subsequent schooling experiences, and their reading competencies as high school seniors. Their data show clear, consistent, and positive differences associated with receiving instruction in reading in kindergarten. The advantage of early instruction in reading was maintained throughout schooling and remained evident at the senior high school level.
Summary
Scholars from a variety of disciplines have attempted to specify the effects that reading has on cognitive functioning, but it is difficult to document specific behavioral outcomes associated with reading. Spurious correlations may arise because literacy levels correlate with many other desirable behaviors. It is well known that exposure to print is a good predictor of spelling, vocabulary knowledge, and general world knowledge. Even when the variance attributable to general ability and phonological decoding are controlled, measures of exposure to print correlate significantly with spelling, vocabulary, verbal fluency, and general information. Research shows that the amount of time spent reading varies by age level.
Programs to Promote Independent Reading
Schools and public libraries develop programs intended to increase the amount and quality of reading students do. The programs are located in homes as well as in schools and public libraries. Some are more effective than others.
Preschool and Kindergarten
Programs for preschool children leading to independent reading traditionally include story hours, parent and child programs, book-related activities, and other outreach attempts. Librarians work to reach underserved families, such as homeless children and their families, the physically handicapped, children from homes where English is not the primary language, and other groups with special needs.
Bridge and Carney (1994) described a reading program where university students read to inner-city kindergarteners in a ten-week program. The program also encouraged parents to read to their children at home. Evaluation data show that children’s scores on literacy tests improved and the level of parent involvement in their children’s reading increased.
The Nassau County (NY) Public Library offered a program designed to increase literacy and promote library use among disadvantaged families (Towey 1990). The project, called Babywise and funded through a Library Service and Construction Act Title I grant, began as an outreach effort for low-income families and teen parents with children under age two. Librarians met with families who did not ordinarily use the library to explain to them the importance of reading aloud to preschoolers, to present developmentally appropriate picture books, and to model reading to children.
Librarians explained the connections between reading aloud, children’s language development, vocabulary growth, and familiarity with the written word. They explained that reading to children and talking about books stimulates children’s imagination, curiosity, and thinking ability. It also improves children’s ability to concentrate and stay focused. Parents received a
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copy of the storybook Goodnight Moon (Brown 1947), as well as an information brochure and a coupon to be redeemed for a free book at their local public library.
Program evaluators used the number of coupons redeemed at public libraries as one indicator of the effectiveness of the program. Success of the program was also measured by the increase in new child and family members who became regular library users identifying themselves as Babywise participants. The program was judged successful and was extended by sending librarians into Head Start and day-care centers to read stories to preschool children.
The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC 1996), a division of the American Library Association (ALA 1996) administers five national demonstration sites that reach out to at-risk teenage parents to help them raise children who are “Born to Read.” It partners librarians and healthcare professionals to teach expectant and new parents the importance of reading. A collection of picture books placed at the health department, parenting classes, and storytimes held at local housing projects are featured in Henderson, North Carolina. The program in Provo, Utah, includes Time with Father sessions, parenting material, followup visits, and free toy and book distributions to at-risk families. A third demonstration site expands the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, program through read-aloud clubs, presentations on nutrition, child development, and immunizations. The Pittsburgh program, Beginning with Books, was conceived as an illiteracy prevention program (Segel and Friedberg 1991). Staff members distribute packets of three high-quality paperbacks or board books (sturdy, thick, indestructible books designed for easy handling by small hands) to low-income families with young children. Staff members also give parents a pamphlet with tips on reading to children and a coupon to be exchanged at the nearest library for another free book. Two evaluations of the program indicate that early intervention does promote home reading. The number of families who reported reading to a child once a day or more increased from 47 percent to 69 percent after receiving the books and the counseling.
Locke (1988) evaluated changes in family practices of reading aloud to children in the Beginning with Books project. In this program, project staff distributed packets of books with suggestions for reading aloud to families in waiting rooms at baby clinics. After receiving the books, 69 percent of the parents reported that someone read to or looked at the books with the child at least once a day or more. Prior to the program, the percentage of parents who read to their children was much smaller.
Edwards and Panofsky (1989) worked with low socioeconomic status mothers and their four-year-old children to see whether a program that stressed the importance of reading to children or a program that modeled how to share books with children would be effective in a short-term study. Mothers in both groups increased the level of talk they initiated (questions, observations, comments to the child), but the mothers who saw how to share books modeled showed a more pronounced effect.
The concept of partnerships has taken hold in the field of literacy development. The Library-Museum-Head Start Partnership began with an interagency agreement between the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress in cooperation with ALSC and the Head Start Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The purpose of this partnership was to promote the role of public libraries and librarians in enhancing the Head Start curriculum, supporting Head Start teachers, and extending the Head Start program into the home. As of 1994 the
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partnership has grown to include the Association of Youth Museums and involves librarians, Head Start teachers, Center for the Book staff, and others. Videos, workshops, regional meetings, and staff development result from these partnerships (ALSC 1996).
Other effective research-based programs exist in public libraries throughout the country (Greene 1991; Nespeca 1990, 1995; Morrow, Tracey, and Maxwell 1995; Thomas and Cooper 1995; Van Orden 1992; Weir 1989). For example, WEE CARE operates in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and the “Magic Bus” brings books to preschool centers in Denver, Colorado. The Early Childhood Resource and Information Center (ECRIC) in New York City, has a three-pronged approach: a series of staff development seminars for care givers, a model resource collection, and a family room with books, rugs, and rocking chairs for children and their care givers (Nuba, Searson, and Sheiman 1994). People and institutions working together in many communities can achieve success in promoting reading.
Library programs for preschoolers are founded on the knowledge that early literacy experiences have a positive effect on language growth, reading development, and scholastic achievement (Pellegrini and Galda 1991). Effective programs encourage parents to take an active role in preparing their children for success in school. Giving preschool children the necessary literacy experiences enables them to enter school ready to learn to read and write. Common factors of successful programs for preschool children include active parent involvement, access to books and libraries, models in the use of books, and efforts to make people feel at ease in libraries.
Primary and Elementary Grades 1–5
Primary and elementary school ages are critical periods in the development of reading skill and in the formation of lifelong reading habits. Studies of students of these ages center on classroom and school library environments and practices. For example, Morrow (1991a, 1991b) and Morrow and Weinstein (1986) conducted observational as well as experimental classroom-based studies. In one experimental study library centers were set up in classrooms to provide literary and literacy activities based on books and authors. New titles added to racks and shelves were placed open-faced to show the fronts of books instead of the spines to encourage browsing. Picture books, short chapter books, humorous stories, informational books, and magazines were included in the classroom collections. Students used flannel boards for storytelling and tape recorded stories or their retelling to accompany the books. They also created books of their own that became a part of the library collection. Students could take home the commercially published books as well as student-authored books to read. They kept records of what they read both at home and school. The substantial increase in numbers of children who selected independent reading as a free-choice activi