A PROFILE OF STUDENTS READING BELOW EXPECTATION
Clare van Hasselt
The
NEMP 2000 oral reading record task data provide videotaped performances
of Year 4 and Year 8 students reading aloud at an instructionally
appropriate level. Text passages were presented within authentic
fiction, non-fiction, or non-book contexts, giving students opportunity
to use context-based cues when deciphering unfamiliar words. This
study looked at New Zealand primary school students reading below
the level expected for their chronological age. The aim was to
document and analyse the specific difficulties these students
face, the strategies they commonly utilise and the work habits
and personal characteristics they bring to the oral reading task. |
| Students
reading ‘below normal expectation’ in the NEMP oral reading
tasks formed 18.3% of the 2000 NEMP sample. Forty-five videotaped
student performances were randomly selected from Year 4 and Year 8
samples reading below expectation. The proportion of students reading
within each text type and at the target reading bands was retained.
A framework for coding students’ observable behaviours was developed
to fully reflect student achievement and attributes. To achieve this,
several innovative coding categories were developed. For example,
actual strategies used by students pausing to decipher a text word
were identified, regardless of whether the strategy led to a correct,
incorrect or self-corrected response. Errors and strategies were analysed
and identified as separate types and sub-types. Relevant work habits
and personal characteristics were also identified. |
 |
| •
Students tended to read very slowly, at a mean rate of approximately
57 words per minute. • The error rate was just over 9%, of which substitutions were the most common error type. • Students paused to employ a strategy for approximately one in every 10 words, of which ‘context’ cues were the most common strategy type. • In regard to oral reading fluency, students generally spoke with ‘little/no’ expression, while exhibiting ‘some’ degree of clarity, clause and sentence structure, and breath control. |
•
Almost half the students moved closer to the text when reading, and
nearly a quarter kept their place with their finger. • Approximately half the students exhibited the sound work habits of ‘independent’ reading and remained predominantly ‘still’ during the task, while the majority ‘successfully’ followed instructions and applied ‘concentrated effort’. • The majority of students exhibited ‘moderate’ levels of such personal characteristics as ‘sociability’, ‘confidence’, ‘risk-taking’ and ‘interest’. |
| •
The students’ tendency to rely on context cues may indicate
the greater emphasis placed on use of these cues in New Zealand reading
programmes and/or a lack of ability in the use of phonological decoding
skills. • Positive statistical relationships between reading rate and oral reading performance descriptors (expression, clarity of speech, clause structure and sentence structure) suggest that these behaviours are inter-related aspects of the general problem of reading difficulties. |
•
Students who place text close to their eyes and mark their reading
place may be trying to improve their visual perception, eye-tracking
or concentration. • Although students reading below expectation do share some common learning difficulties, many exhibit sound work habits and a satisfactory range of personal characteristics in the NEMP one-on-one assessment setting. |