teo Tan Assignment 4

Enviado por

Dados do documento

Título original

Direitos autorais

Formatos disponíveis

Compartilhar este documento

Compartilhar ou incorporar documento

Opções de compartilhamento

Você considera este documento útil?

Este conteúdo é inapropriado?

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

Au Chin Teo Tan Assignment 4

Enviado por

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Joyce Teo, Pamela Tan

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

Keywords: pre-schoolers, reading, strategies

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

Research Project Question

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

Participants and Sampling Procedure

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

Data Collection Tools and Analysis

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

During the three intervention sessions, researchers will be recording their

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

Criteria 1: Child is able to read independently

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

Able to Read Independently

Criteria 2: Child skips word(s) when reading

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

Skips Word(s) When Reading

Criteria 3: Child misreads word(s)

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

Graph 3: Results of Pre- and Post-Intervention assessment for misreading word(s)

Refers to Pictures for Clues while Reading

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to

4th Oct 2016

Alex Au, Chin Yu Teng,

Introduction of Reading Strategies to