Date of Award

Summer 2025

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Educational Studies

First Advisor

Todd Lilly

Abstract

This dissertation studied the impact of reading instruction on beginner-level readers’ decoding skills and engagement among four first-grade students in Lexington, South Carolina. The following research question directed the study:

Will an instructional strategy foregrounded on direct, systematic phonics instruction in conjunction with multi-dimensional reading strategies improve beginner readers’ decoding skills and engagement?

The study is grounded in several theoretical frameworks, including Scarborough’s Reading Rope (Appendix A), the Simple View of Reading, the Active View of Reading (Appendix C), Onset-Rime phonics instruction, and Self-Determination Theory. Interventions included the LETRS Science of Reading Phonics Small Group Plan (Moats & Tolman, 2019) and utilizing Secret Stories (Garner, 2016). Data sources were teacher field notes (Appendix G), pre-and post-assessments using the Fountas and Pinnell Reading Level Assessment (2010), the Phonics Decoding Assessment (Phonic Decoding Assessment.pdf, 2023), and the Student Engagement Inventory (Table 3.2).

A-priori coding and thematic data analysis approach were used to search for themes in self-efficacy. The results showed positive results for two students’ decoding and engagement while the other two participants grew in their decoding and not as greatly in their engagement. Bandura’s self-efficacy was the focus of the findings in this study.

Rights

© 2025, Brooke Clayton

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