A whole-class learning programme for struggling readers in lower-stream classrooms

Abstract

In a society where print has become an essential part of communication all efforts must be made to deal with the persistent problem of illiteracy. This study is an attempt to address the problem by ensuring the acquisition of literacy skills by all at school. Most remedial programmes are based on individual instruction. Despite such remedial intervention in lower primary classes in state schools, poor reading skills among upper-primary school children in the lowest streams persist. This worrying situation requires efforts at remediation before the students move to secondary school. This study addresses the problem by developing, implementing and evaluating a whole-class intervention programme which may be implemented by regular class teachers. Two lower-stream Year 5 classes, all struggling readers, were selected. One group received intervention consisting of several sessions of literacy training as a whole class. The implementation of this programme included student-generated text, which built on what the students already knew, the use of inductive teaching to raise phonological awareness, use of graphical organisers to organise and extend knowledge, discussion and structured questioning to teach comprehension skills and mixed ability groups working on differentiated tasks. Throughout the programme each student's self-concept as a reader was nurtured and encouraged, causing a shift in the students' attitude towards reading from very negative in the beginning to a positive attitude by the end of the study. The students' participation in the programme also made a difference to their experience of school and their academic performance. These were regarded as outcomes of the programme as no such change was achieved in the comparison group. It is recommended that the strategies used in this study should be incorporated in the regular teaching of classes with struggling readers in all primary schools.