DOCUMENT RESUME ED 360 452 UD 029 408 AUTHOR Cook, Lenora TITLE The Effect of Tradebooks for Home Reading on the Reading Attitudes of Non-White 3rd-5th Graders. SPONS AGENCY California State Univ., Dominguez Hills. PUB DATE 93 NOTE 40p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Atlanta, GA, April 12-16, 1993). PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143) Speeches /Conference Papers (150) Tests/Evaluation Instruments (160) EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Action Research; Black Students; Books; Economically Disadvantaged; Elementary Education; *Elementary School Students; Hispanic Americans; Home Study; Intermediate Grades; Parent Participation; Reading Attitudes; *Recreational Reading; *Student Attitudes; *Supplementary Reading Materials; Urban Schools; *Urban Youth IDENTIFIERS *Compton Unified School Distric CA; Hispanic American Students; Student Surveys; *Trade Books ABSTRACT The effects of infusing tradebooks into the school and home environments of non-White, low socioeconomic status, urban third through fifth graders were studied. Tradebooks are books with a purpose that is not school-based. The study was conducted in an urban kindergarten through grade 5 school in the Los Angeles (California) area, where 59 percent of the students are Hispanic American and 40 percent are Black. An action research approach was chosen. Every target classroom was provided with a book box of tradebooks on various subjects for students to read and share at home. Students were interviewed about their use of these books and their attitudes toward reading. Entry and exit interviews with more than 100 children indicated that many had non-school based materials at home, mostly stories based on films or telev:.sion. From entry to exit there was little stated change in children's expressed attitudes toward reading, but their responses to the availability of these books were favorable. Although no conclusive proof of the importance of tradebooks for promoting developmental reading is offered, some striking comments by children and adults do demonstrate positive e,:fects of providing reading material. Eleven tables present study findings. Appendix A is the letter used to solicit research assistants. Appendix B contains the interview instruments. Appendix C is the project evaluation form for the research assistants. (SLD) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** THE EFFECT OF TRADEBOOKS FOR HOME READING ON THE READING ATTITUDES OF NON-WHITE 3RD 5TH GRADERS Lenora (Leni) Cook, Ed. D. Teacher Education Department CSU, Dominguez Hills Carson, California This work was supported by grants and awards from California State University, Dominguez Hills. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION REPRODUCE THIS improvement "PERMISSION TO OTItce d EducabOnal Research end BY BEEN GRANTED INFORMATION .AATERIAL IAS ED CATIONAL RESOURCES CENTER (ERIC1 (AA reproduced as Th.s document has been organast,on Owed from the person or CAGOM. originating a LAGon6 made to improve Minor t hanges have been reproduction quality in this doCu. Points of view or %whom& stated represent official RESOURs.ES EDUCATIONAL ment do not necessarily TO THE OERI posit on or policy CENTER (ERIC) INFORMATION 2 VEST COPY AVA/LABLE In mainstream American society there is no more important skill than being able to According to Bettleheim and Zelan (1982): read. If the child did not know it before, it will soon be impressed on him that of all school learning, nothing compares in importance with reading; it is of unparalleled significance (p. 5). Reading habits of children in school settings have been studied widely as researchers look for patterns to explain the disparate reading abilities of ethnically, culturally, and Chall, Jacobs, and Baldwin (1990) cite numerous studies in economically diverse learners. The Reading Crisis, their report of a study of the relationship between school and home effects on literacy and language. Strong literacy environments were provided in homes if parents provided literary experiences to the children by reading to them, buying them books, teaching them to read, and expressing high educational expectations for them (p. 129). Further, Snow, Barnes, Chandler, Goodman, and Hemphill, in Unfulfilled Expectations: Home and School Influences on Literacy (1991), arpti:, that the effects of inadequate support for literacy in the home or in the school can only be counteracted by a also contend, in Chall et al (1990), very strong literacy environment in the other area. They that "on the whole, the home seems to be less able to compensate for poor schooling, particularly at the upper elementary grades" (p. 135). Therefore, it would seem that the role of the school in maintaining and/or enhancing the literacy of older children is ultimately the crucial element. School reading programs, whether whole-language or skill centered, which rely or basal and other reading texts kept at the school site, seem to be based on a supposition that It is the the home literacy environment is a separate issue from the school reading program. contention of the writer that a nurturing home literacy environment must be an integral part of a child's reading program; if the home cannot or does not provide this environment, in the early grades the school must intercede to provide the elements of a home literacy environment; and, in the upper elementary grades, the school must continue to support the established conditions for positive later academic achievement. Studies on th?, availability of tradebooks and other reading materials outside a school site seem to indicate that there is little chance of low socio-economic school-age children interacting