The efficacy of a voluntary summer book reading intervention for low-income Latino children from language minority families.

Abstract

The effects of a voluntary summer reading intervention with and without a parent training component were evaluated with a sample of low-income Latino children from language minority families. During the last month of 4th grade, 370 children were pretested on a measure of reading comprehension and vocabulary and were randomly assigned to (a) a treatment group in which children received 10 self-selected books during summer vacation, (b) a family literacy group in which children received 10 self-selected books and were invited with their parents to attend 3 summer literacy events (2 hr in length), and (c) a control group. Although children in the treatment group and the family literacy group reported reading more books than the control group, there was no significant effect on reading comprehension and vocabulary. Recommendations for improving the efficacy of the intervention are discussed, including efforts to improve the match between reader ability and the readability of texts and the instructional goals of the family literacy events.

Delayed Effects of a Low-Cost and Large-Scale Summer Reading Intervention on Elementary School Children's Reading Comprehension

“…The program theory is supported, first, by research suggesting that the match between children's skill levels and interests and the texts they are reading is an important ingredient in an effective summer reading program (Kim & Guryan, 2010;Guthrie & Humenick, 2004). Second, teachers can strengthen the efficacy of summer reading programs by instructing children to use reading comprehension routines with narrative and informational books that they apply when reading independently at home without teacher assistance (Kim, 2007;Kim & White, 2008;Kim & Guryan, 2010).…”

Home language and literacy practices among immigrant second-language learners

“…Specific programs will be discussed in more detail below. Reading Reading jointly at home and in school was the most commonly discussed program, but the overall effectiveness of joint reading is difficult to determine because of limitations of the research in these studies (Koskinen et al 2000;Hindin & Paratore 2007;Roberts 2008;Kim & Guryan 2010). Two programs with young L2-learning children in the US yielded positive literacy outcomes on oral reading (Hindin & Paratore 2007), listening comprehension (Koskinen et al 2000), and reading comprehension (Hindin & Paratore 2007).…”

The Imagination Library Program: Increasing Parental Reading Through Book Distribution

“…In past years, several studies using randomized controlled trials (Allington et al 2010;Kim, 2006Kim, , 2007Kim & Guryan, 2010;Kim & White, 2008) have sought to examine the effect of summer reading programs that provide students with books matched on reading level, interest area, or both, on student reading achievement. More recently, Allington et al (2010) used an experimental design in which children were randomly assigned to receive free books or not.…”