Impact of the Reading Buddies Program on Reading Level and Attitude Towards Reading

Abstract

Objective – This research examines the Reading Buddies program at the Grande Prairie Public Library, which took place in July and August of 2011 and 2012. The Reading Buddies program pairs lower elementary students with teen volunteers for reading practice over the summer. The aim of the study was to discover how much impact the program would have on participating children’s reading levels and attitudes towards reading.
 
 Methods – During the first and last sessions of the Reading Buddies program, the participants completed the Elementary Reading Attitudes Survey (ERAS) and the Graded Word Recognition Lists from the Bader Reading and Language Inventory (6th ed., 2008). Participants were also asked for their grade and sex, and the program coordinator kept track of attendance.
 
 Results – There were 37 Reading Buddies participants who completed both the pre- and post-tests for the study. On average, the program had a small positive effect on participants’ reading levels and a small negative effect on their attitudes towards reading. There was a larger range of changes to the ERAS scores than to the reading test scores, but most participants’ scores did not change dramatically on either measure.
 
 Conclusions – Although findings are limited by the small size of the data-set, results indicate that many of the Reading Buddies participants maintained their reading level over the summer and had a similar attitude towards reading at the end of the program. On average, reading levels increased slightly and attitudes towards reading were slightly more negative. Many factors could not be taken into account during the study (e.g., the amount of reading done at home). A study with a control group that did not participate in the program could help to assess whether the program helped to combat summer learning loss.

The effects of mentoring programs on primary students’ enjoyment of reading

“…This trial has found that there was no evidence to suggest that mentoring is effective to increase reading enjoyment of students as their reading attitude get lower after intervention. This supported Dolman and Boyte-Hawryluk's study [38] in relation to the decrease of reading attitude. Nevertheless, this finding contradicted other studies [10], [12] which claimed that students showed more liking toward reading after getting intervention program.…”

“…By contrast, the findings of an experimental study [38] suggested that reading attitude was even lower after mentoring intervention. However, this study involved only a small number of participants and used pre and post-test research group without control group; a study researching two groups with and without intervention may allow to establish whether differences between the two indicate clear effects of the mentoring intervention.…”

Okumaya Yönelik Tutum Ölçeği (OYT): Geçerlik ve Güvenirlik Çalışması

“…Bu nedenlerle öğrencilerden bazıları iyi okuma alışkanlıklarına sahipken, bazıları ise olması gerekenin dışında okuma alışkanlıkları sergileme eğilimindedir (Owusu-Acheaw & Larson, 2014). Özellikle ilkokul öğrencileri sosyo-ekonomik statü ve aile okuryazarlığı gibi dış etkenlerden kaynaklanan nedenlerle okumaya yönelik olarak olumlu tutumlar içinde olabilirler (Dolman & Boyte-Hawryluk, 2013). Okumaya yönelik olumlu tutum geliştiren iyi okurların okuduğunu anlama düzeyleri de yüksektir.…”