Struggling First-Grade Readers

Abstract

First-grade struggling readers' oral reading was observed during primary reading instructional time. Participants were 65 first-graders experiencing difficulties in beginning reading and nominated by their teacher as at risk for reading failure. Each participant was observed three times over a 12-week period in the spring of the first-grade year. Observers collected frequency data on participants' oral reading at three levels of complexity: letter-sound, word-word part, and sentence-paragraph. Measures of student reading progress were also collected throughout the observation period. The findings revealed that most instruction for struggling readers may not be aligned with recent research on preventing reading difficulties, and even struggling readers receiving reading instruction aligned with best practices may be only making minimal progress.