An Investigation of Six Kindergarteners' Academic Performance in Reading and Writing Before, During and After Exposure to Guided Literacy Instruction

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate six Kindergarteners' academic performance in reading and writing before, during, and after exposure to guided literacy instruction. In addition, each individual's academic performance prior to guided literacy instruction was compared with his or her performance during and after guided literacy instruction. The sample used in the study was a sample of 6 students selected from one, heterogeneously grouped, regular education, Kindergarten classroom in a public school in Wisconsin. Students of three ability levels were seleded based on the students' academic performance as measured by written work and test scores. The students were given tests from the DeFord Dominie Reading and Writing Assessment Portfolio, which included: (1) Name Writing, (2) Core Writing Words, (3) Core Reading Words, (4) Inventory of Letter Knowledge, and ( 5) part one (Phoneme and Spelling Analysis) of the DeFord Sentence Writing and Spelling Test, and DeFord Kindergarten Writing Rubric. Students' writing was measured through letter formation, language conventions, recording sounds that are heard, message quality, and journal writing. Students' reading was measured through letter and word recognition. The study was designed to last until students' scores reached stability. The results indicated that the majority of the participants exhibited gains in phonemic awareness, ability to read and write words, language conventions, and message quality in writing. However, the participants exhibited little to no gains in their name writing and letter identification skills because that had been mastered before the data collection began.