Abstract of

Finding a New Way: Reinventing a Sixth-Grade Reading Program

Brooke Carey Ahrens

The author found that the reading program at her school did not address the needs of struggling readers and that reading teachers lacked the materials and knowledge needed to make improvements. As part of an action research project, she redesigned the reading program and introduced her colleagues to research-based teaching methods. The author observed and interviewed teachers to evaluate the successes and failures of the program over the course of one 18-week semester. She learned the new reading program was highly effective in improving most sixth-grade students' reading skills and positively altered many teachers' perceptions and attitudes about their instructional abilities in reading classes. Program implementation also required negotiating with the school administration and reading departments.

Abstract from Ahrens, B. (2005, May). Finding a New Way: Reinventing a Sixth-Grade Reading Program. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 48(8), 642–654. doi: 10.1598/JAAL.48.8.2