with text except in the traditional educational setting, the classroom, unless special opportunities are provided such as accessible family literacy, public library, or community programs (Strong, 1988). Further, an initial review of the literature seems to corroborate that elementary schools normally do not provide children with supplementary home reading to compensate for that lack of opportunity. One pilot study was found, conducted with suburban, middle/high socio-economic seventh grade students, which seems to indicate that home reading during elementary school had been significant in establishing positive attitudes toward reading and readers (Beers, personal communication, 1990). The literature concerning school and family literacy was reviewed from 1982 1991 data to support the need for further study of the importance of home to see if there w reading and parental involvement in reading achievement and positive attitudes to reading and Five areas were reviewed: elementary school tradebook programs, general home readers. reading programs, intergenerational literacy programs, and school and family interaction programs with tradebooks. Data were found in the areas of general home reading programs and intergenerational literacy programs. 2. Although originally designed to meet the needs of adult students enrolled in remedial reading classes as a community college, the Parent Reader's Program (Handel & Goldsmith, 1989) involved the practice of reading comprehension strategies using children's books prior Parents shared these experiences in group discussion during to home reading with children. class time. The purpose of the program was to provide enjoyable learning experiences that adult family members could replicate with their children at home to the benefit of both Results indicated that intergenerational connections were made. The parents generations. who read to their children were stimulated to read more for themselves and applied the taught reading comprehension strategies in seeking to understand both the children's books and their own class required adult selections. No data on the child's reading attitudes or ability were given. Kroeger (1991) looked at the effectiveness of parental reinforcement at home of Parents of first grade Chapter 1 students were trained to use reading skills taught at school. basal materials and the paired-reading concept. A reading assessment test was used to pre- and posttest the children. Parents and children also completed entry and exit surveys on attitude and involvement in the reading process. The results after a 10 week period were affirmative in all cases indicating that children who were assisted by their parents improved their reading skills at least two reading levels and the interests and attitudes of both the children and the parents toward reading and involvement became more positive. No tradebooks or children's literature was used in the study. Parent participation and reading programs were studied in the U.K. and the findings published in Paired Learning: Tutoring by Non-Teachers (1989) a publication of the Kirk lees 3 Metropolitan Council, Hudderfield, England. The monograph reports on nine diverse programs which involve children and their parents across the curriculum. Most of the articles describe the use of parent participation in direct instruction and tutoring of spelling, math operations, handwriting, skills based reading, and health education. No data were found on the use of children's literature or improvement of interest or attitude. Yaden (1989) studied the unprompted questions that preschooler's ask during story reading with their parents. He concluded that home reading may affect comprehension more than print awareness. No data appeared on the improvement of interest in or attitude toward reading. In a study conducted with children for whom English serves as a second language, Osiobe (1988) found that home factors known to favor early reading in the primary language such as books in the home, parent-child reading, and book borrowing from the library and friends, were also fundamental in promoting reading ability, interest and positive attitudes toward reading in English as a second language. The number and quality of home literacy experiences affected kindergarten children's ability to cope with unfamiliar content in Greer and Mason's study (1988) of the impact of the home literacy environment on public and private kindergartners' recall of topically familiar and unfamiliar information. The frequency of the home literacy experiences were assessed. No specific questions looked at the genre or types of passages used in the home. Rasiaski (1987) studied third and fifth grade children's home reading habits. Data analysis revealed a significant difference between high- and low ability students (as determined by reading stanines from the school) in frequency of home reading, suggesting 4 that high-ability readers, at both third and fifth grade, did engage in home reading activities more often than low-ability readers. These findings confirmed earlier studies. In 1986, Juliebo reported on the differences between home and literacy experiences of a small group of Canadian kindergarten children. She concluded that literacy development at this age "appeared to be more the result of the activities at home rather than at school." Siders and Sledjeski (1982), in their study of parental involvement related to children's attitudes and achievement in the acquisition of reading skills, found that when second and third grade teachers emphasized home reading activities with parent involvement their students made greater gains in reading achievement with more positive attitudes toward reading than when home reading was not emphasized. The results also indicated that the emphasis did not increase the frequency of home reading activities. In none of the studies were concrete data found on the relationship between home reading of tradebooks and the development of positive attitudes toward readers and the ability to read in low socio-economic, non- white, urban settings. To address the need for information on this subject, this study examined the effect of infusing tradebooks into the school and the home environment of non-white, low socio- economic, urban 3rd-5th graders . More specifically, the following re.earch objectives were designed for this study: To identify and report the existing research on the relationship of home 1. and school reading activities of elementary school children. 