Date of Award:

5-2012

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

School of Teacher Education and Leadership

Committee Chair(s)

D. Ray Reutzel

Committee

D. Ray Reutzel

Committee

Sarah K. Clark

Committee

Sylvia Read

Committee

Cindy D. Jones

Committee

Timothy A. Slocum

Abstract

Angela R. Child at Utah State University conducted a content analysis study aimed at describing the inclusion of seven explicit instruction elements, namely, direct explanation, modeling, guided practice, independent practice, feedback, discussion, and monitoring, found within five widely published core reading programs (CRPs). These seven elements of explicit instruction will be sought in essential reading component lessons which include: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension only.

The study sought to describe the instructional recommendations found within the CRPs lessons to benefit society by; aiding educators in the selection of a CRP for their school or district; assisting classroom teachers in their understanding of the inclusion of explicit recommendations CRP lessons provide; offering guidance to publishers toward changes they can make that will enhance their programs’ explicit instruction inclusion; and providing direction for future researchers as they seek to add to the description of CRPs and continue in the effort to fully describe these widely used reading programs.

This study required the collection of existing CRP lessons to analyze for explicit instruction recommendations found therein. Five CRPs were selected based upon their high level of use in schools. The five most widely marketed and sold current CRP publishers in the U.S. (2005-2010 copyright) are: Treasures, published by MacMillanMcGraw-Hill; Reading, published by Houghton Mifflin; Reading Street, published by Scott Foresman; Imagine It, published by SRA; and Storytown, publilshed by Harcourt. Essential lessons within these CRP manuals written for grade one, three, and five were used for the study sample.

This study did not use outside funding from any source. The CRPs sampled were found in schools, district offices, and depositories. Electronic files of the lessons were made and the manuals were returned. The researcher, Angela R. Child, volunteered her time and resources for the study to fulfill the requirements of a Doctor of Philosophy in Education degree.

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This work made publicly available electronically on April 12, 2012.

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