Balance, literacy acceleration, and responsive teaching in a summer school literacy program for elementary school struggling readers

The purpose of this research was To examine the effects of a balanced, accelerated, and responsive literacy program on the reading growth of elementary school struggling readers. The participants in this study were 10 second-grade children identified as underachieving in reading who were enrolled in an elementary school summer program. This study was conducted as a formative experiment an emerging research design in which quantitative and qualitative data are collected and analyzed in relation to an established pedagogical goal. An analysis of the data revealed that students grew in their word identification abilities, fluency, strategic comprehension abilities, perceptions of themselves as readers, attitudes toward reading, and instructional reading levels. The importance of educators implementing self-constructed balanced literacy programs was discussed. The accelerated progress of students was detailed, and the importance of implementing responsive reading programs was considered. Implications for future reading research and instruction were provided.