5 e To investigate home and school reading activities among children who 2. have no or little traditional story print forms as a part of their preschool and present home experience. To examine and analyze the attitudes toward reading and toward 3. readers before and after home reading activities have been instituted. To determine the effect of home reading activities on a child's 4. perceived reading ability. To provide data on the importance of tradebooks in the home in an 5. urban child's developmental reading program. The study was conducted in an K-5 school located in the urban southwest section of the Los Angeles Basin. The school accommodates 700 students with the following ethnic breakdown (based on 1989 school census report): 59% Hispanic, 40% African American; 1% Asian/ Pacific Islander. 50% of the student have been designated through state/federal testing as Limited English Proficient (LEP). On the 1988 California Achievement Test, the students at all grade levels scored in the bottom quartile in all subjects. The school qualifies for Chapter I federal funding and the breakfast and lunch programs. In 1990, with the additional resources of private industry, foundations, and other funding agencies, university faculty from the School of Education at California State University Dominguez Hills and District staff began work with school site personnel in a variety of ways, providing an educational laboratory setting for the study of effective teaching of non-white urban elementary student populations. 6 C5 Studying the children in this particular school imposed some limitations on the relevance of the data collected and analyzed. The educational laboratory setting with the infusion of additional resources including instructional technology, extra instructional aides staff development opportunities for the classroom, additional instructional materials, including on-site demonstrations and workshops as well as professional conference attendance, is not mirrored in other schools with the same child populations. This school staff is used to cooperating with researchers. The teachers whose classes were studied volunteered their students and received additional assistance from the research assistants who were assigned to them for the purpose of the study. Although family members of the children participating in the study were not interviewed, informal and formal contact between the school and the home, a requiremer:t for enrollment in the school, was used by the teachers in their evaluations of the project. Various names and labels are used in this study to refer to theories of reading, language and literacy, kinds of reading material, types of learners, and attitudinal as well as achievement and aptitude assessment instruments. For the purpose of providing clarity in the context of the study, the following exp'ications and definitions are provided as points of reference: Basal readers. A systematic approach to teaching reading which involves discrete learning activities as the primary approach. The ability to derive, evaluate, and articulate meaning from text. Literacy. Literacy environment. An atmosphere that supports and encourages literacy activities both by individuals and by groups. 7 Usually Skill-Centered. A method of teaching reading by direct incremental instruction. found in basal readers which do not incorporate "real" literature into their reading selections. Sccio-Economic. A government term that uses descriptors such as high, middle, and low to designate the monetary and social level of groups of persons. Low socio-economic level for the purposes of this study equates with eligibility for government assistance programs and/or "poverty status" as determined by government programs. Sustained Silent Reading. A specific time set aside when everyone in a classroom (or school site), including staff and students, reads material of his/her choosing. May not be scheduled daily, but must be scheduled routinely. Should not exceed 20 minutes at a time. Text. The written word. Tradebooks. Books whose purpose is not school-based. Children's literature of ?ll genres not expressly written for school use. Whole Language Approaches. Child centered, literature based interactive language arts experiences, including but not limited to reading, writing, listening, speaking. Method of Study One of the characteristics of action research, the method used for this study, is that it is practical and directly relevant to an actual situation in the working world. The subjects are the classroom students, the staff, or others with whom... [the researcher is] primarily involved. (Isaac & Michael, p.55) Action research is empirical in the sense that it relies on actual observations and Therefore, in order to be systematic, the researcher must provide frequent behavioral data. opportunities for the participants to register their observations and a procedure must be 8 I3