Evaluating the effectiveness of a big book reading/writing program for prekindergarten students

Abstract

The present study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of providing storybook reading and related language arts experiences within a prekindergarten classroom setting. It was predicted that a big book reading/writing program would provide compensation for the print-deprived environment of low-income prekindergarten-age children, and would help then begin to achieve literacy. Three groups of prekindergarten-age children were compared -- the prekindergarten treatment group (n = 21), the prekindergarten nontreatment group (n = 21), and the control group (n = 20). The prekindergarten (both treatment and nontreatment) subjects attended public prekindergarten in a small rural town in central Texas. The prekindergarten treatment subjects were randomly selected from the prekindergarten roster. The control subjects were the children who qualified for prekindergarten, but were not enrolled or were not able to attend because the class size was limited to 22. The prekindergarten treatment subjects participated in twenty-three 50-minute sessions of the big book reading/writing program. The program, which was conducted during February through May, 1988, included big book reading, book handling, related language arts experiences, and writing opportunities. Effectiveness of the program was based on children's performance on two measures of concepts about reading -- 'Concepts about Print' (CAP) and the Test of Early Reading Ability (TERA). Analysis of covariance was performed to compare the performance of the three groups. The treatment group performed significantly better than both the other groups on the May administration of CAP. When CAP was administered in September however, the differences between the groups were not statistically significant. While the program did not conclusively demonstrate positive long-term effects, positive short-term effects were clearly demonstrated. The data reveal that the treatment program helped the participants learn concepts about beginning reading.