A Literature Review: Investigating Reading Recovery’s Motivational Effect Rebecca Caufman George Mason University EDRD 797 May 2, 2011

Purpose A literature review which set out to discover: 1.How has the motivation of Reading Recovery students been studied? 2.What were the results of these studies?

Background Information What is Reading Recovery? –Short term intervention provided to students struggling in literacy in 1st grade –Selected students have received the lowest scores on a series of six literacy tasks –Students meet one-on-one with a trained Reading Recovery Teacher for 30 minutes a day –Programs may last no longer than 20 weeks –Goal is to close the literacy gap between the Reading Recovery student and the student’s more proficient classmates.

Search Results On the topic of Reading Recovery and some construct of motivation I found: 8 published studies 4 conference papers 2 case studies 1 dissertation 1 school district report

Organization of the Review The review is organized by motivational construct: –Attribution & Self-Efficacy –Self-Esteem –Self-Concepts –Task Value –Reading Attitude –Surveying Influential Adults –Self-Regulation

Attribution and Self-Efficacy Cohen and Colleagues (1987, 1989) –Studies presented at the NRC Conference –Attribution and self-efficacy surveys given at the end of the school year –Surveyed RR, at-risk, and high ability students –RR students attributions were similar to high ability students –RR students felt more competent than other at-risk students, but less confident than high ability students Cohen, S. G., Cohen, D. W., McDonnell, G. & Osburn, B. (1987, December). The effects of Reading Recovery on achievement motivation. Paper presented at the meeting of the National Reading Conference, St. Petersburg, FL. Cohen, S.G., McDonnell, G. and Osborn, B. (1989) Self-perceptions of at-risk and high achieving readers: Beyond Reading Recovery achievement data. In McCormick, S. and Zutell, J. (eds), Cognitive and social perspectives for literacy research and instruction: Thirty-eighth yearbook of the national reading conference. National Reading Conference: Chicago, IL, USA. Retrieved from

Self Esteem Traynelis-Yurek and Hansell (1993) –First published piece –Self-esteem should be studied because 1 st graders are too young to develop a strong self concept –Questionnaire given to RR students only at the end of the school year –Concluded that “students who were the lowest achievers in their classrooms before their tutoring had strong feelings of self-worth at the end of the school year” Traynelis-Yurek, E. & Hansell, T. S. (1993). Self-esteem of low achieving first grade readers following instructional intervention. Reading Improvement, 30,

Self Concepts 3 studies (2 published and 1 dissertation) –Pre and post treatment surveys given to RR students and a set of their classmates –Significant differences were NOT found between RR students pre and post tests, HOWEVER, students were found to have high self-concepts prior to treatment –Dissertation included an open ended interview that showed RR students did feel better about themselves and acquired more reading strategies. Traynelis-Yurek, E. & Hansell, T. S. (1993). Self-esteem of low achieving first grade readers following instructional intervention. Reading Improvement, 30, Meyer, A. M. (2002). Reading self-concept: Examining the impact of participation in Reading Recovery on the reading self-concept of first-grade students. Ph.D. dissertation, Loyola University of Chicago, United States -- Illinois. Retrieved April 1, 2011, from Dissertations & Theses: Full Text.(Publication No. AAT ). Rumbaugh, W., & Brown, C. (2000). The impact of Reading Recovery participation on students' self-Concepts. Reading Psychology, 21(1), doi: /

Task Value 2 studies (2 conference papers) –3 rd, 4 th, and 5 th grade students were compared and found former RR students, former at-risk students that did not get RR, and high achievers all valued reading the same –RR students were given survey pre and post treatment and found significant positive change in students’ value of reading Townsend, M. A., Townsend, J. E., & Seo, K. J. (2001). Children’s motivation to reading following Reading Recovery, In J. V. Hoffman, D. L. Schallert, C. M. Fairbanks, J. Worthy, and B. Maloch (Eds.), Fiftieth yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp ). Chicago: IL. Forbes, S. & Fullerton, S. (2010). Reading Recovery students’ motivation to read. Paper presented at the 2010 National Reading Recovery & K-6 Classroom Literacy Conference, Columbus, OH.

Reading Attitude Wade and Moore (1998) –Former RR students in 4 th and 5 th grades were compared to students who were eligible for RR but did not receive services –Former RR students had significantly more positive attitudes to reading and found reading more enjoyable –Authors concluded RR students possessed a willingness and satisfaction for reading Wade, H. & Moore, M. (1998). Attitudes to reading: A longitudinal study of the effectiveness of Reading Recovery. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 33(1),

Surveying Influential Adults 4 studies that interviewed or surveyed parents or classroom teachers –Parents were all very positive commenting on a change in self-esteem and a shift from passive to active learners –Classroom teachers rated RR personal and social growth significantly higher than a control group Traynelis-Yurek, E. & Hansell, T. S. (1993). Self-esteem of low achieving first grade readers following instructional intervention. Reading Improvement, 30, Moore, M., & Wade, B. (1993). Reading Recovery: Parents views. English in Education, 27(2), Quay, L., Steel, D., Johnson, C., & Hortman, W. (2001). Children’s achievement and personal and social development in a first year Reading Recovery program with teachers in training. Literacy Teaching and Literacy, 5(2), Burroughs-Lange, S. and Douetil, J. (2006). Evaluation of Reading Recovery in London schools: Every Child a Reader University of London: nstitute of Education. Retrieved from

Self-Regulation 2 case studies –Each described how through RR lessons a child was able to move from being a passive learner to an active and engaged problem solver Fullerton, S. K. (2001). Achieving motivation: guiding Edward’s journey to literacy. Literacy, Teaching and Learning, 6(1), Retrieved from Horner, S. & O’Connor, E. (2007). Helping beginning and struggling readers to develop self-regulated strategies: A Reading Recovery example. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 23,

24 Years Later… No one agreed upon way to investigate RR effects on students’ motivation 1 st graders have been shown to have a high value for reading 1 st graders have been shown to hold high opinions about their capabilities Parents and see positive gains in behavior shifts pre and post RR

A Look Into The Limitations What if those in the Reading Recovery field created an agreed upon method to study how RR impact its learners? What would they need to decide? –Why is motivation important and how can this be assessed –Pre and/or post assessment measures –When to assess –Which RR students should be included –Who should RR students be compared to, if anyone

The Next Steps Perhaps instead of testing for RR IMPLICIT impact on motivation, we should be teaching for motivation EXPLICITLY: Reading efficacy Attribution retraining Task value Quirk, M, & Schwanenflugel, P. (2004). Do supplemental remedial reading programs address the motivational issues of struggling readers? An analysis of five popular programs. Reading Research and Instruction, 43(3), 1-19.

A Final Question…