A Personalized Reading Program in an Elementary Classroom: Report on a Tested Model. Research Monograph No. 14.

A personalized reading program for children in the elementary grades is described. The program consists of three interrelated parts: self-selection and sharing of books, skill development according to individual needs, and individual teacher-pupil discussion and evaluation conferences. Sustained silent reading, oral reading once a week to the teacher, bookselling, and skills work in small groups or individual work with materials such as SRA kits were some of the activities utilized in the personalized reading program. The program in the P.K. Yonge Laboratory School was investigated regarding achievement, self-esteem, and social acceptance gains and their interrelations. Treatment group, sex, and race were the three independent variables. Results indicated that the personalized reading program students had higher gains on reading tests in grades two and four and comparable levels in grades three and six. The control group had higher reading test scores in the first grade, while the experimental group had higher scores on self-esteem and social acceptance. In subsequent grades, these measures increased for experimental females, control males, and experimental whites. (MKM)