Providing phonemic awareness instruction to pre-first graders: An extended-year kindergarten program

Author

Thomas Terrence Cleary, University of Rhode Island

Date of Award

2001

Degree Type

Dissertation

First Advisor

W. Lynn McKinney

Abstract

This dissertation presents a longitudinal study of kindergartners who participated in a summer instructional program. The study addressed the question: To what extent does an extended school year program for kindergartners, featuring phonemic awareness instruction, improve children's reading proficiency in the 1st and 2nd grade? Utilizing two district made surveys, the Phonemic Awareness Interview (PAI) and the Literacy Curriculum Scale (LCS) as pre-tests, 62 children from the 1997-1998 kindergarten cohort of 238 children were identified as exhibiting literacy and phonemic awareness deficits; they were invited to participate in the Kinder Camp Program. Of the 62 children invited 40 elected to participate and were identified as the Intervention group; 22 children chose not to take part in the program and were identified as the Control group. Daily instruction in phonemic awareness as well as oral and written language activities were integral components of the five-week Kinder Camp Program. The program provided literacy enhancement through direct instruction and open-ended discovery "centers". Children participated individually or in groups never exceeding 10. Teachers worked closely with parents at home and in the classroom. The Phonemic Awareness Interview post-test, five Marie Clay reading surveys and five Harcourt Brace Signatures© reading tests were administered at various times during the cohort's first and second grade school years as outcome assessments. A comparison was made of the Intervention and Control groups on those 11 outcome assessments. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used with the PAI pre-test and the LCS scores as covariates. The results indicate that the Intervention group scored significantly higher than the Control group on the Phonemic Awareness Interview post-test. The outcomes of the Marie Clay reading surveys and the Harcourt Brace Signatures© reading tests did not yield significant differences between the two groups.

Recommended Citation

Cleary, Thomas Terrence, "Providing phonemic awareness instruction to pre-first graders: An extended-year kindergarten program" (2001). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 1786.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/1786