The effect of guided reading on reading ability and motivation. (c2010)

Abstract

This small-scale case study was conducted to investigate the effects of the guided reading approach on struggling students' reading abilities and their motivation to read. Four struggling readers from grade three were purposively chosen to participate in the study. The Scholastic Reading Inventory in its two forms, students' documents, teacher observations, running records, individual student reading conferences, and interviews with the students' parents or tutors were used to assess progress in the participants' reading abilities and determine the effect of guided reading on them. Similarly, teacher observations, conferences, interviews, and the Reading Survey from The Motivation to Read Profile were employed to provide data about students' reading motivation after their participation in the guided reading program. Findings showed that the implementation of guided reading helped struggling students improve their decoding skills, built up their fluency, and increased their motivation to read. It also improved the struggling readers' vocabulary and comprehension skills, albeit to a lesser extent. However, had the program been implemented in grades one and two, it might have yielded better results. Further research is needed to track the effect of guided reading on students' reading abilities along different grade levels and to explore its effect on the reading abilities and motivation of students of different genders.