Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Educational Studies

Sub-Department

Curriculum and Instruction

First Advisor

Rhonda Jeffries

Abstract

Research shows that children who read books often, both in and out of school, are likely to develop better reading skills than children who have fewer opportunities to read. (Allington, 2012). While many school districts are successfully implementing various opportunities to support students’ reading development during the academic year, problems arise when students are away from school during the summer months. Studies also show that students who read below grade level at the end of third grade are six times more likely to eventually leave school without a high school diploma (National Research Council, 1998). The purpose of this combined methods study was to determine the impact of the summer reading program, Hot Summer, Cool Books (HSCB) implemented over the summer of 2015 on third grade children in a rural, high-poverty school district in South Carolina. For this study, the impact on students’ reading achievement and their motivation to read were the focus.

The survey portion of the Motivation to Read Profile Survey (Gambrell et al., 1996) examined the impact of the HSCB Program on students’ reading motivation. The Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) reading scores were used to examine the impact of the HSCB’s impact on these students’ reading achievement. Purposeful sampling was used to select the sample for the study. Results of the study show how the HSCB affected students’ motivation to read and their achievement scores.

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