Statement of Research Problem
Within the district being studied, it is common practice that beginning in the first few months of kindergarten, students are expected to begin to read books that are tiered at instructional reading levels in homogenous, guided reading groups. This is occurring despite the fact that upon completion of assessments administered in September, some kindergarten students do not yet demonstrate the early literacy subskills such as concepts of print, alphabetic principles, phonemic awareness, phonics, or high-frequency word recognition to be able to read successfully in this instructional activity. The pressure that is placed on young students to attempt to read a book before they demonstrate reading readiness, even if accessible at the lowest reading level, presented a concern to this researcher. Depending on the number of years teaching kindergarten, a variance in educational level and training, and philosophical differences, teachers in this school district implement the designated Scott Foresman Reading Street literacy program and district developed curriculum in a variety of ways. There are some kindergarten teachers who demonstrate fidelity to the designated basal program and follow the guided reading group instructions to present the suggested leveled texts to their students. There are other teachers, that before expecting their students to independently attempt to read words and sentences in the program’s leveled books, invest their instructional time toward first developing their students’ early literacy subskills by supplementing with independent, small- and whole- group, multi-sensory activities. Other teachers integrate supplemental teaching tools and activities into their instruction at the same time as implementing the program’s recommended guided reading instructions. In the school district being studied, teachers take it upon themselves to deliver inconsistent methods of non-researched based instruction. This is a concern for the development of early reading subskills necessary for future, fluent reading success of kindergarten students.
The National Reading Panel Report (2000) recommends that phonics instruction must be integrated with instruction in phonemic awareness, fluency, and comprehension. As more mandates are placed on teachers, class size and student-to-teacher ratios in most districts continue to increase. Although traditional multi-sensory reading centers are introduced in a way for typically developing students to be independently successful at practicing subskills, it is difficult for one teacher to always be present to correct or positively reinforce 20 students during every task. This leaves the possibility for students to be practicing incorrect letter sounds and other foundational subskills. For students who have challenges in language processing, executive functioning, attention deficits, or simply following multi-step directions, center games introduced by multiple verbal directions and modeling can be difficult for independent engagement.
This study investigated the effect of using iPads as an instructional tool to develop kindergarten students’ early reading subskills as measured by the Marie Clay Observation Survey Letter Identification subtest; AIMSweb Letter Naming, Letter Sound, Phoneme Segmentation, and Nonsense Word Fluency subtests; Qualitative Reading Inventory–5 (QRI-5) Word Lists; and a teacher-made high-frequency word list from the Scott Foresman Reading Street curriculum (see Appendices A-D).
The National Reading Panel Report (2000) recommends that phonics instruction must be integrated with instruction in phonemic awareness, fluency, and comprehension. As more mandates are placed on teachers, class size and student-to-teacher ratios in most districts continue to increase. Although traditional multi-sensory reading centers are introduced in a way for typically developing students to be independently successful at practicing subskills, it is difficult for one teacher to always be present to correct or positively reinforce 20 students during every task. This leaves the possibility for students to be practicing incorrect letter sounds and other foundational subskills. For students who have challenges in language processing, executive functioning, attention deficits, or simply following multi-step directions, center games introduced by multiple verbal directions and modeling can be difficult for independent engagement.
This study investigated the effect of using iPads as an instructional tool to develop kindergarten students’ early reading subskills as measured by the Marie Clay Observation Survey Letter Identification subtest; AIMSweb Letter Naming, Letter Sound, Phoneme Segmentation, and Nonsense Word Fluency subtests; Qualitative Reading Inventory–5 (QRI-5) Word Lists; and a teacher-made high-frequency word list from the Scott Foresman Reading Street curriculum (see Appendices A-D).