Study Suggests Strategies for Reading Instruction

A small change in how teachers read aloud to younger students may provide a big boost to their reading skills later on, a new Ohio State University study found.

That change involves making specific “print references” in books while reading to children—such as pointing out letters and words on the pages, showing capital letters, and showing how people read from left to right and top to bottom on the page.

Younger students whose teachers used print references during storybook reading showed more advanced reading skills one and even two years later, when compared to children whose teachers did not use such references. This is the first study to show causal links between referencing print and later literacy achievement.

“Using print references during reading was just a slight tweak to what teachers were already doing in the classroom, but it led to a sizeable improvement in reading for kids,” said Shayne Piasta, co-author of the study and assistant professor of teaching and learning at Ohio State University. “This would be a very manageable change for most preschool teachers, who already are doing storybook reading in class.”

Piasta conducted the study with lead investigator Laura Justice, professor of teaching and learning at Ohio State, as well as co-investigators Anita McGinty of the University of Virginia and Joan Kaderavek of the University of Toledo.  Their results appear in the April 2012 issue of the journal Child Development.

Piasta added that the simplicity of the suggested change is part of its beauty. Teachers do not have to dramatically alter the way they currently read to students to make an impact, according to the study.

“One of the best things about the power of print referencing is how easy it would be to implement during shared reading in the classroom,” Piasta said. “Compared to a lot of interventions, this only requires a small adjustment to teachers' typical reading style. But it pays large dividends in reading skills.”

Article by Jason Tomaszewski, EducationWorld Associate Editor
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