Book Description

The problem of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the individualized reading approach at the eighth grade level as compared with the effectiveness of the structured group reading approach at this level. An experimental study was planned. The writer sought to control the variables by personally teaching the two reading groups and regulating the amount of time given to instruction in reading. The specific objectives were to evaluate the influence of the two methods of teaching reading in various areas of the reading task, to determine if the less capable students profited more from the individualized approach or the structured group approach, and to evaluate the number and kinds of books read by the students in each group. This study was conducted within a classroom of eighth graders in a parochial school of a large mid-western city. The two classrooms were equated on the basis of the Iowa Silent Reading Test, and the mental age, and intelligence quotient obtained from the Kuhlmann-Anderson Test given at the end of the year in grade seven. It was hoped that the contribution of this study would give additional data for the comparative values of the two approaches with pupils in a higher grade level than is usual in the studies of individualized reading.