WWC review of this study

Identifying essential instructional components of literacy tutoring for struggling beginning readers.

Lane, H. B., Pullen, P. C., Hudson, R. F., & Konold, T. R. (2009). Literacy Research and Instruction, 48(4), 277–297. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ856831

  • Randomized Controlled Trial
     examining 
    100
     Students
    , grade
    1

Reviewed: February 2023

No statistically significant positive
findings
Meets WWC standards without reservations
Phonology outcomes—Substantively important positive effect found for the domain
Outcome
measure
Comparison Period Sample Intervention
mean
Comparison
mean
Significant? Improvement
    index
Evidence
tier

Phonological awareness assessment

University of Florida Literacy Initiative vs. literacy intervention

40 Days

UFLI vs UFLI minus manipulative letters;
35 students

51.70

50.30

No

--
Show Supplemental Findings

Phonological awareness assessment

University of Florida Literacy Initiative vs. literacy intervention

40 Days

UFLI minus extended literacy vs. UFLI minus manipulative letters;
40 students

51.20

50.30

No

--

Phonological awareness assessment

University of Florida Literacy Initiative vs. literacy intervention

40 Days

UFLI minus sentence writing vs. UFLI minus manipulative letters;
37 students

49.70

50.30

No

--
Word reading  outcomes—Substantively important positive effect found for the domain
Outcome
measure
Comparison Period Sample Intervention
mean
Comparison
mean
Significant? Improvement
    index
Evidence
tier

Decoding assessment - author designed

University of Florida Literacy Initiative vs. Business as usual

40 Days

UFLI minus sentence writing versus Control;
43 students

12.30

8.80

No

--

Sight words assessment - author designed

University of Florida Literacy Initiative vs. Business as usual

40 Days

UFLI minus sentence writing versus Control;
43 students

72.40

56.20

No

--


Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.

Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.

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    South

Setting

The intervention was conducted in a medium-sized district located in the southeastern United States. The intervention was targeted to first-grade students in 12 elementary schools and consisted of one-on-one tutoring sessions. The intervention was delivered by tutors during the school day.

Intervention Group

The purpose of the intervention was to promote phonemic awareness, print awareness and decoding skills, as well as improve reading fluency, comprehension and use of strategy. The study tested different variations of the program to determine the relative efficacy of the different elements of the tutoring model. It tested five conditions in the study (four treatment conditions and one control no-treatment condition). The treatment conditions were as follows: Treatment Condition 1: UFLI program in its entirety with all 5 steps. The tutoring session under this condition lasted approximately 38 minutes. The tutoring session consisted of the following five steps. 1. Gaining fluency: Tutor coaches student as s/he read a familiar book (4-5 minutes). Tutor also helps student conduct word work using manipulative letters, encoding and decoding at onset-rimes and phoneme levels, starting with words familiar to the student (3-4) minutes. (2) Measuring progress: Tutor monitors student's performance by taking a running record of reading progress (3-4 minutes) and reinforces effective use of reading strategies. (3) Writing and Reading. Tutor discusses the familiar book used in Step 2 with the child and together they create a sentence (30 sentence). The student writes the sentence with coaching from the tutor, using Elkonin boxes and repeated writing practice to learn unfamiliar words (6-8 minutes). (4) Reading a new book: Tutor takes student on a "picture walk" through a new book (5-6 minutes), which the student then reads with the tutor's coaching. Tutor leads the student in word work using manipulative letters, and encoding and decoding words at onset-rime and phoneme levels, this time using new words (2-3 minutes). (5) Extending Literacy: In this step the tutor introduces a new genre of text, explaining its purpose and emphasizing the strategies that can be used to read the genre well. (5-7 minutes). Treatment Condition 2: UFLI minus manipulative letters. This treatment group received the UFLI program without any word work with manipulative letters. The tutoring session lasted approximately 35 minutes. Treatment Condition 3: UFLI minus sentence writing. This treatment group received the UFLI program without any sentence writing. The tutoring session lasted approximately 32 minutes. Treatment Condition 4: UFLI minus the extending literacy component. This treatment group received the UFLI program without the extended literacy component. The tutoring session lasted approximately 34 minutes. The type of Intervention: The intervention was a full reading curriculum. Number of Lessons, Duration, Implementation period: Each student was supposed to receive 40 lessons. On average students received 39.1 lessons, which occurred three or four days each week. (The overall period over which all the sessions were conducted was not specified in the study ) Students receiving less than 35 sessions were excluded. The duration of individual tutoring sessions varied by type of treatment (mentioned above).

Comparison Group

The comparison group did not receive any component of the intervention and simply received the regular reading instruction provided by classroom teachers.

Support for implementation

The intervention was implemented by 32 masters' level graduate students. These tutors received 12 hours of training and had to demonstrate mastery of the intervention model in a simulated lesson before they began instructing students. They also received one-hour follow-up training sessions each week. Trainees observed demonstrations and reviews of videotaped reading lessons as well as practiced each lesson step. Research team members observed each teacher conducting tutoring lessons at least twice to determine fidelity to tutoring steps.

 

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