Abstract
This study examined the effectiveness of a nine-week summer emergent literacy program implemented in a Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) summer program that serves families from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Participants were four- and five-year-old children attending a YMCA summer camp. After being placed in appropriate respective skill-level groups, children received one-hour, daily emergent literacy instruction from their camp counselors, who were trained as novice reading teachers. The teachers used emergent literacy activities to support letter-naming fluency and growth in letter-sound correspondence recognition in addition to mastery of read-aloud texts. The 28 participants experienced positive growth on both dependent measures (letter-naming fluency and letter-sound fluency), indicating the efficiency of the intervention as a tool for improving school readiness for children from low-income families. Additionally, the results suggest that beginning reading teachers may be able to conduct effective emergent literacy instruction, making the intervention replicable. Limitations and associated future research directions are discussed.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 75-87 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Journal of Children and Poverty |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 3 2015 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Emergent literacy
- poverty
- school readiness
- summer programs
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Demography
- Education
- Sociology and Political Science
- Urban Studies