The Effect of Instruction on Pupil Reading Strategies

WORD IDENTIFICATION RESPONSES of 32 first graders were obtained in December and May of first grade and examined in order to infer word identification strategies. Half of the subjects were instructed by a phonics method and half with a sight word emphasis. The strategies for most children in the samples could be identified using the criteria established for classification. Strategies of individual children were determined to a significant degree by the class instructional method. Individual strategy deviation from the class method was more common for a phonics than for a sight-word method. Most children who initially formed a strategy that differed from the class instructional emphasis changed their strategy to accord with the class method and materials by the end of first grade.