"Wanna see me read?"
"Yes, I certainly do." I knew Tim as a student in our second grade reading project at Lincoln Park School in Duluth, Minnesota.
He turned to the title page. "It says, Baby Whales Drink Milk."
"That's very good, Tim."
"Wait," he said. "There's more."
He turned to where the book started, and began to read. It was a picture book, so there were only a few short sentences on each page. Tim knew them all. He read without hesitation.
When he was done, I said, "That's wonderful, Tim. You are an excellent reader."
Tim nodded.
"Last fall," he said, "I couldn't read 'up.' "
It was now the spring of 1995.
Throughout the school year, computers had been used in our project to teach second graders better reading skills. Two of the children were mentally impaired, eight were learning disabled, and one was autistic. In the fall, Tim had been one of the eighty-two project students given a Scott, Foresman Reading Placement Test. The median pre-test score for the group was at the 57th percentile. No post-test had as yet been administered and scored. That would be coming soon.
Although I was simply attending a book fair sponsored by parent volunteers, my interest was more than casual. It was my software that was being used on an exclusive basis with the reading project students. I could only wait and hope.
The computerized lessons I had written included work both in phonics and in basic sight reading.
A pioneer in the sight words approach was Edward Dolch. He examined basic reading books used in schools across the country, and came up with a list of 220 words found most frequently in those books - words such as of, said, the - words we cannot do without, yet must learn without any help from phonics.
Teaching students the basic letter patterns of English is what phonics is all about. The most common patterns include short vowels, consonant blends, and vowel pairs. Generally, these patterns are dependable keys for unlocking the sounds of English. The time and energy we spend in learning the exceptions - and they are numerous - are what we must pay when we try to master English.
Our interactive software adhered to the concept of mastery learning, and was designed to permit students to progress at their own pace.
Each lesson had these main features:
[1] The computer spoke with a human voice throughout the lesson.
[2] The student could click a Repeat Button in order to hear again what the computer had said.
[3] The computer would not allow the student to enter a wrong answer - not even a single mistaken keystroke. But it would keep track of where the learner went astray.
[4] If the student got "stuck" on an answer, a Help Button could be clicked. The computer would then reveal the answer. However, the student would still have to type it in.
[5] At the end of each lesson, the computer would present one or more summary screens showing the correction of specific mistakes made by the student.
Another software innovation we tried also worked well. It is called BookSoft learning. The idea is to have the student, the computer, and a book in a triangular relationship with one another, as follows:
The student brings a book to the computer and calls up the appropriate BookSoft lesson. Ordinarily, each page in a book is a lesson.
The student looks at the lesson page to see whether there are any words he or she does not know how to say. If so, these words are typed into the computer, which then pronounces them.
The student has a menu of choices within the lesson. These include (a) finding rhyming words as directed by the computer, (b) spelling words dictated by the computer, and (c) answering comprehension questions posed by the computer. These are all "open book" choices. They constitute the practice phase of the lesson.
The final choice is a "closed book" test presented by the computer. It includes all of the choices listed above. If the student finds the test difficult, more practice work is needed - after which the test can be re-taken.
The books that we used were not of the Dick and Jane variety. They were trade books of literary quality. This was one way of integrating the "whole language" approach with basic instruction in phonics.
Scholar Dollars were introduced as payment for work well done. The children were thrilled by this part of the project. Scholar Dollars were saved and then used to buy things, such as time in the swimming pool, various kinds of trinkets, posters, and books. It was gratifying to see that books were popular items of purchase. One little Native American girl saved her Scholar Dollars until she had enough to buy a book she dearly wanted - Ladder to the Sky, an illustrated re-telling of an Ojibway legend.
Scholar Dollars represented one aspect of the outside world brought effectively into the classroom.
Which features of the project were especially promising?
The teacher, Betty Parks, was enthusiastic, and the district director of instruction and assessment, Mary Ann Lucas Houx, was vigorously supportive. If you don't have this kind of educational climate where it counts - in the classroom and bolstered by the administration - your chances of success are nil.
The computers were endlessly fascinating. The children were attracted to them like bees to flowers. And why not? The computers were infinitely patient. No lesson would permit the learner to make an irretrievable mistake. Success was assured. For twenty minutes every day, these students were doing what some of them had never done before. They were winning the game of learning.
Snapshot - > A young boy completes the word review test given by his computer.
He leaps up, his arms stretched wide.
"You won't believe it!" he shouts. "I passed! I passed!"
Youngsters sometimes came up to Betty Parks, threw their arms around her, and thanked her for letting them work so hard. They didn't say work, of course. They said they were having fun. One girl hid behind her computer at the end of class so she could squeeze in a little extra time before she was noticed and had to leave.
Ultimately, the key to academic achievement is time on task. The trick is to put together the instructional elements that will best accomplish this. Using computers to teach beginning reading is one example of how that can be done.
In late spring of 1995, the crucial post-test was administered and scored. The results were better than I had dared hope. Tim's group had gone in nine months from a median score at the 57th percentile to a median score at the 89th percentile.
Given this kind of achievement impetus, the project was continued for the 1995-1996 school year. In the fall, Assurance of Mastery (AOM) Tests yielded a pre-test median score at the 55th percentile. Once again, low-achieving children - a new group - began working steadily with the computers, each youngster addressing his or her individual weaknesses in reading. Their enthusiasm was heart-warming. Nevertheless, the crucial end-of-school-year assessment would either strengthen or weaken favorable views concerning the project as a whole.
Finally, in late spring, the time arrived for administering the post-test. I waited anxiously to hear the results. The news - when it came - was wonderful. The median post-test score had shot up to the 92nd percentile!
I feel I can now offer this conclusion: Measured by either the Scott, Foresman Reading Placement Tests, or the Assurance of Mastery (AOM) Tests, two years of astonishing gains in beginning reading skills by heretofore low-achieving youngsters show that computers can be used with great effectiveness in this field of instruction.
See The Star Maiden - An Ojibway Legend for a full explanation of how BookSoft instruction works.
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