A Comparison of Approaches to Silent Sustained Reading (SSR) Programs

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actionres_Scholfield_paperFA09.pdf (178.36 KB)

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http://hdl.handle.net/11603/2827

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Goucher College Master of Education

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Date

2009-12

Type of Work

action research papers
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Masters of Education

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Collection may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.

Subjects

Education -- Research papers (Graduate)
Reading -- Study and teaching -- Activity programs.
Reading comprehension.

Abstract

This study compared the effectiveness of two variations of a Silent Sustained Reading program, which involve students reading self-selected books independently, on reading comprehension skills of seventh graders. This study involved the use of a posttest only control group design where the different aspects of the program were implemented to the two groups of students before the post assessment was given. Students from the same low achieving classroom instructed by the researcher were randomly assigned to two groups. One group of students just read silently (Reading Only Group, n = 14), while the other group of students was responsible for reading silently, conferencing with the classroom teacher and completing written responses about the text that they had read (Teacher Assisted Group, n = 13). The outcome measure was a score generated from comprehension items from one of the seventh grade marking period assessments established by the local school system. An independent sample t-test showed that the comprehension scores did not differ significantly between the Reading Only Group (Mean = 15.50, SD = 3.08) and the Teacher Assisted Group (Mean = 14.85, SD = 2.64) [t(25) = .56, p > .05). Limitations of the study, including difficulties in implementing both types of programs, are discussed. This study found no differences between the two forms of the reading program based on the comprehension scores. Further research is warranted to show which of these procedures would be best to improve student comprehension levels with a silent reading program.