Learning support assistants and effective reading interventions for 'at-risk' children

This digest found in

Teaching Assistants
English

Authors

Savage, Robert and Sue Carless

Publisher

Educational Research, 47(1), March 2005, pp.45-61.

Introduction

How can teaching assistants support the literacy skills of young learners at risk of literacy failure?

Research has shown that where young children have learned to manipulate the speech sounds (phonemes) associated with letters or groups of letters in words, their reading and spelling ability has improved. There is also evidence that children who are trained to pay attention to the sound structure of language at a very young age are better able to identify words through their primary years, especially when they are also taught how letters and sounds correspond to each other. The researchers in this study identified two particular approaches to teaching literacy which they wanted to test for their effectiveness. These were:

rhyme-based phonological awareness programmes, which help children see similarities in the sound and spelling of words by grouping them in rhyming families, such as 'cat', 'hat', and 'mat'; and
phoneme-based programmes, which teach children to use the smaller sound units associated with individual letters. For example, the word 'cat' consists of three sounds: 'c'–'a'–'t'.

Keen to investigate literacy teaching methods which could be reproduced in normal school circumstances, the researchers trained Learning Support Assistants (LSAs) to deliver the programmes, and then compared the effectiveness of these with regular classroom teaching programmes based on the National Literacy Strategy.

Keywords:
United Kingdom; Teaching assistants; Support staff; Literacy; Reading; Writing; Spelling; Phonological awareness; Professional development

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction Does Learning Support Assistant training improve literacy? Were there any differences in the effectiveness between phoneme-based, rhyme-based, and mixed programmes? What were the aims of the study? How were the children selected to take part in the study? How did the authors set up lessons to identify the best literacy strategy? What are the implications? Where can I find out more? Send us your feedback Collated digests To view/remove/add notes and save your collated digests click here Get Word Reader Learning support assistants and effective reading interventions for 'at-risk' children This digest found in Teaching Assistants English Send to a friend Word doc 90KB Printer friendly Collate for later Authors Savage, Robert and Sue Carless Publisher Educational Research, 47(1), March 2005, pp.45-61. Introduction How can teaching assistants support the literacy skills of young learners at risk of literacy failure? Research has shown that where young children have learned to manipulate the speech sounds (phonemes) associated with letters or groups of letters in words, their reading and spelling ability has improved. There is also evidence that children who are trained to pay attention to the sound structure of language at a very young age are better able to identify words through their primary years, especially when they are also taught how letters and sounds correspond to each other. The researchers in this study identified two particular approaches to teaching literacy which they wanted to test for their effectiveness. These were: rhyme-based phonological awareness programmes, which help children see similarities in the sound and spelling of words by grouping them in rhyming families, such as 'cat', 'hat', and 'mat'; and phoneme-based programmes, which teach children to use the smaller sound units associated with individual letters. For example, the word 'cat' consists of three sounds: 'c'–'a'–'t'. Keen to investigate literacy teaching methods which could be reproduced in normal school circumstances, the researchers trained Learning Support Assistants (LSAs) to deliver the programmes, and then compared the effectiveness of these with regular classroom teaching programmes based on the National Literacy Strategy. Keywords: United Kingdom; Teaching assistants; Support staff; Literacy; Reading; Writing; Spelling; Phonological awareness; Professional development